Yahoo! on Tuesday meshed Twitter and social game star Zynga into its
websites and also revealed that it is testing a service that would let
visitors to its properties know of local bargains customized to
individual tastes.
The announcements were made at the Web 2.0 Summit.
Updates include Twitter and Zynga integrations across Yahoo!, the
global rollout of Yahoo! Messenger Beta with new social features, the
launch of Yahoo!'s Local Offers program, and new local Search apps for
taking action right from the Yahoo! Search results page. This news
follows yesterday's launch of the Yahoo! Contributor Network, inviting
people to publish content on Yahoo!.
"Our job is to connect you with the people, places and things that
matter most to you - whether that's making a restaurant reservation,
finding a discounted tee time, or playing popular online games with
friends," said Blake Irving, executive vice president and chief
product officer, Yahoo!. "By enhancing Yahoo!'s most popular sites and
services with social experiences like Zynga and Twitter, great local
content, and a new platform for sharing your voice with the world,
we're making Yahoo! an even better place for everyone to stay
entertained, productive, and informed."
Today's announcements include the following partnerships and product
enhancements:
- Yahoo! Messenger Beta - With the new Yahoo! Messenger Beta available
today, people can now play social games from publishers like Zynga,
ELEX and OMGPOP, share their status across networks, and view, comment
on, and "like" updates from Yahoo! Pulse, Flickr, Facebook, and
Twitter - all from their instant messaging client. Interoperability
with Facebook Chat also broadens the group of friends that people can
instantly connect and chat with on Yahoo! Messenger. To get the new
version of Yahoo! Messenger, visit
here and
click "Download Now."
- Yahoo! Contributor Network - Announced yesterday, Yahoo!'s new
platform enables people to reach an audience of millions by publishing
their creative content on Yahoo!. The Yahoo! Contributor Network is an
evolution of the Associated Content platform and will bring
contributions from more than 400,000 writers, photographers, and
videographers to the Internet?s largest media destinations, including
Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Finance, Yahoo! Sports, and even the Yahoo!
homepage, among many others.
- Zynga - Starting this week, the first phase of integration with
Zynga will allow people to launch, play, and share Zynga's popular
games like Mafia Wars and FishVille on Yahoo! Messenger, Yahoo! Games,
My Yahoo!, Yahoo! Toolbar, and Yahoo! Pulse.
- Twitter - Building on Yahoo!'s Facebook integration, people can now
also connect their Yahoo! and Twitter accounts globally to see and
share Twitter updates on the Yahoo! homepage, Yahoo! Messenger, Yahoo!
Mail, and Yahoo! Pulse.
- Local Offers - Yahoo! is launching its Local Offers program with
more than a dozen partners to provide a wide selection of local deals,
coupons, and other offers - from nearby spas, restaurants and other
local retailers. Currently in limited beta in the U.S., Yahoo!'s Local
Offers program will make it easy for people to find the best local
deals and savings on Yahoo!. Launch partners include Groupon,
LivingSocial, Gilt City, BloomSpot, BuyWithMe, DealOn, Zozi,
CrowdSavings, Lifebooker, FreshGuide, Scoop St, Goldstar, HomeRun,
Tippr, Coupons.com, and Valpak, with more partners to come.
- Local Search Enhancements - Locally relevant "Quick Apps" will
empower people to find restaurants they want and take action on things
they discover in a more productive Yahoo! Search. Apps launching later
this week include a new and improved Yahoo! Sketch-a-Search for
visually zeroing in on a street or neighborhood to find local
restaurants - now available across connected devices, including PCs,
iPhones, and iPads. Other new apps will enable easy comparisons of
local restaurants and let people make reservations through OpenTable
right on the Yahoo! Search results page.
All of these new features are built on Yahoo!'s cloud and technology
platforms. For example, the integration with Zynga is enabled by the
Yahoo! Application Platform (YAP), which facilitates easy social
sharing of game notifications across Yahoo!?s audience.