So what if Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT) is getting rude? That's the attitude at Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO), which is continuing to plug forward on its business.
For example, this week the company unveiled plans for a new product: oneConnect. Basically, it's part of Yahoo!'s mobile platform and has capabilities like instant messaging as well as a "socially connected" address books.
Huh? Well, users can use GPS technologies to alert you when a friends are nearby (or, I'm assuming you can set alerts for people you want to avoid, which may be an even better feature).
Yahoo also realizes that there's an opportunity to use oneConnect to help organize the clutter in the social networking space. To this end, the platform integrates with Facebook, Bebo, LinkedIn, MySpace and so on. And, of course, Yahoo! is working on a version for Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL)'s iPhone.
"Although not a groundbreaking innovation, Yahoo! is on target with oneConnect. If people want to aggregate their social data, it's no stretch to imagine they'll want access to it anywhere. Although the idea and design look solid, they're not the only one launching this kind of application. Fring (www.fring.com), for example, has something similar and there are other aggregators like NetVibes (www.netvibes.com) helping satisfy the need to bring it all together. But if Yahoo! can execute well and leverage their marketing power, it should be a useful and successful product for them."
Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook
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