Yahoo abandons search:
Yahoo!, one of the two names most synonymous with search on the internet, has surprised Silicon Valley by suggesting that the future of the web is not about search.
The comments, interpreted as an admission that Yahoo! cannot keep pace with Google, came during a conference at which many participants said that the traditional model for getting information from the internet ? using a browser to visit web pages ? was outdated.
Although Yahoo!, like Google, has talked before about developing a more personalised web, with relevant information delivered directly to readers, this was the first time that the company has said publicly that search will become less important.
“Search is no longer the dominant paradigm,” Tapan Bhat, vice president of Front Doors, Yahoo!’s personalised home page, told the Next Web conference in Amsterdam.
“The future of the web is about personalisation. Where search was dominant, now the web is about ‘me.’ It’s about weaving the web together in a way that is smart and personalised for the user,” Mr Bhat said. Source: Search is history, says Yahoo!-News-Tech & Web-The Web-TimesOnline
Believe it our not Yahoo has figured it out, the future isn’t search, it’s personalization. The irony here is that MyYahoo was one of the first sites of its kind, when the Net was young, and it’s only been recently that personalization has been fun and easy. The undercurrent is, of course, that personalization really means eyeballs for advertising. The battle for our homepage has begun, yet again.
MT hits the big four-oh and goes open source
On the blogging front, Six Apart has finally released an update to Moveable Type and has announced that it will be released as open source. Word is that MT4 has a bevy of improvements and fixes. Lots and lots of discussion on this announcement, of course (Wired, Read/WriteWeb, Tom Foremski, Mark Evans, Scott Karp, Aaron Brazell–very funny), the question on everyone’s mind is: “Can MT regain it’s blog crown from WP?”. I say no. WP is still supremely easy to install, update, and tweak. MT might be better, but still running on Perl and using the CGI architecture is going to make it harder to deal with. And frankly, once you’re set up your blog or even switched from MT to WP, the chances of switching back are slim. Sorry SixApart, too little too late.
And in the late-breaking-check-back-on-Friday department is a rumour circulating that Amazon is looking to by Netflix for about $2.1 billion. Could be cool. Stay tuned, no confirmation right now.
There is also a bit of a tempest in a teacup with Scoble saying Techmeme is trying to become Google News and Valley Wag chiming in, as only Valley Wag can, and Gabe Rivera setting things straight in the comments. Funny, the discussion didn’t make Techmeme.
Now given that I don’t have the secret source of tips, yet, I’m not sure if I’m going to continue the Monday prognostication plan, but on Friday I’ll look back on the week and see what seems to have bubbled to the surface.
Recent Comments