App Store Dynamics - Not Quite An Apology From Yahoo, FB 3.0 Countdown

Yesterday, Yahoo went ahead to call out Apple on their Yahoo Messenger approval.  The lack off.  Well, it turned out that Yahoo was trying to jump on the bandwagon to bad-mouth Apple's dismal app approval process without doing it own homework first.

Reported on CNet News, Yahoo posted a blog titled "And so we wait...on Apple".  The CNet post titled to max out the effort of the Yahoo blog, Ms. Sarah Bacon of Yahoo called out Apple for the "somewhat unpredictable process". 

Well, Bacon, it's gonna get a lot more predictable for you and Yahoo from now on.  First, Yahoo needs to do something about this. Yahoo had pulled out their update to Yahoo Messenger to add more update and Bacon was left out of the loop.  It's funny because you'd figure that someone on her team might know a thing or two about what's going on.

No wonder Yahoo has been in such a dismal shape compared to Google and has to look to Microsoft for search helps.  

Two weeks ago, Yahoo submitted their app for approval only to pull it and resubmit it a week ago.  Ms. Bacon, it's only been a week.  

Anyway, something more positive.  Facebook 3.0!  You know.  Facebook, what Yahoo should have morph into.  Facebook, what Yahoo tried and failed to duplicate and become.  Anyway, that's what I'm waiting for and I think it's one of the most anticipated update.

I'll be honest about social apps.  I'm indifferent to them at best.  I'm simply don't care for them or the games that are played on there.  Having said that, Facebook's app is well thought-out and serves as a model for other app developers (ahem, Yahoo) build upon.  

Alright, I also use the Yahoo! app and it works very well.  But Facebook is leagues better in terms of usefulness for all things Facebook.  Here's a video I found on TC.

Links: Techcrunch, CNet News, Yahoo Blog (for some reason, folks don't apologize any longer)

Two Apps I Want With Push Notifications

How many of you know that Google has more than just Maps and Google Earth on the iPhone?  Yahoo has two apps, Yahoo and Yahoo Messenger.

Well, if you don't know, I understand.  Both Google and Yahoo don't really push their iPhone apps all that much on users.  Google is probably torn between supporting Android and keeping Apple happy.  Yahoo has said it'll dedicate more resources to the iPhone development at the cost of other mobile platforms.

However, with Google and Yahoo making the maiden iPhone introduction, both companies have not really done all that much for our favorite mobile device.  And with push notifications now a feature that's likely to play a prominent role with the platform, I'm disheartened to say that neither of these companies have updated their apps with push notifications.

And it stands to make sense that Yahoo and Google offer push notification.  First, there's Google.  The app is nothing more than an app with icons that link you to the mobile web apps in Safari.  And with some features not ready for mobile use, like Blogger and Docs, they serve nothing for the mobile users, iPhone or Android.

I'm being kind to say Google has a lot of catching up to do with their app and but to put it bluntly, Google app is a dismal failure.  Voice Search is cool but it isn't a feature that has lit up iPhone and Apple blogs since its introduction.

Yahoo has the most complete app of the two portal companies.  And I have use Yahoo app from time to time.  I'll get more into Yahoo's app with kickass potentials next but I'm still waiting for the 3.0-compatible version.

Fully, we'll see more from these two companies in the coming weeks rather than months.  Yahoo's app shows the potential of what a big corporation with the right development can leverage its online properties to better serve mobile users.