I’ve had an account on del.icio.us for several years, but I only started using it heavily perhaps a year ago. While it’s a wonderful site in many respects, I’ve been surprised and disappointed by what’s happened since Yahoo acquired the company: nothing at all.
Clearly, Yahoo has had no idea what to do with their acquisition: almost its first reaction to the grafted del.icio.us antibodies was to roll out a homegrown NIH tagging site, the name of which nobody now remembers. Since then, Yahoo hasn’t even bothered to switch users over to its unified login system as it did with Flickr. Whether you liked that move or not, it was a clear sign that Yahoo had some interest in Flickr.
Prior to the acquisition, I figure that del.icio.us had fulfilled perhaps 5% of its initial promise. In order to grow its user base beyond hardcore power users, the site clearly needed a less hostile user interface; nothing has happened. They could have increased existing user loyalty and retention by making it easier for people to find others with similar interests; nothing has happened. They could have made the site more useful to individuals by helping people understand the evolution of their own interests. Nothing has happened.
It’s a shame to see that potential go unfulfilled. Even from a business perspective, if Yahoo could quite reasonably not figure out how to squeeze some money out of its acquisition, it could at very little cost to itself be improving its image among the nerdiest of the nerdy by investing in del.icio.us and blowing its geek cred trumpet. Instead, I have a notion that Josh Schachter is languishing in some dungeon in Santa Clara, watching the grains of sand fall through his stock option hourglass, and waiting to make good his escape. What a waste.
I suspect that the same thing is also happening with Flickr, though not to quite the same extent. Take a look at the numbers of pre- and post-acquisition changes to the site and you’ll see what I mean. Sure, geotagging is cute, but it’s almost the only significant change in over two years. This sclerosis of small acquisitions doesn’t make me sanguine for Yahoo’s future.