We’ve heard that Yahoo may be unveiling a Twitter clone called Yahoo Meme. According to our tipster David Ruiz’s blog (it’s in Portuguese, here’s the translated version), Yahoo is inviting users to test out the alpha version of a competitor to Twitter. Translated to English, the front page of Yahoo Meme says “Do not have time nor patience for blogging? So Meme is tailored for you. Wait” Yahoo Meme’s mascot is a dog instead of the Twitter bird.
Here’s Yahoo’s description of its “meme” (translated from Portuguese):
Today, a “meme” on the Internet is popularly understood as a fever and became content that is played by everyone.
The term “meme” was created by Richard Dawkins in his book “The Selfish Gene,” 1976. Dawkins and other scientists after it identified the meme as a fragment of culture or behavior that is replicated in the brain brain in a manner similar to what happens to genes in biology.
It is clear that the term “meme” as used here, is an adaptation of free and expanded its strict scientific sense, but not away from the essence of the idea.
Yahoo Meme seems to be an exact clone of Twitter. Once you attach a user name to your meme, you are allowed a description of a minimum of 100 characters. Similar to Twitter, you can search for users and follow others. You can write text and include links to photos, video, and music. Like Twitter, you are restricted to messages with only 140 characters. Ruiz writes that the search on Yahoo Meme is still limited.
Yahoo’s admiration for Twitter begun when it recently developed Sideline, an Adobe AIR-powered desktop Twitter monitoring application. Perhaps admiration turned to envy and Yahoo decided to test out its own full-fledged microblogging service? But why in Brazil? Good think we have readers there keeping on top of things.
We’ve contacted Yahoo for more details.
this is smart, they have the money to attract other countries to their service.
I looked at the translation and the original. Not that great. Here’s a better translation of the middle section.
“Dawkins, and other scientists after him, identified the meme as a fragment of culture or behavior which is replicated from brain to brain, in a way that is similar to what happens with genes in biology.”
Also the third section ‘blows’ too. Here’s a better translation.
“It is evident that the term “meme”, as we use it here, is a free adaptation which has been expanded from its scientific meaning, while not diverging from the essence of the idea.”
Interesting to note, the colors of Meme are the same as the “Brazilian” social network Orkut. Light blue backdrop and purple letters.
Well Portugal Portuguese may differ somewhat from Brazilian Portuguese.
Seriously guys? 3 of the last 4 TechCrunch articles reference Twitter.
lollollollol
it should be obvious they stole the idea!! its called “copyright infringement” and Twitter should react immediately!!!
wow you really dont know anything about copyright
then i saw you had a twitter and that explained everything.
I guess they should sue Plurk and Facebook then.
Then shouldn’t tinyurl sue you?
LOL!
hahaha, that was a good one!
(thought you know my “infringement” thing above was JUST a JOKE!)
eric, techcrunch wants to kill itself. let it, they dont understand we dont give a flying fuck about twitters gayness.
it’s “Portuguese”, man ;D
I was invited today to join meme here in Brazil. It seems to be a good alternative to adopt meme instead of a wordpress blog.
I’ll try to do it. Follow me: meme.yahoo.com/criativo (in portuguese)
#fail : )
Yes. It´s true. We need to wait a little bit more to see the new resources in Meme… still in alpha =)
I’d still go with WP rather than go back to Yahoo.
Brazilians have been using Twitter to get up to date info on all the flooding in the Northeast of Brazil….
Yahoo is too late, once again (não acha?)
All you twitter bashers keep on harping on as to why you will never read another twittercrunch article……
And yet, as every day produces yet another ton of twittercrunch articles, you are all still here complaining…..
the door is open – fuck off somewhere else and winge.. i’m way too busy keeping up with the very latest in the @reply scandal
report back when you find something
twittercrunch?
Contest time!! How many Twitter stories can TechWreck crap out in the course of a single day?! My guess: 116.
Tuna juice!
And let the record reflect the people NOT bashing Twitter are BANDWAGON QUEENS who jump on every trend that crosses their screen
Tuna mayne, i’s wass f’ dinna yo
http://www.tunajuice.com
For all of you who claim to be fed up with TechCrunch for its obsession with Twitter, you sure spend a great deal of time on the site searching for the next post to share your sentiments. I am sure the TC team knows what all of you think. You might do better simply NOT visiting the page. Maybe it’s just too simple.
yeah, you guys clearly love twitter. we just write what you want to read, even though you think you don’t.
Portuguese, not Portugese. Do you speak Englise?
If Orkut could work well for the Brazilians as mySpace clone, I don’t see why Yahoo couldn’t do the same thing with a Twitter clone. The Brazilian web market is still very wide open, good move by Yahoo.
Exactly what I thought when I first read the article. Since Twitter still doesn’t have a Portuguese version and Orkut is the king of social networks in Brazil, a Portuguese version of Twitter is indeed a smart move.
However, I don’t think that the Brazilians who already have a Twitter account will like the idea (I don’t). A copy is just a copy, early adopters don’t like it and they do spread their opinion faster than any other people. So Yahoo! Meme isn’t that smart move after all.
Yahoo seems to be getting stranger by the day. While they’re laying off people and shutting down divisions that maybe have a chance at being something, they then come out with this?
I somewhat understand that this was sold through the ‘it’s important from a search perspective’, but they should be doing innovative search stuff based off twitter, not just creating a close so that they have one.
Are these the last resorts yahoo is turning to as it has got nothing better to do.
nothing Yahoo does really matters anymore because no one I know uses their site
That’s strange. Yahoo.com is still number 1-2 visited site on the planet.
yahoo is the only site that i still use since 1995, i still go to it for movie listings, sports, etc.
get real
I use Yahoo significantly more than Google–but like the rest of the world, I do all my searches on Google.
definitely, I use yahoo for everything… finance, sports, mail, but I rarely use yahoo search.
Why Portuguese? See Orkut – Brazil’s obviously a rich market to develop alternatives without the same level of saturation we see in the US.
Yes. Our english is terrible but our market is very strong.
Seriously, in Brazil we don’t have the investors you have in USA, but I believe it will change soon and new 2.0 solutions will appear in Brazil first.
The reason for testing that in Brazil seems reasonably clear to me. Brazilians are heavy users and early adopters of social networks, and years before MySpace and Facebook meant anything in the U.S. Brazilians were already all hooked on Orkut.
Yups. Brazilians were all hooked up on Orkut much before MySpace & Facebook! It would be interesting to see how good this “meme” stunt of Yahoo would be!
No wonder innovation in the valley is struggling and there are no IPOs…because everyone gets excited about companies with no revenues attached to fat celebrities and hype.
Meme is not a Twitter clone…
I agree
Yep, for sure it’s not another Twitter… it’s different, you can add photos, vídeos, links, or just write on it and you have more, a lot more then just 140 caracters…
It’s good, but I really don’t know if it will be “the” brazilian twitter.
For my first night on Meme it was really fun, everybody following each other no-spams, no bots, just cool posts, new friends and laughts…
\o/
It’s actually way more similar to Tumblr than Twitter. And I mean WAY more.
test
As two users commented, the reason is obvious. Brazil is a huge market, that as a strong social networking tradition, even older than US. I was living there 4 years ago and everybody was already using orkut, this before the raise of facebook worldwide.
So let’s suppose twitter is not famous overthere yet, it’s a good idea from yahoo if they believe the concept is worthy. I don’t see what is wierd about not launching a service in united states first, u should be less egocentrists guys.
And to the guy that talk about copyright infringment, go back crying to school, kid. Less people like you is better for business, in every way.
huh? sixdegrees and collegeclub were around in the late 90s.
forget yahoo meme. There is one more crazy site thats up. http://www.chimein.mobi
the world is just going wacky
Well,I personally don’t think meme Is a twitter clone.simply because Yahoo Is to large a company to creating Clones of Internet start-ups.
However there Is a little resemblance.
but not Clone like resemblance.
that’s like saying twitter was a clone of textamerica.com
É nóis na fita mano!
A gente dominou o Orkut, estamos dominando o Facebook e quase no topo do Twitter!!!
Já fazem serviço direto agora… facilita!
Translating what Mir said
“We’re in the right place at the right time, man! We dominated Orkut, we are now dominating Facebook and almost on top of Twitter!!! They did it right now…this makes it easy!
I am a brazilian and I find this type of behavior truly disgusting. Why comment in portuguese knowing this is not a brazilian blog?
And why brag about having “dominated Orkut, and now Facebook” as if the internet were a huge Risk game?
No wonder many cultures find brazilians de “internet locusts”. We are even IP-banned from some online games because people would get in by the swarms, start talking only in portuguese as if the environment was theirs alone and ruined everything for everyone else. I’ve seen it happen…
everyone is talking on these twitter and like sites. No one is listening. Chaos.
There’s no 140 characters limit, just read the translated blog post version you’ve linked to from the post.
There are no characters limits.
They should insert a presentation button similar Slideshare’s and so we’ll be able to concentrate our presentations, blogs and photos in just one place…
I HATE TWITTER!!! geez! dont they have more then enough social networking sites already?!?!? *SIGH* i am new 2 tech crunch, n all i friggin read about is twitter this, twitter that blah blah blah! other then that this blogs pretty good! seriously people, is twitter paying u guyz for this or are u just doing it on your own accord–if u are, u seriously need 2 ask twitter to at least pay you for making me feel like all my eye can read is twitter–O.o wait, all i really CAN see is twitter!!!
people complaining about TC covering twitter = FAIL.
TC helped begin a wave, the wave is catching on, they are covering it on all angles, they see traffic and ad clicks, whatever, it’s working.
if you don’t like TC covering twitter, you should read something else and not bother the rest of us with your inane comments.
Meme is doing the same thing Kevin Rose has already tried with pownce.com where you had no character limit to your messages and the possibility to send files, music and videos. Pownce was shut down not long ago and I think Kevin Rose is now an investor in twitter, right?
Anyway, hope everything works well for this new twitter competitor.
I got an invitation to test Yahoo! Meme and for me it definitely doesn’t look like a Twitter competitor. it looks a lot more with Tumblr with less media types and the (RIP) Pownce.
Ahh, there is no characters limit.
Bugs me tha there’s always a PT-BR of something instead of PT-PT. Is the internet that much more evolved and adopted in Brazil comparing with Portugal? Serious question. I’d love to know why this happens…
Worldwide, there’s around 191 Brazilian Portuguese speakers versus 10 million in Portugal.
Plus with the spelling reform coming, the difference is less distinct.
yes the spelling reform….sorry, but…ugh…
I know, I know…they are ‘brazilianizing’ the Portuguese language. Even so, I’m not in favor of the reform either because there are BR-PT words that I’ll have to write differently too.
I’d prefer Continental Portuguese keeps its uniqueness. I just hope that whenever I visit Portugal, I’ll be able to understand the accent.
It’s because Portuguese spoken and written in Brazil is completely different from Portugal. In Brazil we (almost) don’t understand what a Portuguese speaker from Portugal says…do you believe that? That’s true.
that goes both ways….
It could be argued that even within Brazil, there’s a ‘Brazilian Vernacular’ and a Standard Brazilian Portuguese….what in linguistics would be called diglossia. The BV would be the L-variant and SBP would be the H-variant. L being less prestigious and H being more prestigious.
Plus, criativo, you are comparing written Brazilian Portuguese to spoken European Portuguese. Situação do tipo “maçãs e laranjas”, né? (situações desiguais)
Hey Leena, I’m brazilian and I can tell why Yahoo has chosen Brazil. Twitter is becoming very very popular here, so Yahoo is trying to take the front on micro-blogging. My opinion? Yahoo will not take it.
Well done Yahoo!.
Grupo Nuevo from Brazil has created the first “corporate meme” that will be used as a lab to test the commercial opportunities meme can generate. Fast guys.
meme.yahoo.com/gruponuevo
It’s not exactly like twitter. it’s a mashup of both tumblr and twitter, form what I’ve gathered of it so far. still lacks som easier interaction with other users outide of your follow list, but looks nice.
look this print screens about meme:
404 error – http://twitpic.com/57759
Access restrict – http://twitpic.com/577op
Fun!
Twitter + 4chan = yahoo meme
testdrive, print screens included:
1. http://twitpic.com/57dxa/full
2. http://twitpic.com/57dyw
3. http://twitpic.com/57dzl
Malditos capitalistas do Norte!
There is only 1 way that Meme has success in Brazil… If it integrates with Twitter. Period.
Yahoo fix the yahoo messenger client dont copy twitter…….the client is slow and it’s full of bugs…..
Actually is more likely to Tumblr than Twitter. The user can post up to 250 words in text, send images from desktop or the url, embed (only) youtube videos and put mp3 direct links; can even use some html tags ( e.g.)
There are no replies, only reposts with your comments above the original post. No direct messages, no favorites.
As the user signs up, not much preferences to set, give you an username, a short description, upload an avatar and check/uncheck for new followers alert. Each account can invite 3 more friends by any email, but to signup, you must use an yahoo ID.
The service is still on alpha development since april and started with the invites on this may 14th.
Yes, i’m using/testing it!
damn! it takes the html tag…fixing:
can even use some html tags ( e.g.)
i quit…you get it
“But why in Brazil?” humm? Maybe because Brazil is the 6th in number of internet users, with more than 40 million connected people.
and… why all microblogging services nowadays are “Twitter Clones”? they didn’t created the microblogging concept.
Totaly true.
“But why in Brazil?” isn’t a valid question since Yahoo! don’t even considered that.
Yahoo! guys here just started with a product that they see potential so they’ve worked hard to success in their mission.
I think meme was better aligned in direction of social distribution than Twitter ;D
Rushed the article a bit, huh? Quite a bunch of spelling errors and typo’s in there.
I’m already using Yahoo! Meme. I’m a brasilian, and love Yahoo! Meme.
Congrulations Yahoo!
I want to try this service. Anybody know how to get the invitation of meme ?
The front page translation in the image isn’t too hot.. it says”
Find cool things? Send to your Meme. It’s fast, easy and free. Wait.
DUDE, Yahoo!Meme WINS!!!! so much better, and is not a twitter clone.More easy, fast and beautiful. I do love Yahoo services, just because is in portuguese doesn’t means is not a good stuff. I´m a Yahoo Lover and MEME is GREAT.
They will never compete with Twitter. You have to go through the hassle of making a lame ass yahoo email account if you even want through the door. Yahoo is the biggest sellout in history anyways.