For almost a year now, Yahoo! has been talking about their new ‘Yahoo! Open Strategy‘. They have finally begun to roll out user profiles, which form the backbone of the social part of their open strategy.
Launching profiles is the first indication of the launch of the Yahoo! Open Strategy. It is an important landmark in Yahoo!’s hopes of turning into a big social network. In the beginning of the year, Yahoo! had shown some conceptual screenshots at CES in the month of January.
Apart from having a new look, the newly launched Yahoo! Profiles will have the ability to create “connections” or mutual friendships on the front end. The profile also has something new on its back end, which is a ‘vitality system’ to share updates. The vitality system will have the ability to run activity stream-like content for all future releases.
Although Yahoo! has already started rolling out the new profile, it may be a while before all users have access to it. The easiest way to get in is to find someone who can add you as a connection and you are instantly in.
This new profile will be integrated with other Yahoo! properties in the coming months. For example, if a user happens to give an answer to a question on Yahoo! Answers, this activity will be reflected in the user’s feed update. In the near future, the Yahoo! Mail front page will also be capable of showing what ones friends are doing.
Another important feature being added is that emails from friends or connections will be highlighted, so that users don’t waste time going through junk mail.
Those who already have a Yahoo account can see their profile at:
Mail is just another important part of the newly forming social network. Search, which is the final part of Yahoo!’s open strategy has already been updated last April and might be the central focus or might end up being unimportant, depending on how the corporation’s future is determined in the coming weeks.
