IM正在走向统一、整合、开放，尽管腾讯还是因垄断地位而自我封闭，但是sns的发展和twitter等新应用的流行已经改变了趋势。业内一些人士如洪波提出圈子之死的说法，不过没有说出原因，今天笔者略带解析圈子之死和IM的一些新的发展方向，希望对相关人士有所帮助。

圈子之死：目前sns正在流行，而作为sns雏形的圈子却趋于死寂。

圈子是博客时代走向sns时代的一个过渡产品，当过渡产品并非没有价值，只是在一定时期不处于主导价值，圈子在出现不久就变成了另类的论坛，信息组织很简单，关系组织很简单，甚至没有多少关系。当圈子、群组人数控制在少范围的时候，圈子变得专注所以有效，这时候圈子对于成员是有价值的；而当圈子人数不断攀升的时候，圈子因为关系匮乏和噪音过大而不可管理，成员们的交互管理失效，于是圈子死了。

IM之开放：IM互联互通已成趋势

最先让人关注的是雅虎微软两家im的互通，而现在IM已经非常多，而且大多基于开放协议，比如gtalk，国外很多IM基于jabber开放程序创建，而最近雅虎刚出来的最新版yahoo! messenger 9.0可以导入msn、gmail、myspace、aol、web.de、riddif等二十多项目全球各国的流行IM、通讯录数据。

下面是yahoo最新IM的解说视频：

http://us.i1.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/i/us/msg/9/sp/maxwell_b2_20080528.swf
   sns和im相互支持、相互消长。腾讯在国内IM领域基本上处于垄断地位，不过也有一点不好：QQ群很高的比例是被用户屏蔽的。QQ群影响了大家的工作和上网，以至于百度im推出后的群功能一出生就是残废，而圈子之死也与QQ群带来的噪声污染有关，当然不是主要因素。facebook有自己的im工具，国内的校内也有自己的校内通，而新浪则在测试新浪魔方，IM多地让我笔记本内存不足了，开放与整合不可避免。

 雅虎Messenger最新版的开放性让人看到Jerry的社区理念的一些影子，9.0甚至可以自定义去掉IM上的雅虎搜索，大量实用功能通过插件方式实现，交给用户自己选择，从而实现了个性化和社区化。雅虎这种新思路是代表一种新方向，新浪魔方也在尝试插件方式，未来这种模式必然是趋势，即使是腾讯也逃不过。

杨致远在致股东的信中最后说道：“This is a great company and we are moving quickly to make it even better.”笔者心中不觉地产生一阵酸楚的感觉：杨致远作为华人的骄傲，我始终充满着敬意和期待，不过作为一个独立的评论分析人，我认为雅虎的独立性是最重要的，伟大并不意味着不可颠覆，因为曾经的altavista也很伟大、netscape很伟大、DOS很伟大。

胡紫薇事件让国人重新审视价值观的问题，一个世纪大国应该能够输出价值观。其实，一个伟大的公司何尝不是的呢？谷歌的成功很大程度上取决于他们的价值观，因为笔者认为企业的价值观决定着企业的组织结构和文化。谷歌的理想主义和长尾认识成就了他们的持久的创新力和市场驱动力，而反观雅虎则是跟着屁股走、创新力低下，同时雅虎的文化与价值观也变得臃肿和迷茫，雅虎的高层的判断上总是落伍。

裁员是正确的，但是不能只是财报的原因！雅虎的结构不如谷歌更贴近网络，笔者甚至怀疑：雅虎的高层自己是否对雅虎文化的未来有清晰的构想？

杨致远与张朝阳

笔者之所以把它们放在一起，是因为雅虎的困境也曾经困扰过张朝阳，搜狐过去一年的变化有目共睹，张朝阳的选择是正确的。反观雅虎，杨致远也应该果敢些，认清形势，果断出手，如果过于忧虑，把太多精力放在为华尔街烦恼，那么雅虎就是相当危险的。

如果雅虎高层决策能力一直落后，那么雅虎根本不值400亿，笔者认为互联网公司的核心是价值观与人才，而雅虎这两方面都不具备优势，同时雅虎的产品策划与推广存在严重问题，我对杨致远说雅虎是用户滞留时间最长的网站非常怀疑。雅虎的高层似乎不知道雅虎的方向，他们推荐长尾理论但是自己没有实践，而谷歌却知道蚂蚁雄兵的道理。

收购对马云的影响

收购如果成功，杨致远未必是雅虎的CEO，那么马云也是有可能离开阿里巴巴，但是笔者认为收购对阿里集团有好处。虽然阿里是oracle的用户，但是马云的电子商务资源对于微软是可以想到的，微软有很多产品要卖。不过，刚忙完上市的马云恐怕不愿意换伙伴——一个垄断了一个时代的伙伴。

雅虎需要新形象、新口号

其实柳华芳是个很呆板的人，不过现在的年轻人都不像我那样，现在的年轻人与过去很不同，笔者有理由认为雅虎需要根据各国各年龄的社会心理来重新审视一下自己的价值观。

雅虎很伟大，但并非不可颠覆。一个女人选择男人并非看他多么雄伟，而是他是否能给她快乐。

不看历史的人，经常重复历史；沉溺于历史的人，经常被历史遗弃！

————————————————————————————————————杨致远原信：——

Yahoo has just released the following letter to shareholders outlining its reasoning for rejecting Microsoft’s offer to buy the company. In it, CEO and co-founder Jerry Yang emphasizes Yahoo’s strengths as both an online destination and an advertising network, and argues that Yahoo is better off going it alone than combining with Microsoft. He states: “The global online advertising market is projected to grow from $45 billion in 2007 to $75 billion in 2010. And we are moving quickly to take advantage of what we see as a unique window of time in the growth - and evolution - of this market to build market share and to create value for stockholders.”

He says that even though Yahoo is the No. 1 Web destination, his goal is to increase visits by 15 percent annually. Re-emphasizing his strategy of being the key starting point on the Web, he adds, “we are particularly excited about our growth prospects in mobile, the biggest emerging starting point in the world.” (We could have told you that). All in all, the letter is pretty much a formality without any major new arguments, but it does put Yahoo’s best face forward to its shareholders. We’re No. 1, Yang is saying, and we don’t need Microsoft. What he doesn’t explain is how Yahoo got into this pickle in the first place.

Here is the full text of the letter:

Dear Stockholders,On February 1, 2008, Microsoft made an unsolicited proposal to acquire your company. As much has been reported in the press recently, I wanted to reach out to you personally to let you know why your Board of Directors, after a careful review by Yahoo!’s management along with our financial and legal advisors, believes that Microsoft’s proposal substantially undervalues Yahoo! and is not in the best interests of our stockholders.Most importantly, I want you to know that your Board is continuously evaluating all of Yahoo!’s strategic options in the context of the rapidly evolving industry environment, and we remain committed to pursuing initiatives that maximize value for all our stockholders.We have a unique combination of strengths

– Yahoo! is one of the most recognizable and admired brands in the world. We have over 500 million users (nearly 1 out of every 2 internet users worldwide). In the U.S., we are # 1 in many of the most used online services including personalized home pages, mail, news, music, shopping and travel. Because we have leadership positions in so many indispensable online services, users spend more time on Yahoo! sites than anywhere else online.

– Yahoo! is an attractive partner for marketers. Yahoo! is #1 in online display advertising, which represents 90% of the advertising inventory on the web, and we are also a leader in search marketing and a pioneer in the growing fields of mobile advertising and online video advertising. Through Yahoo!, advertisers can now connect with consumers on our owned sites as well as those of our growing network of partners including eBay, Comcast, AT&T, a consortium of over 600 newspapers, Forbes.com, Cars.com, WebMD and more.

– Yahoo! has the financial flexibility to execute our plans, thanks to our healthy cash balance, which exceeded $2 billion as of December 31, 2007, and our substantial operating cash flow, which we expect to grow double digits in 2009.

– Yahoo! has made important investments in our core computing infrastructure enabling us to dramatically increase the speed of our search engine updates even while handling vast and growing quantities of data.

– In addition, we have the added value of our substantial, unconsolidated investments in Japan and China. We have substantial positions in Yahoo! Japan, the leader in its market, and Alibaba, which is strongly positioned in China, a market with enormous growth potential.

These assets–our brand and its audience, our relationships with marketers, our financial strength, our technology, and our strategic investments–are the core of our value and our leadership position in the industry.

We have a huge market opportunity - and are uniquely positioned to capitalize on it

The global online advertising market is projected to grow from $45 billion in 2007 to $75 billion in 2010. And we are moving quickly to take advantage of what we see as a unique window of time in the growth - and evolution - of this market to build market share and to create value for stockholders.

We are executing our strategy - and making headway

We have taken significant but disciplined steps to refocus our business on our objectives to become the starting point for the most consumers and the must buy for the most advertisers and enhance Yahoo!’s long-term performance.

Starting Point Objective: Our goal is to grow visits to key Yahoo! starting points and properties, where users enter the Internet, by 15% per year over the next several years. We are the most visited site in the U.S., and we continue to grow - we experienced double-digit growth in U.S. users in 2007 on our Yahoo.com home page.

In addition to traditional starting points on the PC - including our home pages, mail, My Yahoo! and search, we are particularly excited about our growth prospects in mobile, the biggest emerging starting point in the world. Globally, there are twice as many users of mobile devices as users of personal computers, and mobile advertising is projected to grow substantially in the coming years. We have an important competitive edge as the number one mobile destination in the U.S., and we are building a superior mobile experience for Yahoo! users globally so we can further capitalize on this opportunity.

Must Buy Objective: We are working to make online advertising easier and more effective for marketers, opening up new ways for them to connect with consumers. We’ve successfully completed the global roll-out of our search marketing system, Panama, which improved the search experience for our users, boosted returns for our advertisers, and increased revenue for Yahoo!. Last year, we bought Right Media, an exchange that enables buyers and sellers of online advertising to come together. Another 2007 acquisition, Blue Lithium, brings us best-in-class performance marketing capabilities, complementing Yahoo!’s existing offerings for advertisers. We also integrated our search advertising and display advertising sales forces, creating a one-stop shop for all of advertisers’ online marketing needs. All of these - Panama, Right Media, Blue Lithium, and our combined sales efforts - complement and enhance Yahoo!’s existing capabilities and will make it easier for advertisers and online publishers to buy and sell advertising online.

We are also creating a unique and valuable network of premium websites to serve our advertisers. We are making it easier for our advertisers to provide interesting and relevant offers to our users by combining advertising space on Yahoo!’s owned sites with that from a growing group of premium partners including eBay, Comcast, AT&T, a consortium of over 600 newspapers and many others.

As we reach more users both on our own websites and on the sites of our premium partners, and better monetize the ad space on Yahoo!’s owned and operated sites, we are striving to increase the percentage of total online advertising demand we touch from an estimated 15% in 2007 to 20% over the next several years.

These key strategies will be enhanced by our adoption of new, more open technology platforms that will encourage the development of new applications and the involvement of third-party developers - and help enrich the user experience.

We have accomplished a great deal in a very short time - and we are focused on building this momentum

Today, Yahoo! is a faster-moving, better-organized, more nimble company than it was just a few months ago. We have redeployed our resources to drive Yahoo!’s key strategic priorities - taking important steps to streamline our organization and close down or scale back businesses that don’t support these critical growth initiatives. The fact is that we are well on our way to transforming the experiences of Yahoo!’s users, advertisers, publishers and developers - an important shift that is at the heart of our plan to create stockholder value.

I want you to know that the Yahoo! Board of Directors and management team remain committed to pursuing initiatives that maximize value for all our Yahoo! stockholders. This is a great company and we are moving quickly to make it even better.

Jerry Yang

 [FROM Techcrunch ]just got word that Yahoo is testing the integration of Delicioususer generated bookmarks into Yahoo search results pages (Yahoo acquired Delicious in late 2005). Some users will see the Delicious icon as part of their normal search results, which tells them how many people have bookmarked those pages, as well as the tags people have supplied for those pages.

An example is , and I’ve included a screenshot.

I have previously written that Delicious search is one of the best ways of searching for things when a standard search doesn’t pull up what you are looking for. After Google, it is my favorite “search engine.” Adding this information into Yahoo search is a great idea.

What isn’t clear is if Delicious results are impacting search rankings, or if Delicious data is simply being integrated into the existing rankings.

Yahoo与Adobe合作推出PDF广告。发行商将能在自己发行的PDF稳定中插入文字广告。
发行商可以将自己的PDF文档上传至Yahoo的广告网络，然后Yahoo为你提供公开下载服务，并在此文档右侧加入一个文字广告块。这样，发行商就能通过PDF获利了。
据CNet的消息，目前参加内部beta测试的站点有IDG的InfoWorld、Wired、Pearson’s Education，Meredith Corporation 以及 Reed Elsevier。
至于什么时候公开发布，还没有任何消息。而且就算是将之作为Yahoo Publisher Network (YPN) 的一部分发布，这项服务也只是针对美国公民的。
这项服务的推出让很多觉得迷惑，为什么之前就没人想到做这个呢？这实在是一个新的概念。这为那些电子书发行商提供了一种新的盈利模式，也为广大内容提供者提供了一条新的生存之路。

cnBeta编译
消息来源：TechCrunch

新浪科技讯 北京时间11月23日消息，每年11月的最后一个星期四(今年是11月22日)是美国人的传统节日——感恩节，感恩节是美国人独创的一个古老节日，也是美国人合家欢聚的节日。美国的各大搜索引擎也开动脑筋，装点自己的首页，与网民们共同庆祝佳节。

谷歌的感恩节设计略显平淡

雅虎首页用感恩节传统食物作为点缀

ask.com的首页是一盘令人垂涎的烤火鸡

Dogpile首页是两个正在享受感恩节大餐的卡通人物

　　附：感恩节由来

美国家庭的感恩节火鸡大餐

　　感恩节的由来要一直追溯到美国历史的发端。1620年，著名的“五月花”号船满载不堪忍受英国国内宗教迫害的清教徒102人到达美洲。1620年和1621年之交的冬天，他们遇到了难以想象的困难，处在饥寒交迫之中，冬天过去时，活下来的移民只有50来人。这时，心地善良的印第安人给移民送来了生活必需品，还特地派人教他们怎样狩猎、捕鱼和种植玉米、南瓜。在印第安人的帮助下，移民们终于获得了丰收，在欢庆丰收的日子，按照宗教传统习俗，移民规定了感谢上帝的日子，并决定为感谢印第安人的真诚帮助，邀请他们一同庆祝节日。

　　在第一个感恩节的这一天，印第安人和移民欢聚一堂，他们在黎明时鸣放礼炮，列队走进一间用作教堂的屋子，虔诚地向上帝表达谢意，然后点起篝火举行盛大宴会。第二天和第三天又举行了摔交、赛跑、唱歌、跳舞等活动。第一个感恩节非常成功。其中许多庆祝方式流传了300多年，一直保留到今天。

　　每逢感恩节这一天，美国举国上下热闹非常，人们按照习俗前往教堂做感恩祈祷，城乡市镇到处都有化装游行、戏剧表演或体育比赛等。劳燕分飞了一年的亲人们也会从天南海北归来，一家人团团圆圆，品尝美味的感恩节火鸡。

　　感恩节的食品富有传统特色。火鸡是感恩节的传统主菜，通常是把火鸡肚子里塞上各种调料和拌好的食品，然后整只烤出，由男主人用刀切成薄片分给大家。此外，感恩节的传统食品还有甜山芋、玉蜀黍、南瓜饼、红莓苔子果酱等。

　　感恩节宴会后，人们有时会做些传统游戏，比如南瓜赛跑是比赛者用一把小勺推着南瓜跑，规则是不能用手碰南瓜，先到终点者获胜。比赛用的勺子越小，游戏就越有意思。

　　多少年来，庆祝感恩节的习俗代代相传，无论在岩石嶙峋的西海岸还是在风光旖旎的夏威夷，人们几乎在以同样的方式欢度感恩节，感恩节是不论何种信仰、何种民族的美国人都庆祝的传统节日。