So the big news of the day around my way is the acquisition of weirdly punctuated site del.icio.us by weirdly punctuated site (and my current employers) Yahoo!. You can read more about it on the Yahoo search blog (Two Great Tastes That Go Together) and on the del.icio.us blog (y.ah.oo!):
Jeremy: As Joshua writes, the del.icio.us team will soon be working in close proximity to their fraternal twin, Flickr. And just like we’ve done with Flickr, we plan to give del.icio.us the resources, support, and room it needs to continue growing the service and community. Finally, don’t be surprised if you see My Web and del.icio.us borrow a few ideas from each other in the future.
Joshua: We’re proud to announce that del.icio.us has joined the Yahoo! family. Together we’ll continue to improve how people discover, remember and share on the Internet, with a big emphasis on the power of community. We’re excited to be working with the Yahoo! Search team – they definitely get social systems and their potential to change the web. (We’re also excited to be joining our fraternal twin Flickr!)
10 replies on “In which Yahoo! buys del.icio.us…”
Holy crap on a stick. If this keeps up all the “Web 2.0” blog nerds will be working by Yahoo! by next month.
Yup! I think that’s the plan!
I’m not a bit surprised, I’m actually surprised it took this long!
As i begin to fear google’s information domination, i begin to appreciate yahoo’s good taste when buying great apps (and hiring extraordinary people).
Bring on the Yahoo! IDs, heavy HTML, and animated ads!
Next thing you know, Yahoo! will acquire GeoURL and Memepool.
I guess it’s time for me to get ser.io.us about open alternatives like linkmonger source (based on the original linkmonger).
exactly! look at all the heavy html and animated ads they added to flickr and upcoming!
oh, wait. dork.
Flickr has a business model which doesn’t depend on selling functionality easily recreated by first year college students.
The unique value of del.icio.us is entirely in its scale (which JS does very well, no doubt) but I just don’t believe that people will pay for social bookmarking when there will be a flurry of free alternatives.
So, I predict that Yahoo! will wrap del.icio.us into its offerings more tightly than Flickr, which means branding, Yahoo! IDs, and ads.
In six months we’ll see how del.icio.us has changed. I’m hopeful but not optimistic that I’ll be wrong.
And lest we not forget, Konfabulator is now the “Yahoo! Widget Engine,” Oddpost now goes by “Yahoo! Mail,” and launch.com will respond to “Yahoo! Music” if you yell it out at a party.
Six months have passed and no ads have appeared, no Yahoo IDs are required, and though the HTML is a little heavier, it’s still pretty sweet.
When I’m wrong, I’m wrong.
Upcoming.org is now upcoming.yahoo.com with Y! logins.
I continue to be completely wrong about del.icio.us, for some reason, despite most of the 2005 acquisitions’ slow absorption into the mothership.