Yahoo allows outsiders to innovate on Yahoo e-mail
SUNNYVALE, California (Reuters) - Yahoo Inc. (Nasdaq:YHOO - news) is set to allow outsiders to create new services using the world's most popular consumer e-mail program, in the broadest move the Web has yet seen to enlist independent programmers …
Context & Ripple Effects
Yahoo had expanded its Ajax-powered Mail Beta to U.S. users and 18 international markets in September 2006. Opening the service to independent programmers turns that product refresh into a developer-distribution strategy, giving Yahoo a way to add functions without building every feature itself.
First-order effects
- Independent developers can build services around Yahoo Mail, while Yahoo gains a broader source of features for its email users.
- Yahoo Mail users become the immediate audience for third-party additions built on the newly available access.
Second-order effects
- Yahoo’s email product team must manage how outside services interact with the Mail experience, making developer access and integration quality part of the product’s competitive appeal.
- Other consumer webmail providers face pressure to match the pace of feature development that an external developer community can supply.
Third-order effects
- If developers adopt the access, consumer web services shift from self-contained destinations toward platforms whose value depends partly on outside innovation and distribution.
- Control over user access, developer rules and integration points becomes a strategic layer for large web portals as they seek to retain users through broader service ecosystems.
The trend: Consumer web companies are beginning to treat large user-facing products as developer platforms, using third-party services to extend their core experiences.