Yahoo Opens Up Email API -- Stepping Closer To The Web Platform

from the good-for-them dept

Thu, Mar 29th 2007 8:02am — Mike Masnick

A day after expanding email storage to infinite, Yahoo is also releasing an API for Yahoo Mail, allowing developers to develop new apps on top of its mail service. Combined with the unlimited storage, this could get interesting. It always seemed like Google should be building the "web platform" that allowed developers to create the next generation of apps -- but, for some reason, Google keeps moving away from that plan. Instead, the surprise candidate for building the web platform has been Amazon. However, it looks like Yahoo is (hopefully?) starting to realize that the way to win the internet wars isn't to compete directly with Google, but to build the platform that lets users do what they want and developers create the next great services. There are still plenty of challenges, but it's good to see more companies moving in this direction.

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23 Comments

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Anonymous Coward, 29 Mar 2007 @ 8:15am

Challenges? Plenty indeed...
There are still plenty of challenges, but it's good to see more companies moving in this direction.

Oh yes, there are plenty.

Like the fact that most techies despise yahoo. and the fact that noone wants to create something knowing that a dependant party is going to completely obliterate it with intrusive advertising. It has been years since I have been willing to touch anything yahoo'sh.

(Side note: I went to yahoo.com to test adblocker/noscript settings last night on a new browser install, and wouldnt you know it, yahoo is STILL trying to get everyone to turn on javascript when viewing their pages. They have buttons that are intentionally askew ont he page, and you can only get them to line up properly if you enable scripts. WTF?)
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Casper, 29 Mar 2007 @ 8:45am

Re: Challenges? Plenty indeed...
I too feel a hatred of Yahoo. It's like the anti-techie. I lump AOL, MSN, and Yahoo into my axis of evil.
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Witty Nickname, 29 Mar 2007 @ 9:00am

Why hate?
Why hate Yahoo? I don't use them either, I think Google is a better search engine, and I love the way that it organizes my e-mail conversations. Until someone else acts the same way I stick with g-mail.

But Yahoo has done two AWESOME innovations in the last two days. Give them some credit.

Saying, I don't care what they do - they are Yahoo and therfore it is bad is short sighted. This will move the market as a whole to being more competitive.

It is like saying Wal-Mart may be the most environmentally friendly, most community involved, lowest price retailer, and be closest to my house, but I will still shop at Kroger because Wal-Mart is bad.
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Joel Coehoorn, 29 Mar 2007 @ 9:10am

This isn't Yahoo's first forray into this area. Their 'pipes' service is somewhat interesting as well.

As a profession developer, my first thought was that if the API is even half-way decent it would be trivial create an app that uses an yahoo e-mail account for online access anywhere file store, with the only limit being upstream bandwith.
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Casper, 29 Mar 2007 @ 9:12am

Re:
There are already apps that do that with Gmail. You can use them to treat your Gmail as a networkish drive and upload stuff there... at least last time I checked. Google might have gotten sick of people uploading their life histories to their servers.
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Anonymous Coward, 29 Mar 2007 @ 10:03am

It's a futile bid for some more marketshare. Personally, I wouldn't grant any application access to my email account that I can't see the source.

Witty: The Wal-Mart analogy is flawed, because I can think of plenty of reasons logically not to shop at Wal-Mart.
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dataGuy, 29 Mar 2007 @ 10:16am

G fanboys
There's nothing wrong with yahoo per say. I've used their email app since 94-95. Over time I've used some of their other apps, whenever it happened to fit my needs. For example, prior to Topix and Google news, yahoo news seemed to be the best news aggregator.

I wonder how many non-google fanboys would lump yahoo in the same camp as AOL or hotmail.

Speaking of which, did you see the boing boing post that some companies will not hire internet "experts" that have hotmail as their default email account - LOL

http://www.boingboing.net/2007/03/28/hotmail_users_deemed.html
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Anonymous Coward, 29 Mar 2007 @ 10:37am

Re: G fanboys
Its actually "per se" not "per say".

I'd give you the link to yahoo's definitions, but strangely they dont support things like definitions.

Google Search - Define: per se

(Sorry for the spelling correction, it was actually a retort to your statement about yahoo being good enough, normally I wouldnt do somethign that anal)

Back on topic: yes, it is just like that boing boing article. I would never hire anyone for a technical job that uses a yahoo address.

But I dont lump yahoo into the same steaming pile as hotmail... not quite. but i do lump it in with msn.com (aka live.com?).
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Justin, 29 Mar 2007 @ 11:06am

Re: Re: G fanboys
Right so this link to yahoo asking for the def of per se goes nowhere? Oh oh oh and I used Hotmail also... man I must be dumb (def from yahoo's def lookup) !
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Man In the Moon, 29 Mar 2007 @ 11:06am

Looks like Yahoo is blowing it
Check out this article about duplicate emails, caused by their email "upgrade" "http://news.com.com/2061-10811_3-6171648.html?part=rss&tag=2547-1_3-0-5&subj=news"
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Anonymous Coward, 29 Mar 2007 @ 11:07am

Re:
Witty: The Wal-Mart analogy is flawed, because I can think of plenty of reasons logically not to shop at Wal-Mart.

True, a better analogy would be saying that you dont smoke crack because you don't like the dealer.
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Anonymous Coward, 29 Mar 2007 @ 11:11am

Re: Re: Re: G fanboys
oops, yup, you got me. The last time i looked for that keyword on yahoo was when live.com was first released to public beta. (it supported the keyword, yahoo didnt)
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dataGuy, 29 Mar 2007 @ 11:33am

Re: Re: Re: Re: G fanboys
Nice tip Justin. I've been using the define: keyword in Google for some time (vary handy). Never thought to try it in a different search tool.

Yes, I know my spelling is weak. My typing skills aren't much better. Thanks for the pointer...
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DataGuy, 29 Mar 2007 @ 11:34am

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: G fanboys
Of course "vary" should be "very" -- damn....
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MPatton, 29 Mar 2007 @ 11:39am

If I read this article because it came up on my Yahoo home page, am I "non-techie"?
Either way, I think i'm taking my yahoo email address off my resume ;)
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MPatton, 29 Mar 2007 @ 11:43am

If I read this article because it came up on my Yahoo home page, am I "non-techie"?
Either way, I think i'm taking my yahoo email address off my resume ;)
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Anonymous Coward, 29 Mar 2007 @ 12:25pm

And when you double-click to submit a comment--that makes you a "non-techie"
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comboman, 29 Mar 2007 @ 12:38pm

In defense of Yahoo mail
I've used Yahoo mail as my sacrificial spam-catcher email account for about 10 years now (any time a web site demands an email address, I use the Yahoo one to keep spam off my real email address). Considering what I use it for I'm actually very impressed with their built-in spam filter, only about a half-dozen per week get through. My work email address (which I've had about 12 years) gets a half-dozen spam per day, after it goes through the IT department's spam filter.
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Justin, 29 Mar 2007 @ 12:39pm

I tell you what
I don't use my yahoo/gmail/hotmail e-addy on my resume anyway there are way too many prejudices in the IT industry towards one company or another. For no "real" reason.

So I'll keep either my "fictional company" or my ISP provided email.

Google Sucks !
No Yahoo Sucks!
No M$ Sucks !
No Your Mom Sucks ! (Well ok that last one is true.)
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Charles Griswold, 29 Mar 2007 @ 6:29pm

GMail
I use GMail because I like it. If somebody doesn't want to hire me because I they don't like my email service, fine. I don't really want to work for somebody with such a small, closed mind.

Anyway, that's my opinionated $0.02 worth. :-)
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Bill, 29 Mar 2007 @ 8:58pm

Yahoo!s Better than Google
I can't stand Google. Who the heck thinks Javascript apps can displace anything on the desktop? (All my docs stored on the web, that's brilliant! Groan.)

Rocket scientists in search of brains... and rockets.
Isn't google's 15 minutes up yet?

Geez!
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Bill, 29 Mar 2007 @ 9:00pm

BTW Charles Griswold
You're fired.
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Charles Griswold, 30 Mar 2007 @ 12:54pm

Re: BTW Charles Griswold
You're fired.

Woohoo! That means I can become a consultant and make ten times what I used to!
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