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Yahoo! 360 is Yahoo's social networking and blogging service.

Interactive social networking sites have become a mainstay on the internet, and a large internet corporation such as Yahoo couldn't be left behind, so Yahoo! 360 was launched in mid-2005 as Yahoo's answer to social networking and blogging. Yahoo used its large member base to push Yahoo! 360, allowing users to use their existing Yahoo! ID accounts to login. This means that in principle there is a potentially large number of users in the Yahoo! 360 service. The basics are all there, like the ability to add users as friends, a (very limited) blog, and areas where users can share interests. Although when we clicked on "Scotland" as an interest, it seemed that the Scottish interest page had been taken over by spam messages of the promiscuous type. Not very impressive looks like Yahoo haven't been looking after their 360 service. It's not surprising then to hear rumors that Yahoo! 360 may be wound down in the near future or merged into another Yahoo product. Yahoo! 360 was closed in July 2009.

Yahoo! 360 competes with other social networking services, such as Facebook, Bebo, MySpace and others. It seems to most closely resemble MySpace, which was the most popular social networking site at the time Yahoo! 360 launched. The profile pages seem to be mostly static and lack the modern Web 2.0 widgets that internet users have become accustomed to with the likes of Facebook. Yahoo! 360 may have been modern at launch, but it seems to have been left behind while other social networking sites have gone forward.

Yahoo! 360 uses the common utilitarian Yahoo interface, with basic colors and understated design, which, despite not looking all that awe inspiring, is simple to understand. Your own personal social network page can have a customized look and feel, although you can only choose from a number of basic themes. Sometimes you will find that your personal color theme will clash with the colorful and distracting banner advertisements.

Users who already have a Yahoo! ID will be able to login straight away. If you do not have a Yahoo! ID, then you will be able to register for one. Yahoo asks for a surprising amount of personal details, so if you are concerned about privacy then you might want to look elsewhere.

Yahoo! 360 is a free service, funded by advertising.

Considering that Yahoo! 360 may be closed down in the future, or merged into another Yahoo site, we recommend you don't use it until it becomes clear as to exactly what the future holds. In the meantime there are better social networking sites out there.

• Very basic social networking and blogging site.
• Not so well maintained, lack of modern features.

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