Yahoo has been in the news for its product announcements and for its fight to stay from Microsoft. Now, in adding to the news, its CTO Ari Balogh is talking about an Open Strategy (the OS in Y!OS) that will see social elements binding together the various properties under the purple umbrella

An excerpt from SearchEngineLand

Rather than creating another social network, Yahoo will be seeking to create a single profile that helps ground and center the social experience across the network. This is what has been missing at Yahoo - a social center (360 failed to gel and provide that). YOS also seeks to make the whole of Yahoo more social by overlaying relevant contacts and discussions on different pages within Yahoo, including the home page. To that end, there's an emphasis on what amount to widgets, though that word isn't used, that can be placed throughout Yahoo on various pages. The whole strategy extends into mobile (consistent with the spirit of Yahoo onePlace).

This is one move where Yahoo has to play its cards well and it will do better than Google. For one, Google itself has not been very successful in the social space. Among them, Yahoo has a greater clout with its various online properties. Done well, Yahoo could end up being the one stop for all your web activities and then with an improved search it would all fold in together.

That is the most optimistic view ofcourse. If the rewiring goes well Yahoo would be what FaceBook wants to become. But whether it can pull it off on its own and how the Microsoft merger (if it occurs) will affect it is to be seen.