Blog Help

Blog Host: Yahoo! 360°
Blog Host URL: http://360.yahoo.com/
Popularity (Alexa Rank): 1 (as a subdomain of yahoo.com)

MY OVERALL IMPRESSION...
My impression of Yahoo 360° is that it is more of a social tool meant for sharing photos, links, etc., than a serious blogging platform. It appears to be very limited as far as traditional blogging features go, but it is well integrated into Yahoo's existing social network. It is very easy to use, but, at the same time, very simple, which might appeal to folks who are not all that comfortable working with HTML or CSS and willing to sacrifice functionality for ease of use. If you're already set up with a Yahoo passport and are looking to network with friends, check out Yahoo 360°. If you want to create a blog, keep looking.

WHAT OTHERS THINK...
"Yahoo! 360 - A Quick Rev'w" from Blogging Blog (1 Apr 05)

• "This is not a real blogging tool, though it would work fine for a journal or diary to share with friends."
• "...the privacy features are great."
• "The simplicity of the blogging feature should make it accessible to non-techies."
• "The Yahoo Photos feature seems, well ... ordinary."
• "Yahoo Photos offers printing service, which Flickr does not..."

You can read the full post at Blogging Blog: Yahoo! 360 - A Quick Rev'w


"First look at Yahoo! 360" from Charlene Li (24 Mar 05)

• "...the Yahoo! team has done an excellent job thinking through key details of how to not only integrate blogs and social networking, but also how to pull in elements from the Yahoo! network."
• "Central to the whole service is the concept that you want to communicate and connect with the people that you already know, rather than try to meet new people. To this end, your home page on the service shows the most recent content published by people within your network."
• "This fundamental concept of linking people through their updated “stuff” is what makes Yahoo! 360 unique - and inherently will drive usage of the service higher than traditional social networks. In essence, the content is being pushed to you by the service."
• "The profile page contains the usual features from social networking sites friends, profile, lists of things you like to do, where you work/went to school, and groups that you belong to on Yahoo! Groups. But it also excerpts content you’ve created that you want to share with your network."
• "Its similar to what MSN Spaces has, where users can add content from MSN Photos and MSN Music..."
• "Also similar to MSN Spaces... is the ability to set privacy controls for different pieces of content."
• "The blogging tool itself is pretty basic. It allows the insertion of photos, comments, and trackbacks. You can control who can post comments, again through your pre-set groups. Only photos are supported, but Yahoo plans to offer the attachment of other file types soon after beta launch."

You can read the full post at First look at Yahoo! 360


"Yahoo! 360 Rev'wed" from Steve Rubel of Micro Persuasion (29 Mar 05)

• "While, I like what I see so far and I think 360 is very compelling as a personal blogging tool, it has some serious shortcomings that most veterans will not like."
• "...easily use it to share photos, moblog, connect with friends and family and find new friends."
• "...a perfect tool for consumer expression."
• "...relatively easy to use."
• "...some of the navigation is confusing."
• "As compelling as Yahoo! 360 is for newbies, it has virtually zero application as a professional/business blogging tool. It's far too simple. You can't easily turn features on or off and it lacks trackbacks and customization."

You can read the full post at Yahoo! 360 Rev'wed


"Yahoo! 360 Rev'w" from Michael Schuermann of Blogcritics.org (29 Mar 05)

• "The interface is very well designed. It works smoothly in both Firefox and Internet Explorer, and is very clean."
• "The blogging tool is the centerpiece of the experience, and overall it's pretty nice. The blog entry form is WYSIWYG, which will be a benefit to blogging newbies or others without HTML knowledge. However, there's no spell checker..."
• "I couldn't find any way to customize the "blog" page."
• "...you can also create modules on your page that share your Reviews from Yahoo Local, Photo Albums from Yahoo! Photos, Music from Yahoo! Launchcast, and Lists (which are a feature only within Yahoo! 360. You can also advertise presence information from Yahoo! Messenger, post a picture of yourself, share what Yahoo Groups you belong to, and advertise your friends (within Yahoo!360) and their respective Yahoo!360 pages."
• "RSS is not currently present, but Yahoo does have a blurb advertising this feature as "coming soon", not only for the blog but also for the photos and other content."
• "All in all, I'd say that Yahoo!360 is a nice tool for whom it's targeted for, that being non-technical users and newbies to blogs, etc... The integration of Yahoo's various services is actually very well done, and the layout of the page you create is very nice."

You can read the full post at Yahoo! 360 Rev'w


"Yahoo 360 rev'wed" from Duncan Riley at The Blog Herald (6 Apr 05)

• "I didn’t think there was a worse blogging tool than MSN Spaces until I discovered Yahoo! 360."
• "...Yahoo! provides blogging for those little kiddies that find MSN Spaces to difficult to understand."
• "Virtually no customisable features (whereas at least to you add a few boxes in MSN) , no trackback that I can see, and all you get to add aside from posts is a little blog roll. That being said the brevity of choice is not reflected in a simplicity of navigation, which is absurdly complex for what it does, and needs a lot of work."
• "...it's in beta and has some pretty non-blog related bells and whistles..."
• "Yahoo! 360 honestly? don’t waste your time

You can read the full post at Yahoo 360 rev'wed


Related "Blog Host" links on Blog Help...
Blog Help List of Blog Hosts
Index of Blog Host Reviews
Things to Consider When Choosing a Blog Host...

Hello!

This post is to let everyone know that we've not forgotten about the reviews of blog hosts that we promised... We've been having some "technical issues," as Blogger calls them, and it's really slowed things down. Also, we've been doing quite a bit of work behind the scenes, and even rearranged the layout of the template, getting rid of clutter and adding some things that will hopefully make the site a little more navigateable in the future.

Technical problems...
This past week, Blogger had some "technical issues" that held things up for awhile, and we had a few technical issues of our own that really slowed down our connection, or prevented it altogether at times. Hopefully all that is sorted out now. As you can see, we rearranged the layout of the blog. I really like the sidebar on the left. It just feels "comfortable." The problem is, it's bumping all of the post content to the bottom of the page in Internet Explorer (at least in version 5.5). That's the big issue that we're facing at the moment. We use Firefox now, and were not aware of the problem until we did some cross-browser checks sometime yesterday. At that point, we had already republished the blog. At any rate, we're working on the problem, and should have it fixed later today. For any users who might be seeing this problem first-hand in IE, I would invite you to consider switching to Firefox. We made the switch a couple of months ago and haven't looked back. You can get Firefox for free as part of the Google Pack download -- there's a button on the sidebar for that. If you haven't seen the Google Pack, check it out -- it's free, and there's some really cool stuff in it.

Newsletter...
I'd like to say a special "thank you" to all the folks who've signed up for the Blog Help newsletter. It's not ready yet, but it's coming. For everyone that's not signed up yet, you have my word that you won't be spammed by me, and I won't offer your address to anyone else. Also, I won't fill your inbox with daily e-mails or advertisements, and you can easily remove your name from the list at any time, should you decide to opt-out.

In the works...
Also, we've been working on a pinging application that we hope to have online a little later. A lot of the code is new to me, but it's coming along. We have a fairly extensive list of places to ping, but they all have to be verified and coded into the program yet, and it all has to be tested. That's all that I'll say about it for now... that project's still in the works and it may be awhile before it's fully realized. If you have a need for a free multiple-server pinging service right now, we use Pingoat, FeedShark, Feedburner's Pingshot, & Feedshot (the free service, not the pay one). Some of these ping the same sites, so you might want to set it up so they don't overlap & bookmark the pages to make things quicker.

Well, that's it for now. Thanks for being patient while we straighen out all the technical issues. :-)

Thanks Again,
James

Over the past week or so, we've been scouring the Internet for reviews of each of the blog hosts that are included in the "Blog Help List of Blog Hosts." Rather than research each of them individually, I decided to locate reviews from folks who have actual experience with each of these blog hosts. Each entry will include the blog host's name, main URL of the blog host, and its Alexa page rank. From there, we'llinclude excerpts from reviews of the blog hosts, and a link to a page where you can read the article in full. If you have experience with one of these hosts and would like to add a comment, you're more than welcome to do so.

This page will serve as an index with links to the review pages for the individual blog hosts. If you have comments concerning a particular blog host, please post them on the individual page designated for that host. If you have a blog host to add that is not yet on the list, you can add that in the comments at Blog Help List of Blog Hosts and we'll see to it that it's included.

Please be patient while we get these pages up. There's quite a few of them, and we'll be continually updating the info that we have so far.

Index to BLOG HOSTS:
Blog Host: Yahoo! 360°