We’ve seen several cases of search engines and other social media marketing platforms incorporating Facebook or Twitter in order to revitalize and reinvent their images. While Twitter has made partnerships with Bing and Google, Yahoo is looking to partner up with Facebook and its 350 million user strong user base.
Yahoo’s main motivation is Facebook Connect, one of the most popular and preferred universal log-in tools on the web today. Yahoo announced today that it will start implementing Facebook Connect on several of the sites it owns. This means the social media marketing tool will be integrated on Yahoo’s Mail, News, Sports, and Finance sites, as well as the popular Flickr. Facebook Connect will allow users to leave comments, share stories, and view their Facebook friend feed right on Yahoo.
This is a big boost for Facebook Connect, as Yahoo is the #2 ranked search engine and is visited by tens of millions of users internationally. It’s also great news for the search engine who has been trying to make its image more “social,” especially with its new campaign. Hopefully it works out in their favor.
Another interesting story in the news is that Microsoft has revealed a Twitter copy-cat platform in China. The service they call MSN Juku allows users Windows Live Messenger contacts to exchange messages through 140-character messages. MSN Juku has a different interface and offers game play for its users, but the basic idea behind the service is more or less a rip off of the popular social media marketing tool Twitter. Right now, MSN has no plans on rolling out the service internationally.
It’s tough being innovative and capturing the internet world’s attention these days. It’s no surprise that established internet authorities like Yahoo and Microsoft need to incorporate the innovations of social media marketing phenomenon like Twitter and Facebook.
Written by: Daisy K.