Danah’s Initial Impressions of Yahoo 360

Well, unlike yours truly, it looks like Danah Boyd is an “influencer” in Yahoo!’s eyes, and therefore got a sneek peek at Yahoo! 360 (nope, I’m not bitter…). Her comments are posted over at the Many-to-Many blog at Corante, in an article entitled initial impression of Yahoo 360

From a quick read, it sounds like:
– She wasn’t blown away
– Believes it won’t satisfy geek bloggers (sounds like they went the MSN Spaces route)
– Believes it will overwhelm neophytes

In short, she seems pretty down on it, but throws Yahoo! a bone at the end saying that, despite being “wary”, and “not for me”, it will be “nice for the heavily integrated Yahoo user”.

It seems like we’re going in circles. From the walled garden of old (keep non-members out) to the walled garden of the new (entrenching customers by feeding them only your stack of apps & services). I hope that’s not the case (or if it is, they grow out of it in time).

More when I get my own invite…

UPDATE: Charlene Li gets her own look at the soon-to-be-released publishing platform and has a much more upbeat report, including two screen shots (Shot 1 Shot 2). Is it just me, or does Shot 1 remind you of Tribe?

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