Yahoo Mash: Playing Catch Up to Facebook and MySpace?

Will Yahoo's latest social networking service Mash give it some respect among its peers--Facebook and MySpace? So far Yahoo?s social network strategy has been, well, lame.

Nearly a year ago Yahoo unsuccessfully offered to buy Facebook for $1 billion. It originally tried to get into social networking business with the launch of Yahoo 360. But even by Yahoo standards, it failed. "Yahoo's social-networking service Yahoo 360 hasn't attained the position the company expected," said Jeff Weiner, executive vice president of Yahoo's network division.

So is Yahoo Mash the answer? Thanks to TechCrunch who posted an inside look at Mash and a New York Times reporter who got an early peek at the service, some light has been shed on what Yahoo's social networking playbook looks like.

TechCrunch shows images of a Mash user profile that resembles a variation of a MyYahoo personalized Web page. Just as with MyYahoo, Mash's user profile pages are modular in design allowing you to add and remove content blocks on the page and move them around inside your customized page (a' la drag-and-drop).

I can only assume what most of these modules do by their names: Flickr RSS feed, Common Friends, MyMoshLog2, Blog Module (RSS 2.0), Astrology, PimpMyPet, Hover, Kaleidoscope, Guestbook, and My Stuff. Those who have poked around reveal a pretty bare bones project so far.

Yahoo says it will also open the modules to third-party developers who can build their own. The timeline on this is not yet known.

The Times calls Mash a "Wikipedia version of a social networking." That tag is given because you can change around certain parts of a friend's profile, such as background color. However, I'd say that the odds are short that you will be able to get away with permanently turning your burly biker buddy's Mash page electric pink. The Times says users can set permissions as to who (if anyone) can modify or comment on their personal Mash page.

Noticeably missing from Mash is the ability to send a private message to a friend as well as an effective search feature.

So far, I'm not sure I see a lot of unique features from Yahoo that would persuade me to give up on Facebook and MySpace. I sort of like the concept of being able to tinker with another user's profile (if they let me) but, based on what I know so far, I don't see if that's a even a compelling enough reason to give it a try.

In a blog dedicated to the service, Yahoo says that allowing profile contributions from others and the ability to highly customize your profile will distinguish Mash from other social networks.

In the meantime, let me offer a word of advice to Yahoo: Listen to your customers' feedback and surprise us with something truly useful--not a retread of Facebook and MySpace.

If you want to try Mash out, don?t bother trying to sign up. The beta service is only accepting new members through invite right now. You could try asking your friends for an invite. Or you can check out this Invite Share site that says it connects people with extra invitations with people who want an in for Mash and other invitation-only services. I just tried it, and it actually worked.

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