Hacks come to life
By now, hopefully you're familiar with our Hack@Yahoo! program, where developers build cool tools or functionality on top of Yahoo! products. Maybe you attended or read about our "Open Hack Day" last September (does a free Beck concert on the Yahoo! lawn ring a bell?).
Context & Ripple Effects
The day before this post, Business Week reported Yahoo's open invitation to developers, confirming that CEO Jerry Yang plans to give outside builders more leeway to create tools that keep users on Yahoo pages longer — explicitly following Facebook's example. This Yodel Anecdotal item is Yahoo's own blog amplifying that push, reminding readers of the Hack@Yahoo! program and last September's Open Hack Day, complete with a free Beck concert on the company lawn.
The timing matters: the same week's coverage also referenced the Peanut Butter Manifesto memo and Yahoo's new Bebo display-advertising deal for the UK and Ireland, so the developer-outreach story sits inside a broader campaign to reposition Yahoo from a closed portal into something more platform-like.
First-order effects
- Developers in the Hack@Yahoo! program gain official sanction to build tools on top of Yahoo products, with Yahoo itself publicizing their hacks to legitimize the channel.
Second-order effects
- Every hack that keeps users inside Yahoo properties extends session time where Yahoo monetizes attention — directly reinforcing the ad business that partnerships like the Bebo deal are built to scale across social networks.
Third-order effects
- If Yang's stated direction holds, the competitive baseline among large web companies shifts from controlling every feature in-house to courting third-party developers, making openness programs like Open Hack Day a recurring strategic instrument rather than a one-off event.
The trend: Large consumer web companies are converting portals into developer platforms, using hack events as public proof that third parties can extend their products.