Google, Yahoo and Bing collaborate to form Schema.org

The three big internet companies and competitors of all time, Google, Yahoo and Bing have team up to create a unified project called Schema.org. Today it�s really rare to see three big rivals collaborate on a single project. The collaboration is a positive sign that even though Google and Bing are fighting for market share, they are able to put aside differences to help out the average consumer. Schema is a website which is all about how web developers and owners have to work on their website to gain more online identity on internet and on Search Engines.

Schema.org is a new website aimed to help website owners and developers with using a common set of schemas. This new initiative is "aimed at creating and supporting a common set of schemas for structured data markup on Web pages." The search giants worked together to create a one-stop shop for website owners and developers.

According to Microsoft:

Schema.org will become a one-stop shop for site owners and developers, providing the tips and tools necessary to help improve how their sites appear in search results on Bing, Google and Yahoo! It will also help search engines better understand websites, and moving forward, Bing will work jointly with the larger Web community and its search partners to extend the available schema categories. Consumers will also benefit from this effort by experiencing richer search experiences and content from a much broader set of publishers.

While this new initiative is definitely for the technical user, it should help to create a more unified playing field now that Google, Bing, and Yahoo are all onboard. The goal is to help site owners and developers improve how their sites appear in search results.

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4:56 AM | 0 comments

Yahoo, Zynga Joint Venture for Mafia Wars and Fish Ville Social Apps

The most famous Social Networking Apps Development company Zynga joins up with Yahoo! for the development of its most popular games on social networking websites and facebook called Mafia Wars and Fish Ville.

These aren�t the first Zynga games to make it to Yahoo! in the partnership between the two companies, but Mafia Wars is easily the biggest. In August, Zynga counted 45.5 million Facebook subscribers for Mafia Wars, with 6.6 million in September for FishVille.

Zynga continues to surge
Zynga has been growing out of control lately, boosted by the crazy number of subscribers to its Facebook games and the amount of money it pulls down using its �freemium� model that allows players to purchase in-game items and currency, if they choose. Video game site VG247 reports Zynga has bought up six different games studios in as many months, employs 1,300 people at 13 different studios in six countries, and is estimated be worth more than $5.51 billion.

Yahoo! represents an untapped market for Zynga, while also helping to reduce the company�s reliance on Facebook. That�s not to say that Zynga and Facebook aren�t tight -- the two just put together a five-year deal that allows Zynga to integrate the use of Facebook credits into its games -- but the relationship has been strained. And Yahoo! users aren�t necessarily the same ones playing Zynga games on Facebook already, so the company benefits by expanding its player base, as well as opening up additional options for its games.

What's good for Zynga is good for Yahoo!
There are a lot of pros on the Yahoo! side of things as well, specifically for users of Yahoo!�s app platform. Yahoo! carries some great social games, but there are quite a few that could use some help bolstering their community involvement and general number of players. Integrating hugely popular games such as Mafia Wars could have a very beneficial spill-over effect, bringing more players to other Yahoo! apps that could use an increase in their numbers. That means more fun for all us players, and looks to be a smart move by Yahoo!

This isn�t the first time Zynga has started spreading its games around, but it does seem like one of the company�s more significant steps toward putting down roots in other platforms. Several of Zynga�s games are available as Apple (AAPL) iPhone or iPad apps, including Mafia Wars and the ludicrously popular, 65 million-subscriber FarmVille. Zynga�s farming social game also has appeared on MSN (MSFT), though it didn�t last, and TechCrunch has reported that Google (GOOG) is courting Zynga�s games for its network as well.

It�s probably safe to consider Mafia Wars and FishVille as being the advance scouts of a larger Zynga force making its way to Yahoo! It wouldn�t be surprising to see FarmVille show up pretty much any time, provided Mafia Wars and FishVille are successful on the platform. Such success doesn�t seem like much of a stretch -- Zynga Poker, the company�s Texas Hold�em app for Yahoo!, is pretty jumping at just about all hours of the day, and lots of other Yahoo! apps command a respectable following.

Expect more from Zynga and Yahoo! in the near future, especially as both companies start to experience the benefits of the relationship: Zynga for finding a freer platform than Facebook, and Yahoo! for boosting its already popular platform with a big influx of users.

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1:47 AM | 0 comments

Yahoo Mail Integrated Facebook and Social Media Service

Social Networking is now become one of the effective way to connect with any website in easy way. So Now Yahoo! made this for their users to get connect with their favorite Social Network website within their Yahoo Mail service. Yahoo! has launched a new version of its free email service with better social media connectivity.

Users who elect to try Yahoo Mail Beta can view and share updates from Facebook and Twitter without leaving their Yahoo! in-box, according to WebProNews. There�s also an automatic slideshow feature that allows people to see photos and videos from sites like Flickr, Picasa, and YouTube from within their email messages. Other improvements include unlimited storage and better search functionality.

It�s interesting to watch Yahoo!�s strategy in social media as the company has always been much more a media than a technology company, unlike Google. Yahoo! had many social features of its own but has made the call to partner with others. While Yahoo! owns Flickr, YouTube belongs to rival Google, Facebook has ties with Microsoft and Bing, and Twitter is its own entity. Yahoo! is being smart by realizing that it needs to work with the leading applications, regardless of whether the company is a competitor in other ways.

It will be interesting to see whether Yahoo! users find the new email functionality helpful or whether it ends up being clutter. I use Gmail and I turned Buzz off after only a few days because I found it stressful having so many unread messages. I�ve also tried using Flock � like Firefox but with social media integration � as my web browser but I abandoned it because it was distracting.

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12:08 AM | 0 comments

Yahoo Integrate Facebook Status Updates

Yahoo is now focusing to integrate all the social networking features into its services. Yahoo has now self integrate the Facebook Status update into their Yahoo Mail In-box. Facebook users are now able to update their facebook status within their Yahoo Mail box. Not only status update yahoo is also providing the features to watch friends profile and receive e-mail from friends who have linked their accounts.

I think it�s an interesting effort from Yahoo to connect people from one website to other without leaving a particular page. As we know Yahoo is world largest and widest E-Mail service people really appreciate it. Yahoo has made promise that it will continue to introduce more features to connect social media and it�s a first priority for 2010.

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8:13 AM | 0 comments