Technology As Innovator

Yahoo! just released Yahoo! 360plus Vietnam, the blogging platform-social networking hybrid that is expected to replace its Yahoo! 360.

The Vietnamese version is developed based on its HongKong counterpart, and many R&D activities are done in Singapore.

Additionally, Yahoo! is planning to open its office Vietnam, rather than managing remotely from Singapore like currently.

Overview functionalities

Generally, it takes current features of Yahoo! 360 and merge with functionalities that are common across many blogging platforms.

The server(s) is still located outside Vietnam.

No real innovation has been observed.

It’s worth mentioning that in recent years, Yahoo! has focused more on branding, while Google on products and Facebook on user experience. Result?

About Vietnam market.

There are now 20 million Internet users in Vietnam, most of whom are young people under 25.

The Vietnam market is the 5th largest market of Yahoo!

Vietnamese Internet users depend heavily on Yahoo! Messenger, Yahoo! Mail and Yahoo! 360. The number of Yahoo! 360 accounts is approximately 2 millions, comparing with 5 millions users of this service worldwide.

Yahoo! is trying hard to maintain its user base and seek to acquire even more by launching its new platform.

Yahoo!’s competitors in Vietnam

Social networking

Facebook is increasingly spreading in the English-speaking, tech-savvy communities.

yobanbe from Vina Game

tamtay, a MySpace clone

Vietnamese cyworld

faceViet, a Facebook clone

Blogging

Some, frustrated with the buggy 360, have switched to other blogging platforms including blogger, opera, multiply. A small number of techies endorse WordPress

The local ngoisaoblog service

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Addendum: my initial feedbacks to Yahoo! 360plus Vietnam team.

Improvables

1. How do I communicate with friends who don’t read Vietnamese with Yahoo! 360plus?
2. No option to return to Blog Homepage but only Master Yahoo! 360plus Homepage
3. No feedback option
4. No FAQs
5. Font size not consistent in Firefox
6. Translation
7. I choose two-column theme with the hope that width of the main column will be larger. However, my assumption was wrong, as width is still fixed.
8. Some formatting HTML tags don’t work. i.e. headings
9. Only jpg images are allowed.
10. No auto-invite option.
11. Javascript not supported

Improvements from Yahoo! 360

1. In Firefox: Enter gives paragraph break, not line break as in Yahoo! 360 (like that of WordPress)
2. Favorites are displayed directly in the blog page.
3. Person tagging in the entry (like that of Facebook)
4. HTML for comment (like that of WordPress)
5. Extraction (like that of WordPress)
6. Edit time for entries (like that of WordPress)
7. Draft (like that of WordPress)
8. Categories (like that of WordPress)

It is very likely that when you key in google.com to your browser, the page is redirected you to the localized Google page of the country where your IP is detected. Oh yeah, unless you’re in the US.

Enjoy this? Localization exists with the hope to bring you more relevant contents.

But what if you want the international or original version of the website?

At least I do.

Why?

• Because many terminologies when translated are difficult to understand.
• Because I want international contents.
• Because my browser may not display the localized language correctly by default.
• Or because I don’t understand the language on the localized page!

When I logged in to YouTube today, it redirected me to YouTube Taiwan tw.youtube.com! What? I am not Taiwanese. I speak a little Chinese but I wouldn’t want to surf web in Chinese. I checked my IP: still the Vietnamese ISP. There must have be some mistake in YouTube server. I hope it won’t last for long.

Then I went to Blogger with my cookies cleared and I had to set the language to English again.

Let’s try cyworld.com. Oh, it redirects me to CyWorld Vietnam cyworld.vn

Thanks goodness, Yahoo!, while hosting a Yahoo! Vietnam portal, doesn’t automatically redirect me to the localized page by default.

Tweak it

For Google, this command google.com/ncr brings you to the US version of Google.

For YouTube, I had to go to YouTube UK uk.youtube.com, a page with a language I understand.

I checked CyWord Korea out too by guessing the domain cyworld.co.kr. Ah ha, my guess was correct.

So what then?

Web service providers, I understand that localization is very likely to expand your market. However, not all users want a localized version. Please give your users the option to choose to go to the international version of your page. And when you do, please make it simple like Google did with a command.

Thanks

Overall

Why would I want to use a Vietnamese web service

1. Connection speed, especially for video streaming
2. Local opportunities

What would drive me away

1. Security, including revelation of my account information and spam
2. Careless design
3. Immature communities

Networking

Professional Networking

I’m favoring CyVee because opportunities are real and more closely intact.

LinkedIn is terrific, but opportunities might come at a lower pace.

Social Networking

I’m currently very happy with Facebook.

If faceViet or yobanbe want to get me, they have to provide

1. Professional theme
2. English interface
3. Strong personalization options.

Social News

It’s a pity I prefer utilizing my RSS Reader over social news sites such as Digg. Therefore, no remark just yet.

However, the news sharing platform of CyVee looks nice and could be very useful in promoting company brand like the way Tim of TRG is doing.

Additionally, if Vietnamese service provider can create something like StumbleUpon, it would make a hit and I’ll definitely consider.

Photos Networking

Picasa has everything I need: 1Gb free account, folders, tagging and an uploader.

Is there a local site focusing on photos networking?

Music Networking

I’m enjoying sharing music on imeem. I am more into English songs. I like new age, hard rock and symphony and I’m not sure whether nhacso, Zing mp3 are rich of such genres.

Video Networking

Youtube is absolutely wonderful. I am amazed by its fast connection speed and stability.

Therefore, I don’t have the plan to move to Clip.vn just yet.

Mobile Networking

Has any Vietnamese vendor invest in this area?

Blogging

I am maintaining my different blogs on self-hosted WordPress, Yahoo! 360 and Windows Live Spaces.

If local blogging providers such as ngoisaoblog, blog.com.vn want to attract me, they would have to ensure:

1. High SEO compatibility
2. High security, including spam protection and splog tracking
3. Backup options and standard-compliant import/export functionalities
4. Permalinks

Instant Messaging

My clients in the US are using MSN Messenger. Most of my friends are using Yahoo! Messenger. For conference, Skype is just wonderful.

I don’t feel the urge of switching to Zing chat.

Email

Apart from professional emails on my domain, I use a Gmail account to access Google services and a Yahoo! email to make it easier for my friends.

Any company is investing in providing free email service in Vietnam?

Portal

I use my portal for work purpose and netvibes is still number one.

Zing looks very nice, but I’d rather having something customizable.

e-Commerce

I’m not having a real need of C2C e-Commerce, so no comment on this.

Map

A vote for diadiem, simply because I need to find ways in my local areas.

Entertainment

I’d rather go out playing sports than wandering online, so good luck socvui, hihihehe and so on

Conclusion

In conclusion, the 2 local web services that I utilize are CyVee and diadiem

CyVee give me real local opportunities and diadiem is definitely more useful than its Google counterpart.

For others, if they can bring me real values I’m seeking…