Yahoo 360: The Blog Ghost Town
Rafat Ali points to an AdAge scoop that Yahoo is launching a consumer tech vertical site tomorrow that will serve as a model for future launches. The site will include a mix of licensed, original and consumer created content.
The social media highlights include user reviews from Yahoo's shopping site and Yahoo Answers. In addition, Yahoo Tech will feature a small group of bloggers, such as fomer USA Today columnist Robin Raskin (a friend o'Steve) and Gina Hughes, who will focus on gadgets.
I think this continues Yahoo's leadership in driving citizen's media revolution.But curiously, Yahoo 360 is noticeably absent - at least from the story, which most likely means from the product as well. Whether it's in or not, can someone tell me what the heck is going on with 360? Is Yahoo marketing it? It's like Geo Cities all over again. Nielsen said it had 3M users in March. MSN Spaces has double that - just in Europe.
I am beginning to think that Yahoo 360 has slipped and that Yahoo is quietly sweeping it under a big purple rug with a yellow "Y!" on it. It has very little mindshare. Unlike MSN Spaces, which is a bona-fide hit, and Blogger, the granddaddy of blogs, Yahoo 360 is largely a forgotten product. I can't remember the last time I read any blog on 360. Worse, the fact that virtually all of Yahoo's blogs, such as news and health, utilize other technology is a sign that Yahoo 360 is largely Geo Cities 2.0. (Disclaimer: Edelman is one of Microsoft's PR agencies.)
