Y!OS: Yahoo Open Strategy

<div style="float: right; margin-left: 10px">
  <a href="http://developer.yahoo.com/yos/intro/">
   <img src="/space/yahoo_exclamation_logo.png" alt="yahoo exclamation logo" /></a>
</div>

I've already written about a few cloud computing services here -
[Azure](/space/2008-11-22_windows_azure),
[SimpleDB](/space/amazon+simpledb+thoughts),
the [Facebook data store](/space/facebook+data+store+api+thoughts) -
so I might as well continue down the list. Next up is
[Yahoo! Open Strategy](http://developer.yahoo.com/yos/intro/) aka
Y!OS, a collection of services and APIs that let developers integrate their
web applications with Yahoo. I've done a separate
[deep dive into YQL](/space/yql+yahoo+query+language+thoughts),
the query language for Y!OS; I'll skim the rest of the platform here.

Y!OS is an umbrella that includes a number of different APIs and services.
At a high level, Y!OS is similar to platforms like
[OpenSocial](http://opensocial.org/) and the
[many](http://code.google.com/apis/gadgets/)
[gadget](http://dev.netvibes.com/)
[APIs](http://widgets.yahoo.com/tools/).
It allows third party web applications to be distributed, discovered, and
live inside Yahoo.
Y!OS apps may be
[installed](http://developer.yahoo.com/yap/guide/anatomy-my-applications.html)
by Yahoo users,
[run in various contexts](http://developer.yahoo.com/yap/guide/yap-anatomy.html)
on Yahoo sites,
use [Yahoo's custom markup language](http://developer.yahoo.com/yap/yml/),
integrate with [Yahoo's social network](http://developer.yahoo.com/social/),
and [access data](/space/yql+yahoo+query+language+thoughts) from Yahoo's
various properties, including private data - if permitted -
[via OAuth](http://developer.yahoo.com/oauth/guide/).

<div style="float: left; margin-right: 10px">
  <a href="http://developer.yahoo.com/yap/guide/yap-anatomy.html">
   <img src="/space/yos_anatomy_snippet.png" alt="yos anatomy snippet" /></a>
</div>

There are
[three runtime models](http://developer.yahoo.com/yap/guide/prog-model.html)
for Y!OS apps: JavaScript
via [Caja](http://developer.yahoo.com/yap/guide/caja-support.html),
Flash, and traditional server side. Apps may be displayed in either
[small](http://developer.yahoo.com/yap/guide/anatomy-small-view.html) or
[canvas](http://developer.yahoo.com/yap/guide/anatomy-canvas-view.html) view,
depending on the device and context. Both modes have a
[conspicuous Yahoo container](http://developer.yahoo.com/yap/guide/anatomy-landing-page.html),
including a header, footer, and banner ad. That last part is notable, since
there's no mention of revenue sharing.

Y!OS isn't really in the same league as full-fledged cloud offerings
like [Amazon Web Services](http://aws.amazon.com/),
[Windows Azure](/space/windows+azure+impressions), and
[Google App Engine](/space/2008-04-07_google_app_engine_launched). It doesn't
directly run third parties' code, nor does it host their data or static files.
It's a more of a full featured web container and set of services. Still
interesting, of course, just not my field.