Yahoo Buys Del.icio.us

I have mentioned before that all of these search engine acquisitions seems like the initial country-securing phase in a game of Risk. So I hope you won't think I'm too much of an utter nerd when my first thought upon hearing the announcement that Yahoo acquired Del.icio.us was this: "I wonder if this means they've completed South America? It's nicely defendable though I think I'd go ahead and take a position in Central America..."

Wow, after remembering that even *I* think I'm an utter nerd. Anyway, Yahoo's announcement about the acquisition's at http://www.ysearchblog.com/archives/000223.html. The reactions in the comments are interesting, ranging from, "This is cool!" to "Oh no! Yahoo will bungle it up!"

I don't think Yahoo will bungle it up. I am concerned that they will not do enough with Del. From the entry announcement: "Finally, don't be surprised if you see My Web and del.icio.us borrow a few ideas from each other in the future."

That's nice. But what I'd really like to see is the Yahoo Directory borrowing a LOT of ideas from Del.icio.us RIGHT NOW.

Think about it: this is the perfect opportunity for Yahoo to use the collective consciousness of a group of savvy, smart Web people to revive their ever-more-creaky directory. There can be human parsing of new sources. There can be a discovery of trusted sources and some tag parsing to at least queue sites into their proper place. They could even use the power of MyWeb: how about displaying a list of recent Del links and then asking MyWeb users to a) vote on them and then b) suggest where they'd fit in the directory?

I would love to see this happen. I firmly believe there is a place on the Internet for a really really good searchable subject index, and there isn't one right now. A really good, really current searchable subject index would offer lots of ground for targeted advertising, both subject and region, and an amazing number of static-but-targeted number of RSS feeds. Yahoo, why not?

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