MyGoogle launches
And so it finally begins. The Portal Wars 2.0.
I hate to take credit for coining the phrase, but it’s been so obvious - for years - that this was going to happen that I didn’t even mark down when I first used the phrase. That 2004 link refers to a reference I made in some blog post a couple of years before - but I haven’t tracked that one down - yet.
Obviously the folks at Yahoo are gloating over this one.
If you look at the initial set of offerings, it pales to MyYahoo - but hey, they’ve had a nine year headstart. Each of the Google offerings are real meaty, substatntive services, while MOST of the Yahoo services seem pale and staid in comparison (and certainly dated.)
But Yahoo can’t go out and start buying all these new kind of services - all over again? Or can they? Flickr and ODDpost are nice starts.
But shouldn’t these next generation portals (we call them DLAs) be leveraging the islands of functionality independently evolving on their own - like de.licio.us, webjay and buzznet? Shouldn’t a next generation portal provide incredible rich media interfaces (otherwise known as Ajax or Laszlo?) Shouldn’t a next generation portal provide ways for ALL OF US to make money?
Well we at ourmedia.org certainly think so.
And all of our clients (who have been keeping me so busy I haven’t been able to blog) think so - too!
And needless to say Yahoo, Google and Microsoft (notice I’m not even including has-been AOL) don’t have a monopoly on DLAs.
What about MTV, EMI or NBC? Or IBM, BEA or Oracle?
Can’t this new portal things blow up so huge that we all can connect our digital IDs to MULTIPLE of these DLAs and smile? Isn’t that what it’s all about - making the humans happy?
Looking back on Excite@Home - we can now just chuckle how badly they blew it. To me - the SBC-Yahoo relationship has it right. Each partner bring their ex[pertise to the table and provide VALUE to the humans.
Stuff they pay for.
And so Google finally moves into a new categry - portals - which Yahoo has owned for years.
Now we get to see what open stgandards they build on - and where the data silos, propreitary barriers and old school thinking prevail.
DLAs are based upon the notion of a web of islands, meshed together by open standards. Those standards become the causeways and bridges between the islands.
So DLA vendors don’t have to go off and buy services - they just need to support the islands open APIs and schemas welcome them to the marketplace. And facilitate open conversations.
If I was going to predict - I’ll say that Yahoo will lead the way with Media and Groups standards - while Google will support open standards around Events and Topics.
I just hope EVDB goes along.