Does the universe need another Twitter?

So, Yahoo! is launching a Twitter wannabe called Yahoo! Meme? Not quite sure why they'd want to do a me-too version of a service that no one's figured out how to monetize, that has churn problems, that's disliked by teens and that is sure to see its red-hot buzz fade any day now. Plus, Yahoo! has tried and failed on the social-media front before. Anybody remember Yahoo360 (born 3/29/05, died 7/13/09, according to Wikipedia)? Or when Yahoo! Video was supposed to be a challenger to YouTube? Sure, Yahoo! Mail and Messenger are huge, but they've never been huge moneymakers. Besides, now that the Microsoft search deal is behind it (at least the negotiations part), we thought Yahoo! was all about concentrating on what it does best. That's being a really successful digital media company, in our minds at least. Hasn't CEO Carol Bartz promised to be more focused?

—Posted by Mike Shields