Y!360…Y!Mash…Multiply

In the aftermath of Yahoo 360 announcing plans to close sometime in the not too distant future, most of my contacts began frantically searching for the next site they were going to. There are so many sites to choose from, and no site will give every user all of the features they want. (Not that 360 gave me all the features I wanted…)

I’ve been testing out Y!Mash. While it’s still beta, and may or may not be integrated into the future of what 360 will become, it is quite different from what Yahoo users may be accustomed to. The main drawback is no blogging feature. You can RSS to another site for a blog, but that’s a bit cumbersome and a lot of users simply won’t understand what it is or how to do it. And the most positive aspect (from my point of view) is the ability to customize your page with lots of HTML and CSS. Though again, for me it’s great, but for the average user who found the simplicity of 360 welcoming, HTML and CSS are more like foreign languages. It also lends itself to lots of pages filled up with nothing but flashy .gif images. For all the hooplah it caused when it came out, there doesn’t seem to be a lot of activity going on over there. Perhaps it’s just because it’s beta and the number of users is “somewhat” limited, or maybe it’s because it’s severly lacking in some basic features. (Uploading a new picture doesn’t work, despite numerous complaints from many people.) But I have found people are more willing to ask to be added as friends, so the possibility of forming new contacts is a bit higher than I’ve experienced on other sites. Invites are available if anyone happens to want one – just send me a PM.

More recently, I’ve seen a lot of 360 users, and surprisingly a lot of Y!Mash users defecting over to Multiply. It certainly has a lot of good features. You can import your YH 360 blog seamlessly (tho not comments), post videos & music, join groups, maintain a calendar and lists of favorites, and do some customization if you’re inclined to. It offers a basic user some nice backgrounds and layouts to choose from, so it is as simple as 360 to use, but with more features. A lot of users seem to think it’s the best site out there just now. There are still some glitches, like the voice messages not working properly all the time. And they play up a lot of new features, but I don’t see the value in many of them. I’m reserving judgement on Multiply although I did join so as to keep in touch with some contacts.

I’d be interested to hear from other YH360 users who’ve gone to other sites already as to which one you’ve chosen. I personally chose to move my blog to my website so I don’t have to worry about it, and I can customize there all I want. But that’s most certainly not a viable choice for everyone. It’s clear though that most people, in the wake of the news of the closing of YH360, have pretty much abaondoned making many changes or updates to their existing 360 page. The concensus is they don’t trust YH to help them move content and are afraid one day it will all just be lost.