What is a 360 profile?

What is the difference between profile and 360?

• 360, I hear is changing and hear it is being replaced. Please tell me: a. Will their be both? b. If no more 360, why are they changing it? c. If profile is to be replacing 360 (no more 360), is profile fully developed or is it in a on going metamorphoses. d. If their is both, what is the differences, and why have both? e. Any summary to help me decide what to work on. But with the little I have seen of both and what I hear others saying. 360 was better.

• Answer:

  a. Yahoo! 360 will likely close, after parts of it are finished migrating to the Yahoo! Profile. Right now, both services exist. No exact close date has been announced for Yahoo! 360. See http://blog.360.yahoo.com/blog-1qCkw2Ehaak.hdNZkEAzDrpa4Q--?cq=1&p=64469 , http://blog.360.yahoo.com/blog-1qCkw2Ehaak.hdNZkEAzDrpa4Q--?cq=1&p=49226 , and http://blog.360.yahoo.com/blog-1qCkw2Ehaak.hdNZkEAzDrpa4Q--?cq=1&p=51234 for basic details. b. There are no further changes happening to the Yahoo! 360 service as it appears right now. Competition, bugs, and centralization are the basis for Yahoo! 360's shift to a new platform. Yahoo! 360's system would have needed to be more flexible to compete with other social networking services (like Facebook and Myspace - regardless of the target audience). Also, Yahoo! 360 is a beta service so its continued existence was always a shaky proposition as it never moved out of the beta phase. There were a ridiculous amount of glitches with various modules (see http://blog.360.yahoo.com/blog-4D4zxsg6fLRvC60pERfR7.8c?p=858 ). Yahoo has a different challenge than other services as it not only does social networking, but it also tries to connect Y!360 with other Yahoo services (like Yahoo! Groups, Flickr, etc.). The connectivity hasn't been successful for the most part. So, Yahoo is developing a "universal profile" for users and is making a "social-networking" connection with of many of its services (not just focused in one service like with Yahoo! 360). Thus, the Yahoo! Profile is not necessarily the "new 360". They aren't trying to make a new and improved 360, meaning that creating a direct replacement for the service was not part of the plan. (See the interviews with Ash Patel in the source links below.) c. See http://help.yahoo.com/l/us/yahoo/profiles/ for details of what you can do with the Yahoo! Profile so far. There are more changes to come, as the Yahoo! Profile is also in a "beta phase". See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_release_life_cycle for more information on what beta typically means. The Yahoo! Profile was just started in October 2008. d. UPDATED: There's not going to be both services based on what Yahoo has already announced through the Yahoo! 360 team/product blog and other sources. Both services exist now because the 360 migration hasn't been completed. See http://blog.360.yahoo.com/blog-4D4zxsg6fLRvC60pERfR7.8c?p=1414 for more details on the Yahoo! Profile's connection with Yahoo! 360. If Yahoo says something different (as in Yahoo! 360 staying open after the migration is finished - which I doubt), you'll likely hear about it via the Yahoo! Profile or Yahoo! 360 team blogs. e. Yahoo! Profile is the future. I recommend working with that service. People are trying to make an apples to apples comparison with Yahoo! 360, but really the Yahoo! Profile will have a more extensive "real-time" reach across Yahoo services than Yahoo! 360. I like Yahoo! 360. I would have been fine with Yahoo! 360 continuing if Yahoo had invested time into moving it out of a beta phase and incorporating progressive improvements. But apparently, Yahoo felt that 360 had to be melded into a new system in order for that to happen. Yahoo is in a "turnaround" phase as a company and has elected to go with an "Open Strategy". You can read details about Y!360, the Yahoo! Profile (i.e. the universal profile system), and Yahoo's plans via these links, which are the sources for the majority of my answer: