Yahoo Oct. 28 launched Yahoo Open Strategy 1.0, the company's bid to unify the disparate user networks within Yahoo and allow outside programmers to develop applications that augment the user experience.

YOS includes a universal profile, basically a control panel where users can access and customize apps; a portable address book, allowing users to move their contacts to other Web sites; the ability to find new friends; and the option to share updates, such as ratings on Yahoo Movies or Yahoo Buzz content.

YOS is the company's push to make its Web properties more integrated and seamless for users at a time when users are increasingly integrating their Web services through singular home pages, such as iGoogle, or social networks such as Facebook and MySpace.

When Yahoo unveiled YOS last April, the company resisted the contention that it was essentially making Yahoo a social network for its hundreds of millions of users. But that is what it is, albeit at a greater scale than Facebook or MySpace. Note these comments from Jay Rossiter, senior vice president of Yahoo Open Strategy, about YOS:

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