Marc's Voice

Why Yahoo buying ODDpost is so important

Wow - OK we start off with some different opinions on this historic deal from (it’s 3:30AM and I just gotta blog this NOW!):

Ev (Evan Eliiams of Blogger/Google)

Congrats to the Oddposters!

I always liked those guys (though we never got around to having lunch… damn, and
now, between their supermodel dates and rockstar parties, I doubt they’ll return
my emails. I shoulda made friends with them when I had the chance… Then again, it’s useful now that we’re sworn enemies that we were never friends…)

Here’s to the web world continuing to heat up with new and interesting things brought to more people!

Dave Winer……

A couple of weeks ago I got a heads-up that this deal had been consumated and would be announced shortly. Little did I imagine then that they would pick a Friday evening to make the announcement, but that’s the way it goes. It’s
a big one.

Oddpost turned the idea of what you could do with a browser upside down, by producing a clone of Microsoft Outlook in JavaScript and DHTML running in MSIE. Since then, they have labored in relative obscurity, growing a customer base, raising VC money, adding people, and staying out of the way. Then Google launches Gmail, with a
very Oddpostish interface, and someone at Yahoo says “Hmmm, I’ve seen that somewhere,” calls up Ethan and Iain and their new VCs and asks “Are you for sale?” and the rest is history. Now Google has competition on elegance of user interface. Sorry the announcement comes at such an awkard time, everyone in the tech press must be getting in their cars and driving to the beach or the mountains. Congrats to the Oddpost guys, and their users and investors, and congrats to Google for getting some new worthwhile competition. Now who is Microsoft going to buy?

Techdirt….

So, we actually heard about this a couple weeks ago, when someone (who knew) passed
on the fact that Yahoo had bought Oddpost in an attempt to fight back against the Gmail craze. Now, though, the deal is official, so it’s okay to talk about it (though it had been hinted at earlier this week). It’s really not that surprising, after all. Yahoo knew
they needed to upgrade their email, and Oddpost has a great reputation for their
interface. You can be sure that Yahoo wasn’t the only company sniffing around
and debating whether or not to buy up Oddpost. While it’s probably not going to
be the lead in most stories, it is quite interesting that one of Oddpost’s nicer
features is an integrated RSS reader. Yahoo keeps talking up the power of RSS,
and perhaps this will allow them to make a bigger commitment. However, in all
likelihood, it was just the mail interface that fascinated them. It seems like a
good move by Yahoo who needed to do something.

OK - here’s where my opinion starts……

This story is much more than Yahoo buying ODDpost to compete with GMail. Sure - that’s part of it - and I’m sure that’s what Terry Semel et al have in thier heads, but it’s this sort of viral infusion into Yahoo that was needed.

This is much bigger than the search engine battles or even Yahoo versus Google.

This is about RIAs (rich internet apps), integrated web services and open standards being fused with productivity software, micro-content and social networking and offered as hosted experiences.

Does this sound like anything familiar?

Yahoo has defined what portals have been - since day one - but their UI just plain sucked! Even the valiant attempts at providing “customization” features in MyYahoo - were tolerable at best.

Yahoo supports RSS and has over 120M active end-users. Yahoo is showing how portals and ISPs can work together by providing software bundled with services - to the masses.

But ODDpost makes it a whole new ball game.

Now Yahoo can step up to teh front on “end-user” experience. That holey grail that’s been eluding them since day one. HTML was never desigend and will never fulfill the end-user quotient. The human factor.

The essence of compelling experiences.

HTML will also suck. But once you can truly integrate rich interactive experienecs in teh browser, and tie it into services and functionality - you got a winnign formula for digital lifestyle aggregation!

And once you have email, why stop there? Why not jukeboxes (like MySpace has) or photo blog objects (like Flickr) or Tribe Listings, Friends and Tribes appearing in blog gutters - as well?

Why stop there? Why not support an Open Listings standard and just completely screw Google completely?

Certainly let’s hope that Yahoo will support FOAF.

Google is (or will) or (I sure hope they will.)