Introducing YOS 1.0 - live today

http://developer.yahoo.net/blog/archives/2008/10/yos_10_launch.html

by timtrueman • 18 years ago

58 21 18 years ago

developer.yahoo.net

lux4• 18 years ago

I heard there might be something akin to Facebook Connect for site logins, but it doesn't sound like that's in here. FB connect, OpenID and the like seem like an area with big potential. I think Facebook stands a good chance at taking that market outright since they have such a huge active user base already.

Yahoo could also become a lot more relevant to the average web user if these things gain some uptake. Good luck to them, I don't use many of their services but have to recognize the significant contributions to open source and the web they've been making recently.

timtrueman4• 18 years ago

Yahoo! has been an OpenId provider since Jan 30 of this year (http://developer.yahoo.net/blog/archives/2008/01/yahoo-openi...). Also YOS supports OpenSocial, so it's very much similar to Facebook Connect (Correct me if I'm wrong but I don't see any features FB Connect has that YOS doesn't). I'm not sure about the market share point you bring up because although FB has lots of users, Yahoo! has roughly 400M more ("500 million monthly users. 180 billion monthly page views. 233 countries."). Not to mention YOS is live and FB Connect isn't. Either way I'm excited for both!

lux4• 18 years ago

I had said active users specifically. Facebook has exceptionally active users. Yahoo has a lot for sure, and I wouldn't want to underestimate them (they may be hurting in the stock market, but they do have a real and large online presence still), but also a lot of inactive users, accounts registered because someone had to in order to use one of their services like Yahoo Groups. Myspace I would bet has a huge number of inactive users too. Plus, the perception is that Facebook is on the rise and Yahoo is on the decline. That makes YOS seem like a desperate move and FB Connect seem like innovation, when they're very similar in reality and both innovative.

As for OpenSocial, yeah it is pretty similar so we'll see. OpenID on the other hand has yet to be implemented in a way that makes sense to non-techies and that makes non-techies actually care about it. FB Connect, with the right partnerships (which seems like that's their strategy) could really take off, and is dead simple for the end user, unlike OpenID. I have my doubts that OpenID will ever be made easy enough and gain widespread use.

Jasber2• 18 years ago

This is a big win for Yahoo. I think they're realizing developers are their best chance to stay in the game, so they're opening up anything and everything in an attempt to hold on.

Definitely a smart move.

I'm mostly interested in YQL (Yahoo! Query Language): http://developer.yahoo.com/yql/docs/.

I find it surprising they didn't go with an existing technology for querying (ala SPARQL: http://www.w3.org/TR/rdf-sparql-query/).

That being said there's lots of stuff developers can build leveraging this information. I've had a lot of fun experimenting with BOSS (http://developer.yahoo.com/search/boss/).

I think this is on the same page and is definitely a step in the right direction for Yahoo.

bigthboy• 18 years ago

<sarcasm>Developers their best chance to stay in the game? Ballmer knew that a long time ago... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMU0tzLwhbE </sarcasm>

Jasber2• 18 years ago

Right, I've heard Ballmer scream "Developers, Developers, Developers" just like everyone else--but what are they doing about it (when it comes to search)?

The best I can find is Live Search API: http://search.live.com/developer/

Which is nothing compared to what Yahoo! is offering.

Edit: Sarcasm doesn't work on the Internet ;)

IsaacSchlueter3• 18 years ago

It's incredibly gratifying to finally have something to point people at when they ask what I do at Yahoo.

Please keep the comments coming here and on the blog post. Feel free to message me if things don't work. If I can't answer your question, I'll be able to at least bug the person who can. Direct feedback is always the best.

richtaur• 18 years ago

You mean http://foos-hack.com/? That's true for both us.

jfarmer• 18 years ago

Cool. Do you know Ryo?

IsaacSchlueter3• 18 years ago

Yeah, I do. Very smart guy. We lost him to Google, tho :’(

timtrueman4• 18 years ago

Also posted on the main Yahoo! blog: http://ycorpblog.com/2008/10/28/were-open-have-at-it/

redorb• 18 years ago

did yahoo just "out whataburger"* google app engine, by letting us use any language we want?

*http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SbCiOkcAo0I

IsaacSchlueter3• 18 years ago

Actually, App Engine is a different kind of thing.

GAE is a platform where your app is hosted on their servers.

YAP is a (mostly) open social compliant app delivery platform that lets you create apps and deploy them on our web pages.

GAE is a competitor to Yahoo Small Business, I suppose, since it's a paid hosting service. We're working very closely with Google, MySpace, and a bunch of other partners on making Open Social a success. (NB: you can also create Open Social apps for those other platforms, as well.)

In addition to Open Social, there are things like YQL and other extensions that Yahoo has developed in-house. Some of those may make it into the OS spec, where it makes sense to do so.

alex_c• 18 years ago

Slightly off-topic, but not completely:

I would LOVE to see some quantitative measurements of the effect that opening up a platform to developers has on the respective company.

End of the day, is (extra_revenue_from_custom_applications_and_exposure - resources_to_maintain_platform - customers_lost_to_crappy_apps_or_platform_issues) > 0?

Obviously the formula is more complicated and varies from company to company, but I would love to see a good discussion from an insider who's gone through it.

sanj• 18 years ago

Any chance this means there's a calendar API?

paul9290• 18 years ago

What data sets does this open for developers and start-uppers to use? Is there a list?

reid• 18 years ago

In particular, you can use the new Yahoo! Social Platform APIs to access social data for Yahoo! users. For example, your application could easily post activity from your existing app to Yahoo! using the Updates API.

Lots more offered by YOS 1.0 is listed here: http://developer.yahoo.com/yos/intro/yos-options.html

Introducing YOS 1.0 - live today

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