Tag: Yahoo Buzz

Leaked Document Outlines Impending Yahoo Shutdowns

Fans of AltaVista, Delicious, Fire Eagle, and Yahoo Buzz – along with many other Yahoo properties – may want to devise a backup plan. A leaked corporate document indicates that a number of sites are due to be shut down, and more than a few others will in some way be merged.

A note regarding the authenticity of the Yahoo document: this does indeed seem to be the real thing. A product called myM that it mentions fell off the map a long time ago, and the scope of the "sunset" list is a little hard to swallow, but Chief Product Officer Blake Irving has threatened to fire whoever leaked it, which lends a distinct air of authenticity.

So to move on to the document itself . . . . AlltheWeb, AltaVista, Delicious, MyBlogLog, myM, Yahoo Bookmarks, Yahoo Buzz, and Yahoo Picks are all supposed to be cut.

Then Fire Eagle, FoxyTunes, Sideline, Upcoming, Yahoo Events, and Yahoo People Search are supposed to be merged.

This signals a significant change in Yahoo’s strategy. Streamlining on this scale may save the company lots of money, but could also harm its visibility and reputation while resulting in an unfortunate number of layoffs.

One other, completely speculative, thought: we may be witnessing Carol Bartz’s last stand as she tries to convince critics that she’s turning the company around and should be allowed to remain in charge.

Hat tip goes to Liz Gannes, who noted that MyBlogLog founder (and former Yahoo employee) Eric Marcoullier was the first person to link to the leaked document on Twitter.

December 16, 2010
Google: “Buzz” Is Not a Trademarked Term

Yesterday Google launched its new product called Google Buzz. The name immediately brought to mind a similarly titled product from another major search player – one of Google’s oldest rival’s – Yahoo. Yahoo has Yahoo Buzz, which isn’t exactly he same kind of product as Google Buzz, but it was still worth questioning why Google would choose "Buzz" as the name of its new product.

"We chose the name Buzz because of the word’s connotations of activity, conversations, sharing of information," Google’s Victoria Katsarou tells WebProNews. "’Buzz’ is not a trademarked term."

That didn’t stop Yahoo from tweeting about it yesterday, as we previously reported:

Google doesn’t appear to be worried about that all. In fact, during the Q&A session following the announcement of Google Buzz, the company basically said it tries not to pay too much attention to competitors, although that was actually in reference to comparisons of Google Buzz to Facebook.

What’s Next for Google Buzz?

As Google mentioned during the announcement, they are just getting started with Buzz. You can expect many more integrations into many more Google (and non-Google) products in time.

"We have a long lists of features that we want to tackle next," Katsarou says. "This is just the first version of Buzz, and we’re looking to collect feedback from all of you to continue improving the experience. We’ll keep iterating and adding stuff."

Google is not making it clear which other products will be taking priority when it comes to Google Buzz integration, but they did say that Wave would be up there somewhere.

Related Articles:

> Will Google Buzz Change the Social Media Game?

> Whose Got The Buzz: Yahoo or Google?

> Good News for Google Buzz – Social and Email Top Mobile Priorities

February 10, 2010
Who’s Got The Buzz: Yahoo or Google?

UPDATE: Google’s Victoria Katsarou tells WebProNews…

"We chose the name Buzz because of the word’s connotations of activity, conversations, sharing of information… Buzz’ is not a trademarked term."

For further details, read the full article: Google: "Buzz" Is Not a Trademarked Term

ORIGINIAL ARTICLE: Recently, Google officially announced their latest product, Google Buzz, during a live press event. If you’re not familiar with Google Buzz, it’s a way to share updates, photos, videos, and more. (You can read an extensive writeup of Google Buzz here).

Wait a minute; doesn’t the name Buzz sound familiar? Well, there’s a good reason for that. Let me re-introduce you to Yahoo! Buzz.

Should Google have picked a different name for their service? Share your thoughts.

For those of you who don’t know what Yahoo! Buzz is, or for those of you who forgot it even existed, it’s a Digg-esque social bookmarking service that launched back in 2008.

The first thing that came to this writers mind was, “how can two rivals in the search industry each have a product with the same name?” Granted, they’re two separate services, but both reside in the social media realm.

Another thing that should be noted is the Yahoo! Buzz logo features a trademark. That trademark only applies apparently to the the word Yahoo, not "Yahoo Buzz".

What do you think will happen between Google & Yahoo? Tell us what you think.

UPDATE: Looks like Yahoo! finally caught wind of Google Buzz, they recently tweeted the following…

February 10, 2010