Yahoo recently announced a new move that is sure to make developers working with its Yahoo Application Platform (YAP) quite happy: along a new home page redesign, the company has now opened up their home page to third-party applications built with YAP. This means that outside developers could get exposure on the Yahoo! home page which averages 330 million unique visitors per month.
As reported on the Yahoo Developer Network Blog, applications developed with YAP be easily distributed and installed on various Yahoo! properties:
Like the open apps on My Yahoo!, homepage apps are built with the Yahoo! Application Platform (YAP), which allows you to build and distribute an app that any Yahoo! user can install (see how the user experience looks). Raise awareness of your app through traditional mechanisms (email, ads, etc.) and use “Add to Yahoo!” buttons to encourage installs. Your app installs will also be reflected in Yahoo! Updates.
As we’ve previously covered here on ProgrammableWeb, YAP represents a key part of the Yahoo Open Strategy (YOS).
Yahoo! highlights the fact that there are 400 applications already ready available for users to personalize pages, and that number is sure to grow with this new capability. Check out the blog post for a list of some of the apps already available, which include Budget by Mint.com, Movies by Flixster, and QuickPress by WordPress. The user experience for installing an app is shown below:
We’re looking forward to seeing how Yahoo!’s home page evolves for users now that apps are front and center. Be sure to check out the documentation and forums for additional information on developing with YAP.
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