July 10th, 2008
Yahoo’s open source bet is a long run thing
Yahoo’s open source BOSS strategy is a Hail Mary pass, as Larry Dignan notes this morning.
It’s a giant step beyond anything Google has done in open source. Google has released a ton of code, but not its search algorithm.
Google has many reasons it considers sound for this decision. It doesn’t want its own results manipulated. It doesn’t want its technology used by no-goodniks.
Yahoo is no longer in a position to make those objections. If someone wants to use its algorithms to help people find porn, or rogue code, or to inject client sites to the top of Yahoo searches, these are risks it’s willing to take.
In doing this, Yahoo is walking down a road Wikia Search has gone much further down, with little market impact so far. The bottom line impact of a proprietary company moving to open source is considerable, and at least in the near term negative.
Consider Sun. It has gained no stock benefit from its open source moves. The shares have actually fallen in value, to levels not seen (in real terms) since 1995. The lesson is clear. Open source is no path to riches.
But it is the path the world is treading. The network effects of open source are enormous, and even though few in this business have captured the lion’s share of them, they continue to change the world.
Consider Open Office, which descends from Sun’s Star Office. The product is no money spinner, but it is a market success, and it has had profound impacts on Microsoft, a competitor Sun could not touch in the proprietary era.
It’s the kind of revenge which is always served cold, morgue cold in financial terms, and once the step forward is taken it can’t be taken back.
We err sometimes when we think of moves toward open source, or the impact of open source, in purely selfish terms. There are many more dimensions worthy of consideration.
Open source is not a short term play. It is a long term trend. It is not a way to rescue a failed company. But it can give the work of that company something approaching eternal life. Just as this online copy may greatly outlive anything I have written for print.
And yahoo for that.
John Maynard Keynes (left), the economist, when asked about the long run impacts of high deficit spending, is said to have remarked “In the long run we’re all dead.”
Maybe so, but our work can live on, thanks to this medium. So can our code, thanks to open source.
And Yahoo for that.
Dana Blankenhorn has been a business journalist for 30 years, a tech freelancer since 1983. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
| 07/10/08
