Del.icio.us bought by Yahoo
One for the geeks (or wannabes):
Deli.cio.us has been taken over by Yahoo. For those who don't know, del.icio.us was one of the biggest innovations online last year and really revolutionised the way many people use the web, blog, read news and many other things. My 'ephemera' sidebar is enabled by deli.cio.us and it has become my essential online filing cabinet. Its had many imitators but its clean, absolutely simple interface has made it the winner in a world where community (i.e. number of users) really does mean success.
I wrote about Yahoo vs. Google last year and my frustrations with the design (concept and visual) of Yahoo's service remains. I never use Yahoo to search. I still use Flickr despite its takeover but I use the uploader applet so I never really encounter the interface and its true to say that it hasn't changed that much. But in general, I am rather sad that lovely del.icio.us has given up to the behemoth. My feeling is that Google's design ethos was much more suited for del.icio.us and would have been a better choice. I hate Yahoo's terrible logo, clunky interface and multiple 'click-steps' to get to whatever you want. But I guess Google's intent on developing its own version rather than buying an existing platform.
But will it make a difference to my life that I use Google Personalised Search and then bookmark using yahoo.licio.us? Maybe I'm just mourning the demise of another individual, brilliant enterprise. Maybe that's also fair enough. What's lovely about services like del.icio.us and flickr has been that they are communities defined by common interest, not some sort of habitual brand loyalty. I want to be able to find interesting bookmarks no matter whether the people who found them used Google, Yahoo or some terrible MSN search, but if it becomes so much easier for me to use a new Google bookmarking service, I will switch over and then never find anything interesting that comes up in the yahoo.licio.us community. and thus the world will divide: sad but true.
Deli.cio.us has been taken over by Yahoo. For those who don't know, del.icio.us was one of the biggest innovations online last year and really revolutionised the way many people use the web, blog, read news and many other things. My 'ephemera' sidebar is enabled by deli.cio.us and it has become my essential online filing cabinet. Its had many imitators but its clean, absolutely simple interface has made it the winner in a world where community (i.e. number of users) really does mean success.
I wrote about Yahoo vs. Google last year and my frustrations with the design (concept and visual) of Yahoo's service remains. I never use Yahoo to search. I still use Flickr despite its takeover but I use the uploader applet so I never really encounter the interface and its true to say that it hasn't changed that much. But in general, I am rather sad that lovely del.icio.us has given up to the behemoth. My feeling is that Google's design ethos was much more suited for del.icio.us and would have been a better choice. I hate Yahoo's terrible logo, clunky interface and multiple 'click-steps' to get to whatever you want. But I guess Google's intent on developing its own version rather than buying an existing platform.
But will it make a difference to my life that I use Google Personalised Search and then bookmark using yahoo.licio.us? Maybe I'm just mourning the demise of another individual, brilliant enterprise. Maybe that's also fair enough. What's lovely about services like del.icio.us and flickr has been that they are communities defined by common interest, not some sort of habitual brand loyalty. I want to be able to find interesting bookmarks no matter whether the people who found them used Google, Yahoo or some terrible MSN search, but if it becomes so much easier for me to use a new Google bookmarking service, I will switch over and then never find anything interesting that comes up in the yahoo.licio.us community. and thus the world will divide: sad but true.
Comments
One thing to bear in mind that, regardless of who owns what, it's evident that HOW people use these tools is the key thing.