Yahoo, Open?

Look, I love Yahoo. Hell, I love em all - from AOL to Microsoft and all the G's in between. Otherwise, what's the f'ing point of spending so much time thinking about them?

But let's be honest. Yahoo, like every other company I love, has not totally embraced open, any more than its competitors have. In other words, Yahoo and its kin have a complicated relationship with open. It's the classic question: can we make enough money from being open to justify the money we might lose? (Bizweek story)

Could Yahoo do what Facebook is doing - allow anyone to build an app where *all the money stays with the developer*?

Um. No. That's really open. And that ain't happening. Any more than AT&T is going to let you build apps on its mobile network without a vig.

Two years ago I was invited to give a talk to Murdoch's senior executive team on the theme of the Internet. I suggested that the company take all the video IP it owned, and set it free - open it up, in other words.

I still think the first to do this - and CBS EVP Patrick Keane, a former Googler, said his company was totally open to that at the CM Summit this week - will win.

But true openess ain't this:

Yahoo brass say they are now taking openness to the next level. For example, the test version of the new My Yahoo lets users link to Google's (GOOG) e-mail service, Gmail. It also includes widgets—known in Yahoo-speak as "modules"—from partners such as Netflix (NFLX) and The New York Times (NYT) that let users choose to see movies and read stories from their customized homepages.

It's just not. Sorry. Don't be half pregnant. Bet the company, Yahoo. What the hell!

• Posted by John Battelle at 6:57 PM
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VoicePost From The CM Summit

• Posted by John Battelle at 10:29 AM
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Yahoo: Thanks for the Idea, but Nope

Yahoo apparently considered outsourcing search monetization (WSJ), but decided against it:

....over the summer, Mr. Yang did actively assess one major sacred cow: the Web-search-advertising business it built up at great expense in recent years. Under the scenario discussed by top executives, Yahoo would have outsourced that search-advertising activity -- which places small text ads next to Web search results -- to either Google or Microsoft Corp., the people say. One of these people says Yahoo raised the idea with Google.

Such a move would likely give Yahoo an immediate revenue bump representing hundreds of millions of dollars annually, because Google, for one, generates about 40% more revenue for each consumer search than Yahoo, according to Majestic Research Corp. in New York. It could also bring in additional one-time payments from any outsourcing partner and would reduce some of Yahoo's operations costs and capital spending.

But one of the people familiar with the matter says Mr. Yang concluded that Yahoo needed to be the "marketing operating system," providing advertisers with a full menu of online-ad options.

My previous "modest proposal" on the subject here.

• Posted by John Battelle at 9:57 AM
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Google Reader Added Search and ....Er...This is News?

Last week the world (OK, the Techmeme world) got excited because Google added search to its news reader. Huh? What? You mean it didn't have it before? I use Shrook on the Mac, and it's had search forever. Is it so hard to do in an online environment? Does Bloglines not have search? I can't imagine it doesn't.

Huh. I don't get it. I'm stunned it didn't launch with search. I mean, it's Google, right?

• Posted by John Battelle at 1:37 PM
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Friday!

Yeah yeah yeah!Thanks for the link Andre!

• Posted by John Battelle at 7:28 PM
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