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Yahoo has many strings to its bow
When Yahoo! predicted that its sales would increase by more than 70 per cent over the next three years, many market commentators scoffed.
However, various components of its business appear to be performing particularly well and the forecast may yet prove to be accurate.
Writing on WebProNews, Doug Caverly noted that Yahoo! Buzz, the firm's recently-launched answer to social news site Digg, may have achieved a terrific start already.
Hitwise statistics show that Yahoo! Buzz sends a great deal of internet traffic to news and media sites, indicating that "certain types of people have pretty much fallen in love" with the service already.
Another area where Yahoo! has been quietly beavering away is the Question and Answer website category, which enjoyed a huge 118 per cent increase for the week ending March 15th.
Hitwise figures show that Yahoo! Answers was by far the most popular site in the segment, receiving 74 per cent of US visits. Next was Wiki.Answers, with 18 per cent, and Answerbag.com with 4.42 per cent.
Heather Dougherty, research director at Hitwise, explained the attraction: "Online users are increasingly seeking advice from question and answer websites that leverage shared knowledge contributed across a community of experts and enthusiasts.
"The popularity of user generated media has helped to establish a category for social knowledge where consumers can obtain answers from a single aggregated source developed through others asking similar questions."
Other strings to Yahoo!'s bow include the massively popular photo-sharing site Flickr, which is set to launch its own video site to rival YouTube.
Yahoo! News posted on 20 March 2008
