SocialStartups.com

(As some of you know, I run an email list + brown bag meeting called Tech Chatter at work, where I comment on new developments in the community + personalization + e-commerce space. I’ve never cross-posted here, but I’m going to begin doing so. I will have to, of course, cleanse all of the non-public Amazon material from it. Here’s one from today)

Ah, finally something worth talking about.

http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/01/08/here-comes-yahoo-live-i-mean-yahoo-life/

Yahoo Life (and I agree with Arrington, it’s a poor choice for a name) co-ops your email as the basis for your social network, and makes assumptions as to who is close to you by looking at the frequency with which you email someone. They can then utilize that social network information in any of their existing services – mobile, finance, fantasy sports, movies, shopping, you name it. They are using Zimbra to build out a developer platform (Zimbra was a company they acquired that built a Microsoft Office competitor, but made for online). The TC article has a grainy image of their prototype http://www.techcrunch.com/wp-content/yahoolife1b.jpg

Now, couple that with some enticing rumors about a revamped, rethought Yahoo music initiative, and we’ve got ourselves an interesting direction from Yahoo. It’s been a while since they’ve done anything new and of note (and their Panama product is still not what I would consider a success, with mixed reports. And besides, that’s soooo last year.)

Dave

PS – Not sure if I’m obligated to disclose, but I do own some Yahoo stock.

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Tags: yahoo, yahoo life, social networking