David Dalka mentions that during SOBCon upcoming changes to the popular social networking site include:

• A rebranding (to reflect it’s acquistion by Yahoo!)
• Some MyBlogLog 2.0 upgrades – site redesign and a Web2.0-ish widget upgrade
• Anti-social spam features like avatar moderation and masking type features

Since Google rules the roost at the moment on the search engine front, there’s plenty of opportunity for Yahoo! and Microsoft to capture mindshare and market share on the non-search engine traffic fronts.

There’s opportunity to look at the hubs of highly targeted traffic clustered around social sites and forums.

So far we haven’t heard not many high profile forums being acquired have been reported in the mass media, even though transaction values for these deals can range from the hundreds of thousands to the millions.

Selective media focus? Perhaps. But as social traffic and social media continue to gain prominence, Yahoo! initiatives to rebrand and reinvent itself will be crucial.

It could be an interesting inflexion point for Yahoo!

Witness:

Whether you choose to see Yahoo! Auctions as ‘retiring’ or closing, it is indicative that Yahoo! is:

• Exiting the auction space, bowing down to eBay
• Channelling its resources into it’s Yahoo! Shopping channel

What US internet marketers may not realize that at least in Singapore, there are as many or possibly transactions done on Yahoo! Auctions Singapore compared to eBay Singapore.

How does that affect your business model if you’re using auctions as a distribution channel?

Either way, it doesn’t pay for the Google/Yahoo!/Microsoft behemoths to lay their eggs in every basket. As you heard and will continue to hear, the mantra is “focus, focus, focus” even if you’re a multi-billion dollar company.

Taking aim at an area of speciality, whether natural search, social traffic or another web 2.0 channel would be the way to go.

See: Robyn “Sleepyblogger” Tippins SOBCon blog links