January 9, 2007

Yahoo has acquired MyBloglog.com, an Orlando-based Web site that permits bloggers to share data about themselves, build a social network among fans and write Internet publications or personal Web logs.

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As a whole, MyBloglog also looks at reader behavior inside Web logs (blogs) like what is being read and where readers go next, delivering information it can sell to Internet advertisers. Yahoo isn't revealing what it paid for Mybloglog, but reliable sources say it probably cost a little over $10 million. MyBlogLog.com initially went live in July 2006.

Bradley Horowitz, v.p. of product strategy at Yahoo, said Mybloglog will likely remain branded as a separate entity, but Yahoo users will be able to register on it with their Yahoo password. Reader communities will soon be able to access Yahoo services, like the Flickr photo site or the Yahoo Answers information service, to their groups.

“This closes the loop between readers and publishers,” he said. “Every Web publisher wants to know his readers, and the readers want to find out about each other. It’s the power of implicit networking.”

Of course, Internet advertisers want to know about everybody. Mybloglog is currently available on about 45,000 blogs, according to company chairman Scott Rafer, and has registered the photos and personal information (like the address of their blogs) of about 33,000 readers.

Rafer also said it looks at about 3 million readers of blogs a day. Its most popular blogs are, not surprisingly, on technology subjects, but also on real estate – making the user information valuable to multiple advertisers.

According to both companies, social networking is the more valuable asset for future growth. “The biggest thing in blog search is ego search – my name, the web sites I love,” says Rafer, who will work for Horowitz, promoting his service to Yahoo’s many properties. “People search Google and Wikipedia for information. With blogs, people look for cool things and serendipity,” added Rafer.

By watching what readers look at, and learning overall behaviors, companies like his can sell to advertisers information about what products should be advertised where. That information will become even more valuable, if Yahoo can grow the business to a significant percentage of its hundreds of millions of monthly users, and add to the functions. “I have gigantic plans for this project,” said Horowitz.

“This is a playground where readers can talk to each other, think about community photos, community answers, Yahoo groups or meeting services, etc. etc.”

One thing Yahoo will not do, he added, is actively market the site with Web advertising. “The thing is growing like a weed in the viral pattern you want,” Horowitz said. In other words, Web advertising is for some products, and selling it is for others.

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Source: Search Engine Journal