Yahoo! has announced Y! One Connect -- an application in Yahoo! Go for Mobiles -- that will allow Social Network Aggregation. One Connect will launch in Q2 (pdf announcement). Quite as I had predicted Social Network Aggregation will be super hot in 2008.
Any Immediate Practical value besides the cool factor? Yes! Its not just fun and keeping in touch with family/friends -- now you can see jobs uploaded on LinkedIn by people in your network. Very valuable if you are looking for a change passively or even actively. Most Promised features in OneConnect look attractive:
Socially-connected address book - have integrated activity from popular social networks, professional networks, and communities into their address book, keeping it always in sync.
Integrated mobile messaging - SMS & IM integration of conversations in Yahoo! Messenger, Google Talk, AOL Instant Messenger and MSN Messenger.
Status - View contacts by their most recent status updates on popular social networks -- also update your own status
Pulse - Have a dynamic overview of what friends are up to, including recent photos,their status, profile updates, and recommendations based on their most recent actions on popular social networks.
Favorites - contact most accessed friends easily
Social contact card - aggregate the most relevant information on any given contact, including archives of past communications, detailed pulse history, and one-click ways to initiate communication.
Location sensing - Locate, chat with, and exchange contact information with nearby Yahoo! oneConnect users. Proximity alerts will notify consumers when a contact enters their vicinity.
Initial launch will support the following 10 mobile and web based social networks:
- Bebo
- Flickr
- Dopplr
- Friendster
- hi5
- Last.fm
- MySpace
I think mobile social networking has arrived, and Yahoo! has taken an imaginative new step after a long time. I am also sure that several start-ups will 1-up Yahoo! in the release plan. As I had idly wondered, about a couple of weeks ago:
My next best guess: Mobile will play a major role in Social Network Aggregation.
If you like this topic, please go ahead and contribute to the Wikipedia Page on Social Network Aggregation that I started. Overall, I feel this one will be a big win for Yahoo! if they execute. Good job Yahoo! What do you think?
