Let’s see, the future of Yahoo is Social Media. Social Media is interactive user generated content such as tagging, blogs, MyWeb, user reviews, photo sharing, ratings, and perhaps even user generated mashups (I’m thinking that Ning is an obvious acquisition target) and, oh yes, Yahoo Answers.

With plans to differentiate not only their search engine from the algorithmic Google, but also their travel, autos, and almost every other Yahoo channel - one question comes to mind; “How to mobilize 200 million active registered users?”

Sure a good percentage of those users are going to get big thrills out of seeing their photo or avatar next to a local business review (or in some cases ALL of the business reviews) or when answering a distressed Yahoo user’s questions. As the novelty of having your name up in pixels wears off however, Yahoo’s going to have to find another bone to throw. And it looks like they are planning just that and a lot more.

Read more at http://www.searchenginejournal.com/index.php?p=2816.