Yahoo! Unleashes Mash Beta

Posted by Jim Stroud

September 23, 2007

I was at the OnRec2007 Conference last week and made some new friends. Among them Robert (Bob) Neelbauer of Jobmatchbox. So, okay, we traded emails before in the past, but never met face to face. It was a pleasure chatting with him and getting his perspective on social networks.

Actually, Bob was kind enough to grant me permission to post an article about Yahoo’s new Social Network - “Mash.” Check him out, then visit his blog and tell him I said - “Hi?”

Yahoo! Unleashes Mash Beta

Perhaps you were one of the few who received an invitation this weekend for Yahoo! Mash, their new Social Network. They have cooked up quite a new offering that will challenge many of social networking sites, but also a few sites that you might not have thought about including Google’s iGoogle page. I envision that this will eventually become one and the same with Yahoo!’s existing service My Yahoo!.

I don’t think there is any question that this is what we were previously referring to as “Mosh”. A quick glance reveals that there Yahoo! is going to use this new social networking platform to go after Facebook, MySpace, and others in the space.

You can edit many aspects of the page and in that sense it is more like MySpace, but with more structure.

Friend tagging is an option, much like is the case with Xing, the popular European based LinkedIn competitor, and Jobster. This feature is one that will allow you to identify yourself and for your friends to identify you by categories. I don’t know what plans they have for this feature, but I would say that it is probably one of the more valuable ones offered.

One feature that caught my attention immediately was the “Pulse” feature which is equivalent to the Friend feed on Facebook, the Twitter message updates, and the “PULSE” feature on Plaxo. I wonder if they have something worked out with Plaxo to use the “Pulse” name, after all, they are already partnered with Plaxo when it comes to the Yahoo! Calendar and Address Book. Either way, adding a feed for contacts was a smart move.

One feature that is a bit interesting is the edit other user profiles one. You can allow anyone to edit your page, just friends to edit your page, or restrict edits to yourself. Perhaps this is where the “mash” concept started. There is even a wiki like revision history option so that you can go back and review changes one at a time. They will probably make it so that you can undo changes that were done by others.

Here is a preview:

Yahoo Mash - a social network

Down at the bottom of the page is an option that will allow users to add in widgets including games, feeds, and even your blog.

If you haven’t then email me and I’ll send you an invite to join (email@jobmatchbox.com).