Yahoo’s Web 2.0 Makeover

Yahoo! has always prided itself as being… well, a Yahoo.
Starting out as a hobby project in the early days when the Internet was still an uncool geek hobby, Yahoo transformed into the most visited website in the world . From its beginnings as a directory for websites Yahoo has grown with the Internet to become a whole on-line ecosystem.
However, with the meteoric rise of Google, Yahoo has competition. It is no longer the coolest website on the block. One of the things Google has been leveraging have been their geek credentials. The company (Google) has positioned itself as a programmer friendly, innovative company and one of the cornerstones of this effort is the opening up of its API.
In response Yahoo has gone on a major makeover effort. It changed its entire look including the Yahoo home page, Yahoo email, Yahoo maps and Yahoo search. It has added new services like Yahoo Music, Yahoo Video and Yahoo 360, and acquired great sites like Flickr and Del.icio.us.
But the biggest thing in my opinion is the Yahoo Developer site. What I really liked about this is not so much the fact that they opened it up as the approach they took with it.
Instead of simply publishing their API and a few examples, the Yahoo development team took the effort to create good documentation, including patterns, best practices etc. They went ahead and added a blog, allowing their developers to post on the site, which gives it the accessible image. Yahoo went the extra mile and that shows through. The latest API they have opened up is Yahoo authentication. Lets see how the developer community responds to this – I can only see more web 2.0 goodness from this development. Let the pretenders to the throne watch out for the Yahoo! is ready…

Error messages in Haiku…

OK it’s not strictly Haiku but you know what I mean -

The Web site you seek
Cannot be located, but
Countless more exist.

Chaos reigns within.
Reflect, repent, and reboot.
Order shall return.

Program aborting:
Close all that you have worked on.
You ask far too much.

Windows NT crashed.
I am the Blue Screen of Death.
No one hears your screams.

Yesterday it worked.
Today it is not working.
Windows is like that.

Your file was so big.
It might be very useful.
But now it is gone.

Stay the patient course.
Of little worth is your ire.
The network is down.

A crash reduces
Your expensive computer
To a simple stone.

Three things are certain:
Death, taxes and lost data.
Guess which has occurred.

You step in the stream,
But the water has moved on.
This page is not here.

Out of memory.
We wish to hold the whole sky,
But we never will.

Having been erased,
The document you’re seeking
Must now be retyped.

Serious error.
All shortcuts have disappeared.
Screen. Mind. Both are blank.