Once Delicious, Now Stale

[Delicious is one of the few Web 2.0 sites I've never been a heavy user of, so when I saw my Twitter friend Paisano complaining about Yahoo's handling of this much beloved property I asked him to write a post for me-- and people like me-- explaining why. As usual, I have no special insight as a part-time Yahoo employee. Hoping this will spark some debate in the comments as this is a fear all entrepreneurs face before selling!]

Yahoo's new delicious 2.0 is the best example of vaporware that exists today, not the Google phone. Ever since August 2007 we've all been teased about the fabled next release of Delicious. The comedy of errors has been well-documented on TechCrunch by Michael Arrington. Here's the exciting sneak peak of Delicious 2.0 that they gave TechCrunch in September 2007. Here's the follow-up piece on Yahoo's vaporeware A.K.A Delicious 2.0 six months later. You will sense the growing skepticism by Arrington which is shared by most of the web 2.0 community these days. Michael appears extra frustrated because like most of us he wants Delicious to succeed. As a matter of fact, he named Delicious one of the Web Apps you can't live without in 2006, but then dumped Delicious in 2007 for BlueDot (Now Faves.com) because they were surpassed when it came to features.

The thing that's so irritating about Delicious and Yahoo is their lack of innovation and total stagnation ever since Yahoo purchased Delicious in 2005. Technology years are like dog years so it's completely inexcusable for the amount of time they've squandered (Scalability issues or not!). It's unbelievable how little they've done to improve the experience or functionality of their once killer web app! Web services are like sharks, they must keep moving or else die. To make matters worse, Yahoo continues to work on and improve their Yahoo Bookmarks! Why? The universal consensus was that Yahoo would either ditch their inferior bookmarking offering or incorporate the best features into the next release of Delicious, but neither was done.

The other baffling element to this fiasco is that Yahoo was in the same exact position with another acquisition of one of the best web 2.0 apps available when they bought Flickr. In that case, Yahoo didn't wet the bed. They immediately pulled the plug on their lame Yahoo Photo's service and went full-throttle with the red-hot Flickr. Why have they not done the same thing with Delicious and their Yahoo Bookmarks? Is it more difficult to manage and organize bookmarks than photographs? I highly doubt that one, folks. If anything the converse makes more sense. Well, then what has been the problem? Ultimately, who's responsible for the horrendous delays in delivering anything of significance for Delicious since 2005? Can you honestly blame the developers for this mess?  I don't think so. I think we need to focus higher up on the food chain, mostly the team leaders and the decision makers who probably couldn't even explain what a social bookmarker does. 

While Yahoo has been asleep at the wheel, countless new social bookmarking services have pulled ahead of the once king of online favorites. The best of the bunch being Magnolia and Faves. The most obvious improvement being the interface and improving the sharing capabilities. The antiquated "All or nothing" web 1.0 attitude that delicious sports has grown extremely tiresome. The new standard is the ability to share favorites with groups or individuals. Here's a cool roundup of 50 plus social bookmarking sites from Mashable. Most of these services have sprung up in Yahoo's three year coma.

Final Thoughts

Despite all of the mistakes and false release statements, many people still use delicious. Mostly, it's because we're creatures of habit and just used to the plain Jane service that is delicious. However, once people get a taste of the truly delicious treats that any of these other new social bookmarking sites are serving up they will dump stale delicious in a heartbeat. Yahoo needs to get off the pot and push Delicious 2.0 out the door before it's too late. Heck, maybe it'd be a good thing if Microsoft acquired Yahoo after all because they have no problems releasing buggy apps.

In all seriousness, I know Delicious 2.0 will be a big hit, whenever it finally sees the light of day. I just hope Yahoo and other lethargic behemoths learn a lesson from this experience and avoid repeating these types of mistakes. We live in a dynamic and ever-changing world. If you can't deliver a full-course meal then feed us some tasty morsels instead (Twhirl update hors d'oeuvres anyone?). Serving such a snack would certainly remove the sour taste in our mouths regarding Yahoo and delicious.