Something I have noticed more and more lately is what software powers corporate blogs. Sure, I understand that eBay is using Wordpress, that CNN is using Wordpress, even that the MozillaZine Weblogs are powered by Movable Type. That’s cool, I understand all that.
But something I don’t understand is why Yahoo! is using Wordpress. Yahoo! announced the release of Yahoo! 360 over three years ago.
Here are some of the features that Yahoo! 360 features,
- Blogs — Create a blog, post entries or pictures from mobile devices, view friends’ blog entries at Yahoo! 360, My Yahoo!, Yahoo!’s Mobile Internet service or through any RSS reader
- Photo sharing — Share Yahoo! Photos content and upload new photos from mobile devices
- Easy communication — Send and receive instant messages via Yahoo! Messenger and see when friends are online right from the Yahoo! 360 “My Friends” page
- “Blasts” — Share a quick idea, a cool website or ask for a recommendation with the Yahoo! 360 “blast” feature
- Yahoo! contact management — Easily manage contracts and stay in touch with friends, thanks to a centralized list of all Yahoo! Messenger, Groups and Address Book contacts
- Community building — Search for people with similar interests from across the Yahoo! 360 network
- Content sharing — Share photos, reviews, LAUNCHcast Radio stations, groups and more quickly and easily
- Recommendations — Recommend favorite books, movies, TV shows and restaurants to friends and associates
- “My Friends” page — Stay up to speed with the latest blogs, photos and comments from friends all in one central location
The first thing mentioned about the features offered is a blog service.
So this is the question I have you: why is Yahoo! using Wordpress on a number of their properties when they already own a blogging service?
It actually seems like Yahoo! 360 would help make their corporate blogs more interactive and help get their users involved. But alas, they have chosen to use Wordpress over their own product.
Let’s take a look at Google now.
Looking at all of the corporate Google blogs you can see that they are all using Blogger. Blogger was acquired back in 2002 by Google.
Google made a wise decision in purchasing Blogger as it has helped them retain a lot more information and make things more accessible on a global basis.
Yahoo! still needs to wake up and figure out what on earth they are going to do about their competitor’s property, Blogger.
May 18th, 2008 at 7:09 pm
Jonathan:
I wanted to weigh in with some perspective. When we were evaluating our platform options for our corporate blog in 2006, we were looking for a scalable platform, the ability to fully customize our layout and design, and the ability to moderate comments. We found WordPress best fit our needs. However, Yahoo! 360 was used by many of Yahoo! businesses for their product blogs. You’ll note that many transitioned to WordPress after we announced in October that we’re going to transition 360 to a more integrated “profile” experience — meaning that it’s really a better experience for individuals vs. organizations. Yahoo! actually supports many different platforms. Yahoo! Web Hosting has a relationship with both WordPress and SixApart.
Hope that helps clarify.
Nicki Dugan
Editor, Yahoo!’s Yodel Anecdotal
May 18th, 2008 at 8:47 pm
Nicki,
I understand that there are needs greater than what 360 may offer presently, but why not go out and make the acquisition to do so? Why don’t you acquire Movable Type or another blog service out there. There are plenty still available which are competitive. Blogspirit, Blogs.com, Blog.com, Blo.gs, and the list goes on.
Google made the competitive move back in 2002, yes, six years ago, when other companies such as Yahoo! probably should have followed.
Yahoo! has a much better international audience than Google does, I feel, but Yahoo! is slowly losing its grasp on that audience because of Google’s innovation and search powerhouse.
Additionally, I realize that Yahoo! has relationships with both Wordpress and MT, I have been involved with Wordpress for a number of years now. But the thought still remains in my mind.
“Why doesn’t Yahoo! create either their own blogging platform, something better than 360, or acquire a company that will get the job done”
Google has done it right. They use their own blog platform for all of their blogs and everything stays within their own network. They utilize Blogger and then automatically sends traffic to their own service when others want to create blogs like it. It simply makes sense.
Thank you for taking the time to comment and touch on the subject, I would love to further hear your thoughts on the matter at hand.