http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/01/AR2010060100577.html?wpisrc=nl_pmtech
Yahoo to turn subscribers' e-mail contact lists into social networking base
By Cecilia Kang
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
Yahoo plans to announce Tuesday that it is jumping into social networking by
using its massive population of e-mail subscribers as a base for sharing
information on the Web.
Over the next few weeks, its 280 million e-mail users will be able to exchange
comments, pictures and news articles with others in their address books. The
program won't expose a user's contact list to the public, as was done by Google
through its social networking application, Buzz. But unless a user proactively
opts out of the program, those Yahoo e-mail subscribers will automatically be
part of a sweeping rollout of features that will incorporate the kinds of
sharing done on sites such as Facebook and MySpace.
The plan could spark criticism from Yahoo e-mail users, who signed up for the
free service perhaps never imagining the people they e-mailed would become
friends for sharing vacation videos, political causes and random thoughts
throughout the day. And the move comes amid growing concern by federal
lawmakers and regulators over how firms such as Facebook, Google and Microsoft
have handled the privacy of Internet users.
After backlash, Facebook last week announced new privacy tools to make it
easier for users to block Web sites from tapping into their information, as
well as a simpler way to configure who on the site can see personal data. Rep.
John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, asked
Facebook on Friday to explain what kind of user data it had shared with
third-party sites. Conyers also asked Google to retain, for federal and state
regulators, the data the company scooped off WiFi networks as it collected
Street View mapping photos around the country.
To allay privacy concerns, Yahoo said it would give users a week's notice
before launching the new features and provide a single button on the site for
opting out entirely.
"We've been watching and trying to be thoughtful about our approach," said Anne
Toth, head of privacy for Yahoo.
Specifically, the company will launch a product called Yahoo Updates that
allows e-mail users to see what other contacts on their lists are commenting
about or sharing on sites like Yahoo Finance, Facebook and the photo sharing
site Flickr. Updates will initially include 15 sites and partnerships and will
eventually expand to include partners such as Twitter this summer.
Yahoo has tiptoed into social media, launching a similar tool last year called
Connections, which allowed each user to customize a list of contacts with whom
to share information. The company also tried two years ago to build a
competitive product to Facebook, where users sought "friends," or contacts, to
join micro-networks within Yahoo in the same way Facebook users amass friends
through requests. Yahoo abandoned that project and instead decided to tap into
its captive audience of e-mail users.
The move is part of a revamping of the once-rudderless Internet pioneer. Chief
executive Carol Bartz, brought in last year to lead the firm, has stripped the
company of unprofitable business units to focus on its greatest strengths --
its popular free e-mail and messaging programs, and its library of sports, news
and finance sites -- to keep users in the Yahoo universe longer.
The longer a user stays on the site, the more advertising dollars and
e-commerce it generates. But it remains to be seen if users will view their
contact lists as the kinds of people they choose to socialize with on the Web.
When Google launched Buzz, some users complained that they used Gmail for
business and to correspond with strangers and that they didn't want to share
birthday videos with their plumbers or bosses.
Yahoo will begin notifying users of the change on June 7, one week before the
launch. Users who don't want to participate can click one button on the
settings page to opt out. Or they can customize each piece of information -- a
Facebook update or a comment on a Yahoo news story -- to either be shared with
Yahoo e-mail contacts or Facebook. Eventually, Twitter and other partners with
social-networking platforms will also be included.
"What Yahoo has done is recognized that your e-mail or messenger network is a
useful resource and that you may be interested in knowing what your contacts
are interested in knowing about, and they stop there," said Jules Polonetsky,
the director of the Future of Privacy Forum, a privacy think tank. "That's
opposed to the idea that then, therefore, your relationship with them risks
being exposed."
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