Yahoo Buys Del.icio.us... But What Does It Mean?

The hot story du jour is Yahoo's acquisition of social bookmarking trailblazer del.icio.us. Web 2.0 observers have their takes on the meaning behind the purchase, whether it be that Yahoo's home-grown tagging technology needed beefing up, that Yahoo recognizes that tagging might be the "next big thing" in Internet search, that Yahoo simply wanted a complement to its recent acquisition Flickr, or that del.icio.us was looking for an exit strategy.

The amount that Yahoo paid for del.icio.us (still an unknown at this point) may indicate whether the acquisition signifies a mainstreaming of the social bookmarking/folksonomy movement, or a bubble burst and a big fish merely gobbling up a weak competitor. Watch for some interesting speculation over the next week.

Source: Om Malik