Bradley Horowitz gave Supernova attendees a pep talk today on Yahoo! and its product strategy. (Perhaps, in the wake of Google's slashing and burning, Yahoo! has plans to co-opt Google's position as the light side of the Force?) At any rate, here are a few highlights:
Horowitz posited that Yahoo! differentiates itself from its competition because it focuses on people and relevant knowledge, rather than a quantity of information. The company believes that 1% of the population is made up of active creators, 9% are remixers/synthesizers that will work with existing information, and 90% are passive consumers. (From the commentary, it sounds like Horowitz bases these numbers upon the adoption rates within Yahoo! groups.) Yahoo!'s goal moving forward is to convert their community such that 100% of them are active creators.
Yahoo! started with human editorial to review content, then moved to mass automation. Now, Yahoo is combining people with algorithms. Their Technology Development Group sees itself as the roadies for the Yahoo! innovation show. They're fostering this through events such as Hack Day, and trying to charge up the Yahoo! Developer Network.
Horowitz' interesting comment here was that they were trying to be humble; for every 1 of them, there are 6 billion people that might use what his team creates. That would certainly serve them well if other networks don't provide the content ownership or privacy that a 100% creator community would want.
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