Discovring new friends
September 11, 2007 on 1:08 pm | In News |
One of the more interesting parts of working at a tech company is discussions that arise around future directions for a product.
At Hack Days, Yahoos from different areas of the company come together to display their ideas for product innovations. Sometimes they are completely new product ideas, other times they are extensions of an existing product.
At a recent Hack Day, a team of four Yahoos built and presented “Discovr”, a hack that would enable users to find new friends on Yahoo! Messenger by seeing who their IM contacts have on their list. A “friends of friends” concept. Discovr was created by Yahoos Ashwinder Ahluwalia, Vinay Kakade, Pras Sarkar and Ramana Yerneni.
They showed me a web-based prototype of this “friend-finder”. Here’s how it worked: After typing in my Yahoo! ID, I saw a list of other Yahoo! IDs that appear on my IM friends’ friends list. Sort of like peeking into my friend’s contact lists, except that I don’t know which friend belongs to whom; it’s just an aggregate look at the universe of my friends’ contacts. There was also relevancy rankings so I could get a feel for which of these new potential friends is the most connected in my IM community. If a Yahoo! ID appears on the contact lists of 12 of my friends, it ranks highly; if it only appears on a few, the score is lower.
This is not a new concept – just visit any social networking service like MySpace or Facebook to see it in action. However unlike those social networks, the relevancy is higher in Discovr because they are direct contacts of your hand-picked IM friends; you have some context and basis for a relationship with them.
The Discovr hack makes for interesting discussion because it breaks the paradigm of a closed, private network that Yahoo! Messenger users utilize. Rather than your IM world being limited to just the people on your list, you would now be able to expand out effortlessly to connect with friends of friends.
For some users, this would be a critical feature. Think of a brand new user that doesn’t have many friends at the start. With a feature like this, a new user could look at their friends’ friends, many of whom they would probably know, and then easily add those friends to fill out their own contact list. This would be valuable in the workplace too, significantly reducing the time to find extended team members for collaboration.
For other users, this could sound nightmarish and raise concerns about privacy. Discovr could put you at risk for unwanted conversations since you could potentially pop up on someone’s Discovr list and be asked to chat. We know Yahoo! Messenger users are fanatical about their stealth settings.
But with a system like this that is limited to just a few degrees of separation, your likelihood of knowing that new contact is much higher.
Clearly any social networking feature like this requires user controls, but it’s interesting to consider the possibilities this new direction could open up for Yahoo! Messenger users. Remember, this is just a concept from Hack Day and though team Discovr built a compelling prototype, it’s not something you’ll see in Yahoo! Messenger in the near future.
But if you did come across it, what would you think of it? Is it friend, or foe?
Sarah Bacon
Product Manager
I think that it would be more of a foe than a friend.
I believe that who is on our Yahoo Messenger friends list should be left private.
Our friends on Yahoo 360 is public and I think that is great, Yahoo 360 is a public place, but messenger is more private. Many people have their children on their Yahoo Messenger, but do not have them on their 360.
I suppose if we were given an option to make our list private or certain people on our list private, it would be ok.
There are too many weirdos in our world, and I feel that having strangers knowing who is on your messenger list in an invasion of privacy.
Just my opinion!
Peace!
Rachellle aka SillyFae
Comment by Rachellle aka SillyFae — September 11, 2007 #
i think invadeing people privacy is just wrong and its not right
Comment by e.p — September 11, 2007 #
Last hack day there was a tabbed IM hack introduced to Yahoo! Messenger and never fixed to this day, can we expect the Tabbed IM feature to be fixed so we can all benefit from it?
I know there was a temp fix done for it at wackyB but im talking it working out of the box without having to edit it or use other program to rectify it.
Comment by Dermot — September 11, 2007 #
it would be a foe than a friend
Comment by chloe — September 11, 2007 #
noooooo wayyyyyyyyyyyy BIG “FOE” i keep my friends private, and thinks it is the way it should stay, my friends do not need to know who i have in my friends list, thats not even cool! and i dont think it is right! i keep my friends list very private and dont wish anyone to know that info!! i would have to not have any friends, in order to allow this feature… please realize a list you choose of friends, is a very personal and private thing… feels like an invasion of my privacy
Comment by unhappy — September 11, 2007 #
FOE! This would be a huge invasion of my privacy. This is why I stay at Yahoo and not go to Myspace or Facebook. If I want 2 freinds to meet, I will introduce them. Please remember there ARE on line stalkers and this is just another tool for them.
Comment by Curves — September 12, 2007 #
all i can say to this space is” tosha” meaning cool
Comment by eddie — September 12, 2007 #
This will only work if each person has the option NOT to disclose. Sadly, as you have stated it My friends list would shrink rather than grow.
I value my privacy and that of my friends
Comment by Donna — September 12, 2007 #
NO Thanks don’t want that
NO way do I want to be measured in popularity
NO way do I want others knowing who I’ve got,
and NO way do I want to know who others have got
The friend of friend thing is bad enough on 360, it turns into a drama fest for all concerned
I will NOT be updating my Yahoo Messenger if this is introduced I will be going back to Y messenger 5.6 the one without all the crd ( to spell like you do) on it that I have to turn off
Please keep things simple messages, voice and chat on messenger NO Friend of Friend add requests please its bad enough I get add requests via Windows Live from people I do not know this would be 1000000 times as bad
Comment by no thanks — September 12, 2007 #
The problem here would be the spammers, booters and cloners. Once spammers have your Id they could get your friends Id.’s and spam them even by cloning your Id if necessary. The booters could get your friends Id’s and start booting them even by cloning your Id. There could be exploits found in the program within weeks of this being available, and to get a patch for this we could be waiting years.
Comment by Jeff Suttles — September 12, 2007 #
Well with most of my friends in that last month and a half or so having dropped Yahoo Messenger for a different chat client, it wouldn’t be too useful for me anymore.
Evident by the empty electronics room.
Even so, only if we had complete control on such a feature. Otherwise it would just be another nuisance in the growing list of Yahoo pains.
Comment by KBSoftware — September 12, 2007 #
Total Foe. I don’t want anyone knowing who is on my list and the only thing that would come out of it is drama.
Comment by No way — September 12, 2007 #
If I ever do see it as a part of Messenger, you can rest assured I’ll no longer be using Messenger.
Comment by Lisa — September 12, 2007 #
i cant stand the thought of someone adding me as a buddy without my permission!!!! its so wrong!!!
and for those that try i give tham a stern reprimand, the i perm iggy them
Comment by So0o0_Confused — September 12, 2007 #
i think it a less than acceptable idea, I HATE IT
Comment by william haser — September 12, 2007 #
a few years back yahoo eliminated our ability to remove our names off other ppls lists, they said it was an invasion of privacy………WHAT DO YOU CALL THIS????
Comment by So0o0_Confused — September 12, 2007 #
as long as there is an “opt out” like a previous commenter indicated.. then go ahead. NOBODY should be ale to add ANYBODY without permission.
Any idea when you can address the capcha fiasco in chat that is still allowing bots? New ideas and developments do not absolve responsibility to correct errors with other services.
Comment by silent_ben_strikes_back — September 12, 2007 #
The last two paragraphs suggest if this idea was adopted there would be a privacy user control to disallow participation in such a feature. If that were the case I have no problem with this feature.
Many people who’ve voiced their opinion on this blog and including myself dislike the idea (perhaps we don’t use YIM to meet new people, thats not to say others don’t), but there may be many people who would favor it. Therefore, I think it would be important to give the user the option to disable/enable the said feature.
Anyway, I’m eagerly awaiting the Vista version of YIM. I’d love to hear the status of it if possible.
Thanks
Comment by No Name — September 12, 2007 #
P.S. This reminds me of Last.fm’s music compatibility feature with other users.
Not a bad idea at all because I suppose it would be interesting, but otherwise totally useless.
Comment by No Name — September 12, 2007 #
i think this would be a bad idea.!!!!I I agree with the person that said that the 360 is public and that messanger should be kept private. Why not come up with a find a friends page that if you want to be on you can be. Years ago ICQ had something like that,.
Then again i am also curious where the tab version of messanger is…
why don’t we concentrate on fixing chat first before coming out with new things !!!!!!!
Comment by rebel — September 12, 2007 #
I think this would be pretty cool, actually. I’m not sure why everyone is so upset; there’s no breach of privacy here. Yahoo already stores users’ buddy lists and they’re not making them public or anything. It’s just an application, (or really an exploratory prototype) to suggest buddies based on the friends that my friends share. I think it’d be fun!
Comment by Jon — September 12, 2007 #
You “Yahoos” should be working on fixing the system you have…..let the staff you mentioned go back to the customer service switchboard and mind their own business. This idea is just one more method to limit our privacy and therefore our liberty. Please wake up to the fact that you have one of the few systems that has actually regressed over the years rather than progressing. If you plan to go out of business…have the guts to admit it and cut your losses while you can.
Comment by rocky_raccoon — September 12, 2007 #
I think it would be great between good friends who trust each other. Anyone that is worried about privacy should have an option to not allow others to see who is on their friend’s list.
Comment by dingleberry — September 12, 2007 #
Great idea! I would love to see who is on my buddy’s buddy list. If you people have nothing to hide, why worry about your privacy? It’s not going to give your name and address, phone, credit card info, etc. Quit being so paranoid!
Comment by Pillsbury Doughboy — September 12, 2007 #
Not a bad idea, Yo! But you could also put a disable feature for this new innovation of yours. So that those who are concerned about their privacy won’t be too bothered.
Comment by Jaunty Mellifluous — September 13, 2007 #
Hello… I think it’s foe than a friend… It’s a good feature for the spammers and booters.. not for yahoo users..and when the question comes on make a friend then i think chat rooms are good tools but before this feature, you should think about yahoo users’ privacy…
Comment by Ankit — September 13, 2007 #
Yet another Bad Idea from Yah00ey. I’m amazed that something like this would even be considered.
How about first FIXING an existing service, such as CHAT, before implementing something new and generally unwanted?
Comment by mourning_still — September 13, 2007 #
you might as well give everyone your password.. no i have family in my list that do not utilize chat rooms, for reasons of their own… i dont think all my friends should have the right to add them, just because my friends thinks it is a good idea… family i have would remove them from my list if this happens, they are long distance and we use messenger solely for our time togather as we cant be togather right now, and they would stop using yahoo altogather if they thought others can .. just add them, the one thing i have learned from 10 years in chat… the world is full of some pretty sick people… and i do know some of my friends, have friends on their list, i would never associate with… if the yahoo team was to read the email complaints they are sent, instead of sending out the automated emails that they do.. i am sure they would have to agree, that there are very sick people out in chat!!! friends list should be kept personal periodly!!
Comment by unhappy — September 13, 2007 #
if yahoo does allow the future.. im feature, i and alot of others will go to msn for intsant messenger and leave yahoo totally… the idea flat stinks!!!!!!!!
Comment by unhappy — September 13, 2007 #
I surely want to try this on Messenger. I’d even create a new account and some contacts, also new accounts, just to see this.
I know this software might prove to be a foe, but as someone said: knowledge is the best defense!
I presume it uses some exploit and/or some automation scripting. Will the AV/ Firewall software detect it? How about IDS/IPS?
Comment by Robintel — September 13, 2007 #
1. Let’s not be blatantly unreceptive to a new idea. It can surely not be implemented in the current raw form which undoubtedly compromises the privacy of a number of people. However, put in with a few restrictions and customizations based on individual choices (for e.g - people could select their visibility levels for their friends’ friends as part of the “stealth settings”), it will be a productive feature.
2. In the face of growing popularity of social networking websites, Yahoo could actually emerge as a market leader, if it can somehow streamline it’s messenger client to handle social networking features as well. You hit two huge flocks of birds with a single stone ! Of course, as mentioned earlier, this needs to be done without any compromise on user privacy.
3. And finally.. the comment on “India and Pakistan” - whatever it means - needs to be deleted.. for the fact that it doesn’t make any sense, rather than anything else
Cheers..
Comment by Abhinav Kishore — September 13, 2007 #
If this is implemented, I will no longer use Yahoo messenger. It will suck to give up a contact list I have built over 7+ years, but my privacy is too valuable.
@Jon - okay, let me write an application for your cell phone that allows me to see the phone numbers of everyone in your phones address book, and all of their address books. Do you like that idea - I doubt it.
I have nothing to hide, but I don’t want people that I don’t know knowing whom I chose to communicate with via IM. Wanting privacy does not mean you are trying to hide anything, it means that you don’t think people need to know everything about you.
Comment by Bradley — September 13, 2007 #
Hiya!
I 100% AGREE with what Bradley says below.
I don’t have anything to hide, does not mean that any dick or harry starts keeping tabs on me.
T don’t have anything bad to hide also dont mean I go running naked on the streets for God’s sake!! LOL
WAKE UP YAHOOOOOPPPPPSSSS
-Maya
QUOTE:
“If this is implemented, I will no longer use Yahoo messenger. It will suck to give up a contact list I have built over 7+ years, but my privacy is too valuable.
@Jon - okay, let me write an application for your cell phone that allows me to see the phone numbers of everyone in your phones address book, and all of their address books. Do you like that idea - I doubt it.
I have nothing to hide, but I don’t want people that I don’t know knowing whom I chose to communicate with via IM. Wanting privacy does not mean you are trying to hide anything, it means that you don’t think people need to know everything about you.
Comment by Bradley — September 13, 2007 # “
Comment by Maya — September 14, 2007 #
i dont think this is a good idea at all..from what i seen in chat it would be used to check up on whos chating with who ..more like spying than looking for friends
Comment by tempervess — September 14, 2007 #
For sure Foe. I don’t want anyone knowing who is on my list!
Comment by Dog Clothing — September 14, 2007 #
i vote foe………it’s bad enough we have people we don’t know trying to add us off of others 360 pages ( why i no longer use mine) now this……i’ll pass……if i wanted the people on my list to know who else was there…i’d tell them
it just legitimizes the spy programs out there…if you can’t beat them, join them mentality……inmates running the asylum…(i’ll stop now…lol….but you get my drift).
Comment by Joe — September 14, 2007 #
Dear Sarah
I see you are talking about the direction of software cool. I have an important enhancement to yahoo messenger.
Look as you know the ignore list has a limit right. Well, there also happens that you can’t clear the ignore list cuz once you log back in its all back.
So I was thinking why not enhance selective stealth mode outside of messenger.
What I mean is sometimes I like to delete all my friends off messenger cuz it gets ridiculously long.
But then some of those people I also don’t want contacting me and I cannot ignore them anymore. And to keep them from buggin I must add them AGAIN and do the stealth thing, which is cool but why should I have to do that.
So I was thinking it would be cool, if you guys added the stealth feature to the yahoo profiles meaning we can go to that user’s profile and click something that says appear permanently offline to this user. That way we don’t have to add them while still being able to be online, without being bothered by them as much.
Cuz the only other way I see is being offline to everyone, and when I am trying to rebuilt my friend’s list its super difficult.
Please think about it, it would be a really cool feature used by a lot of people.
Comment by CC — September 14, 2007 #
Hi all, first my english is not good but I will try to make you enderestand what I mean,
1- If I am a business man and I have the seller and buyrer both in my list so after enablenig this what means my busines the buyer and seller will connect together and will lose my busines.
2- I have some people in my list that they are only chat friends and I am not sure to trust them so how if they can see my wife and family and also they can contact them.
3- I am married for example and I am looking for new one and I have my old wife and new one both in same list, imagine what will happen if the list published?
Those are a few samples of hundred reasons that the new IDEA have been made made only base on some hacking IDEA not base on right chat IDEAs and the creatores I am 100% sure that they have some sych problems cus they like to enter the privacy of people. Be sure me and thousands of yahoo users (email and messenger) first will delete all our list then will stop using the lovly IM client after around 8 years. I think this will be the end of yahoo that I was never thinking about it. Cus always I had this Idea that Yahoo! is the best and will not have end day but….
Thanks All.
Comment by Unknown — September 15, 2007 #
It would definitely be a friend as far as I’m concerned. I bet this would help discover people that you know but didn’t add to your list. About the privacy concerns, you can always click Deny
Comment by Alan — September 15, 2007 #
This is a bad idea. I value my privacy. I don’t want my other friends to see who is on my friends list. Don’t make this change.
Comment by Glenda — September 15, 2007 #
I definately would consider that an invasion of my privacy. If that feature were added with no way to control it, I’m afraid I would have to refuse adding people to my list at all in order to protect both them and myself. I’m totally against that idea.
Comment by Rosie — September 15, 2007 #
One’s Contact List contains his/her private private contacts, so making that public will be a very bad idea.
Comment by Khurram — September 16, 2007 #
This is the ‘Net, for the love of toast. If you do not have “something to hide”, you are not taking care with yourself and the people with whom you correspond.
Definitely FOE…
Comment by Elizabeth — September 18, 2007 #
Foe Foe and Foe!
Comment by Dog Costume — September 19, 2007 #
after a long searching i found my long lost friends and found out that they live far away from home and all of us have our own families. i am glad that we’re all excel in our chosen field
Comment by yukino — September 19, 2007 #
ok… just what is the point… don’t we already have 360? As far as I can see it has no real purpose, not even to satisfy curiosity as to who is on someones list. A big thumbs down, how about just fix whats wrong with Yahoo NOW..
Comment by jumangi — September 19, 2007 #
I THINK PEOPLE SHOULD MIND THEIR OWN BUSSINES NO MATTER WHO OR WHAT THEY ARE. WELL DUCE THIS BE UR GURL VANNY♥
XoXoXoXoXoXoXoXo…
Comment by vanity_VANNY — September 20, 2007 #
I sure as hell wouldn’t want freaks from ALL over the world to hack into my friends list. Why do you think most people are running YTunnel or YTK - to STOP this harrassment. What the hell, we SHOULD have the RIGHT to chat with whom we want to, not some freak from who knows where. Man, you guys are really stupid, choice is what it is all about & you are chasing people away. Guess Chet will have to devise a way around this too.
Comment by Lola — September 20, 2007 #
This is the dumbest thing I have ever heard Yahoo think of, to date. Now instead of worrying about Crackers, Booters & Hackers, we have to worry about Yahoo bothering our friends. Guess people will start to drop their buddy lists if this becomes fact. Thanks for the warning.
Comment by Tigerlady — September 20, 2007 #
Well
this is a great idea…for finding many new frends
well many people r criticising that it is not good for privacy.
if ur looking for privacy then u can use msn messenger or some thing like that.
or they can add a option of not sharing their friends who dont want their friends to be seen by any one….
and they should provide similar facility for bots and spammers which they have currently for yahoo rooms..
this is a nice idea
Comment by Akshay — September 21, 2007 #
That’s good ide. Great! Finding many new friends via this
Comment by vika — September 24, 2007 #
Hi,
Personally I dont want it. My friends are private, consisting of family, work colleagues and a small handful of people from chat rooms. I do not use 360 because I like to ensure my privacy is secure.
Further, I do not agree as some said of an ‘opt out’ if I dont want this. It should really be an ‘opt in’, that way you can ensure you are not breaching any individuals privacy prior to them opting out.
Ian
Comment by Ian — September 24, 2007 #
I was just trying to find out how to find other users who were onlilne. It must have been when I used ICQ that I could do that search. I don’t mind being seen online and getting to meet others, but this making my messenger list available to others is NOT right!!!! My friends should be asked if they want to be seen. I mean, really, wouldn’t you?
Peace ‘n Blessings
StarDust
Comment by StardustCowgirl — September 26, 2007 #
Definitely a foe. I am a Yahoo! messenger lover, but I would stop using it the moment this is implemented. This is a friend for spammers and for those who have nothing better to do than worrying about who their friends have on their list. For everybody else, this is a no-no.
Comment by Mody — October 1, 2007 #
If this is implemented, or anything like it is ever implemented, I will stop using Yahoo…period. I’ll cancel my messenger account, and my email account. And tell everyone I know who uses Yahoo services about this invasion of privacy.
This is the equivalent of giving someone access to your phone book, email contacts, or your cell phone contacts, just because they’re a friend of a friend of a friend, etc.
It’s a RETARDED notion. Privacy is privacy. You don’t need to explain to anyone why you want it and expect it from a service such as Y Messenger; it is just a given.
Do not violate your loyal users’ privacies by implementing this stupid hacker-friendly system.
And please, while you’re at it, fix any and all other current bugs or issues that your system has now…things that can violate my privacy now, or give hackers, phishers, bots, etcetera, entry into my system.
Thanks. And sorry if this came off as harsh, but this whole idea just sounds like a bunch of hackers sitting around a table brainstorming about what a cool new code they could write, and oh, how they can test it on the silly Y messengers users who would be none the wiser.
Sorry guys, I won’t be a guinea pig for your hacker innovations.
Thank you again.
Rebecca
Comment by Rebecca — October 3, 2007 #
Hi,
NOOOOO Thanks. Those who think they have nothing to hide have never been invaded by an enemy.
Keep your hackers out of my business please. Being able to turn it off is not an option, it’s a stealth way of invading without the member’s knowledge, since most won’t be aware of it in time. Like any opt out service, it is a sneaky way of invading privacy.
I’m relatively new to ymess (started this year) and will become quickly GONE if you start such an INVASION OF PRIVACY.
Comment by Anni — October 6, 2007 #
I thinks it’s a neat idea, would love to see it, If someone wants to see who is on your list ,trust me they don;t need this program ,,it can be done ,,,this just lets the rest of us meet new friends, old buddies and so on,,i say go for it
Comment by Pete — October 11, 2007 #
I think it’s a great idea, if someone pms you and you don;t know them or want to chat with them you can always click the ignore option, lets get it up and running
Comment by Pete — October 12, 2007 #
[…] - Vinay Kakade, Ashwinder Ahluwalia and myself - got together to throw together a quick hack called “Discovr” for hack day. This hack demonstrated some of the powerful abilities to analyze your friends network […]
Pingback by headphono.us » Blog Archive » Friend Finder on Mash — October 23, 2007 #
I like what this tool could do. I dont care who my friends have on their lists, but I DO want to know whos list I appear on.
Sure whooy chook, I get a notice and the right to approve who adds me to their list. But hey this is the real world and we known damn well they have ways around it.. I know for a fact I have been illegaly added to more lists than people I know, and it bothers me who can and cannot see my status..
Just as it does that if I delete someone from my list my block that I chose to put them on is no longer working, so, i may not get their messages, but unless I wanted to be invisiable they can see me as clear as day.
Not to mention the many friends that come ad go over the years, some may have deleted us, and I would like to do the same without having to ask if Im still on their list or not.. they deleted me for a reason, and probably wont reply truthfully if they are not on the up and up..
This app has potential to finaly do this for me.
Dont give me that privacy crap, it does not invate anyones privacy to be given the right to know whs list WE appear on, in fact it is better security for us..
now msn has always had this ability.. why not yahoo.. I know whos list I am on, and they know i know, If I am on their list why should they care that I know I am on their list.
I’d use this for fun also.. seriously YES there are a thousand and 1 weidoes out there, what girl in chat has not heard how she is the only one, nothing wrong with catching a liar with his pants down.. I dont care if my friends know who my friends are.. hey Id love them to all get along together, I am not hiding anyone from my lovers or friends, I hope that my lovers or friends dont either.
I guess the players will not like this so much
Comment by Tammy — March 11, 2008 #