After reading about the rumours of Yahoo!’s layoffs, I then came across a screenshot of the new Yahoo! profile page:

Look familiar? If you use Facebook or MySpace, you would be looked a red-tinted-logo mirror image.

By having a Yahoo! account, users can add friend connections from it’s address book and write updates about themselves known as Yahoo Buzz (their activity feed).

This is all that is initially planned, however, Jim Stoneham (VP of communities, Yahoo!) stated that this is the “foundation release” which will then enabled Yahoo! to develop on further.

The Yahoo Buzz activity feed will soon be a widget on the Yahoo! homepage for logged in users to see what’s happening within their social group.

But Yahoo! is looking to make this integration within various areas of its website – for example, if someone reviews a product on the Yahoo Shopping page, it will be added to their activity feed for the user’s friends to take a look at. The same is planned for sections like Finance, Sports, Flickr et al.

This sort of social community could increase user interactivity of Yahoo!’s products and services. Back in September Yahoo had opened access to it’s social API and Yahoo Application Platform for developers to write applications around this framework. Sounds like the following of Facebook, Apple and Google.

I guess Gigaom was right after all – Social Network is just a feature (http://gigaom.com/2007/02/05/are-social-networks-just-a-feature/)

I came across this article, on The Big Chair, that was written earlier this year – and I laughingly agree with Conrad Walters on this following extract from the article:

10 things that won’t change in 2008

1. Google will still have access to more information about you than your mother has.
2. The DVD drive on your computer will still be ideal for holding your first cup of coffee while Windows Vista loads.
3. Internet filters will still require children to help their parents view the websites they want.
4. Spammers will still exploit the inverse relationship that exists between IQ and greed.
5. Social networking sites will still be the best place for identity thieves to refine their craft.
6. People will still visit Second Life trying to discover if there’s something to do other than to see if there’s something to do.
7. YouTube will still be the definitive source for guidance on how to train cats to flush a toilet.
8. Mobile phones will still come with a choice of 200 ring tones, none of which anyone wants.
9. Broadband in rural Australia will still involve paper cups and string.
10. Video iPod users will still squint into postage-stamp screens and convince themselves they’ve enjoyed watching something.