Yahoo! Snaps Up Mybloglog.com
Yahoo! is making notoriety a mouse click away. — The Internet portal has purchased Mybloglog.com, an Orlando, Fla.-based website that enables readers of web pages to leave information about themselves, building a social network among fans of such things …
Context & Ripple Effects
Yahoo’s purchase of MyBlogLog extends a pattern begun with its 2005 acquisition of social-bookmarking service del.icio.us, adding another service built around users’ activity and identity on the web. The move comes as Yahoo is under pressure to expand its audience and improve monetization while trailing Google in advertising revenue.
Coverage of the deal spread across major technology and business outlets, underscoring MyBlogLog’s relevance as a distributed social-networking service rather than a conventional destination site.
First-order effects
- MyBlogLog’s reader profiles and site-level social connections move under Yahoo, giving the portal a social service that can connect activity across participating web pages.
- Yahoo adds an acquisition-led audience asset as it seeks growth and improved monetization against Google.
Second-order effects
- Independent publishers using MyBlogLog gain a closer connection to Yahoo’s network, making Yahoo a more consequential intermediary for reader identity and engagement on their sites.
- Rival portals seeking audience growth face added pressure to acquire or build social features that generate user participation beyond their own properties.
Third-order effects
- If Yahoo can integrate services such as del.icio.us and MyBlogLog, web portals increasingly compete on the social signals and user relationships they aggregate, not solely on destination traffic.
- The acquisition points toward consolidation of small social-web services into larger advertising-supported platforms, where ownership of identity and activity data becomes a strategic asset.
The trend: Yahoo’s MyBlogLog deal is one data point in portals using acquisitions to assemble social identity, audience engagement, and monetizable web activity.