Om Malik writes about Yahoo testing new local mashups (called “OurCity”) in India, involving content from Flickr, Del.icio.us, Upcoming and news.
As Om points out, what’s missing is maps (and maybe video). But this is an interesting further push into community/social media in the local space for Yahoo. The interface is fresher and more visual than the current Yahoo Local, which is one of the best local products on the U.S. market.
It will be interesting to see how far and wide this test rolls out and whether it makes it to the U.S.
Yahoo has integrated Flickr into many of its sites, including travel. But the distinctions between travel and local are blurred because you don’t know where the user is typically. Out-of-market consumers may use the local product for travel-related entertainment planning. Some of the travel product features could be well integrated into local, accordingly.
I would love to see some marriage of the current Yahoo Local with aspects of this OurCity interface and TagMaps — and video from users and, say, TurnHere. That, in my mind, would represent a next-generation local product.
Done poorly, of course, it could also be a mess. 🙂
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