Yahoo! Buzz: Like Digg, But Purple and 3 Years Late to the Social News Space
by John Paczkowski
Posted on February 26, 2008 at 10:37 AM PT
We have taken the proposal Microsoft (MSFT) delivered to us very seriously. We made a public statement why we have not accepted the proposal. In many ways it has been a galvanizing event for all of Yahoo.”
–Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang, Feb. 25
A galvanizing event, indeed. Jerry Yang has about 20 days to convince Yahoo (YHOO) shareholders that they’re better off saving the company than selling it, and he is pulling out all the stops.
Last night Yahoo officially launched Buzz, a social news service where “buzz-worthy” articles are ranked according to user interest. It’s essentially Digg (if Digg was purple), redundant and three years late to the social news market.
“You cast your vote on the most interesting Web stories, images or videos about anything and everything–from a late-breaking political story on a major news site, to the coolest photo of the lunar eclipse, to a shocking celebrity-gossip blog post that shouldn’t be missed,” Yahoo’s Tapan Bhat explained in a post to Yahoo Anecdotal. “The best part is that the stories with the highest Buzz Scores–determined by combining your votes with organic search popularity rankings–may be featured on the Yahoo! homepage, giving you the power to influence what millions of people see on Yahoo!.” (And, yes, that us a Yahoo Buzz! icon appended below. Be sure to click it on your way out and “Buzz” this post up to Yahoo’s homepage.)
Also debuting from Yahoo today, Search Monkey–a set of open-source application programming interfaces (APIs) that allow publishers to annotate search results for their sites. “… Our intent is clear–present users with richer, more useful search results so that they can complete their tasks more efficiently and get from ‘to-do’ to ‘done,’ ” Vish Makhijani, senior vice president and general manager of Yahoo Search, wrote in a post to Yahoo Anecdotal. ” … So instead of a simple title, abstract and URL, for the first time, users will see rich results that incorporate the massive amount of data buried in Web sites.”
So essentially, it’s like Google’s Subscribed Links, but purple and two years late to the market.
Comments
Hmm… I wonder if there’s some filtering going on. Your post isn’t in the Yahoo Buzz system yet. Guess that makes it a Buzz-kill?
Posted by Walt Domes at February 26th, 2008 at 11:35 amLooks like it’s in there now.
Posted by John Paczkowski at February 26th, 2008 at 12:45 pm