Yahoo is finally tossing its hat into the social media ring. Recently, Yahoo announced that it would be incorporating tweets into its newsfeed on Yahoo.com. This signals a serious shift, since Yahoo is giving equal weight to tweets and ‘bona fide news.’
Anyone who’s paying attention will have noticed that Twitter is one of the largest growing companies in the world. With over half a billion users and over $250 million in advertising revenue just last year, Twitter is also one of the most valuable brand strategy tools available to a company. However, Yahoo is now using Twitter as a news outlet, providing users instant access to any tweets deemed newsworthy.
Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer shared this news in a company blog post, stating that Yahoo sees tweets “as [an] important information source for many of our users.” But just what makes a tweet ‘newsworthy’? According to Mayer, the tweets that would be displayed would come directly from celebrities, politicians and major news outlets.
What makes this partnership especially intriguing is that it came shortly after a falling-out between Twitter and Google – Mayer’s former employer. The move comes hot on the heels of Yahoo’s recent acquisition of Tumblr. Now that Yahoo has Twitter under its wing, too (or perhaps that little blue bird has Yahoo under its wing), the company is showing that it intends to offer serious competition to Google and Facebook.
And Yahoo is showing no signs of slowing down. Mayer said the “integration will roll out to all U.S. desktop and mobile web users over the next few days.” Mayer has showed nothing but ambition since becoming Yahoo’s new CEO, having already snatched up 10 startups in just a year – that’s 9 more acquisitions than the company had last year. Expect to see more acquisitions by Yahoo in the near future, as Mayer is trying to mold Yahoo into part of our everyday lives.
We’ll see if Yahoo is able to amp up their presence enough to compete seriously with Big Brothers Google and Facebook. But by making Yahoo more mobile- and social media-friendly, Mayer has put the company well on its way to greater digital domination.
