So now Yahoo! owns del.icio.us, Flickr, and Konfabulator. Nutty!
Just this morning I decided to reject Yahoo! Music in favor of Pandora. I find Pandora’s interface easier to use and — most importantly — Yahoo! Music’s player doesn’t work with Firefox. Unless an IE-only site’s content is really fantastically good or I can’t get it anywhere else, I will always go somewhere else.
(Here’s a way to create a great Pandora radio station: type “Velvet Underground” in the search field and then just let it rip. The selection it’s played for me so far includes the Replacements, the Jazz Butcher, early REM, Love, New Order, and several good songs by artists I’ve never heard of.)
To my surprised I’ve discovered that Google all but owns my Web life. My blogs, my RSS feed reader, my e-mail, my desktop search engine, my family’s discussion group…all Google. I search using A9, which is enhanced by Google. If I hear about some cool new Web app, I look to see if Google has a product with that functionality. I would feel really creeped out about giving any other company that much control over how I experience the Web, but not this one. How’s that for brilliant marketing?
Wade Rockett 