history of ydn

Jonathan LeBlancPrincipal Software EngineerYahoo! Developer Network

Twitter: @jcleblancWebsite: http://www.jcleblanc.com

Lessons Learned from Building the Yahoo! Developer Network

What We’re Going to Cover

• The history of YDN and where we are now

• Our technology stack and what we’ve learned from it

• Successes and failures: Our partner strategies

• How we handle developer outreach

• Final lessons

History of YDN: The Founding (2005)

Funded by Jerry Yang to be the

Yahoo! Technology Backbone

Developer Network launched

Staff of 2 dedicated employees+1 on search

Single product focus (search)

Servers only on the west coast

History of YDN: Year of the Developer (2006)

Developers! Developers! Developers!

Focus on the developer community

20 developer APIs in YDN

The first external hack day is created to foster the culture of hack

History of YDN: Year of the Open Strategy (2008)

Open APIsOpen Source

Social Strategy

Focus on “open and social” development through new platforms and APIs

Renewed focus on Open Source

Strong evangelism and developer outreach programs

Continued growth of Hack

History of YDN: Year of Innovations (2011)

Tech InnovationHack Day

HackU

Focus on fostering internal and external innovations

60+ developer offerings in YDN

Internal and external hack events

HackU program for university innovations






• Final lessons

Technology Stack: Our Products and Services

63 APIs and Toolshttp://developer.yahoo.com/everything.html

Application PlatformsYAP, Connected TV, Desktop Widgets

APIs and Web ServicesYQL, Flickr, Local, Maps, GeoPlanet, Shopping, Social APIs

Business ToolsFinance, BOSS, APT

Communication ToolsMessenger, Mail

Technology Stack: Building a Product Focus

Technology Stack: A Commitment to Open Source

Authentication and Authorization

Platform Technologies

Server and Cloud Technologies

Technology Stack: What We’ve Learned

Abstract out difficult to implement technologies with SDKs.

Focus on several core features of your technology offerings, not the entire stack.

Open source initiatives provide an excellent “get started quickly” technology base.






• Final lessons

Partner Strategies: Integration Success and Failure of Zynga

• First round of “Mafia Wars” as an initial game partner for YAP in 2009. Failed to produce high install rates and difficult to integrate.

• Second integration of “Mafia Wars” and “FishVille” in late 2010. Higher install rates, new viral channels and little integration pain.

Partner Strategies: Failure to Integrate “Company”

• Third round partner integrating with our social services.

• They created their own OAuth implementation since we did not have an appropriate SDK.

• Integration failed near completion of the code.

Partner Strategies: Successful Integration of Mint

• Second round productivity application partner.

• Helped them integrate a high-security model into a low-security transfer platform.

• Highly successful application push.

Partner Strategies: Core Takeaways

Ensure that you have a partner support arm to provide hands-on aid (E-Mail, Skype, Conference calls).

Have tools in place to support development efforts (SDKs, Documentation).

Have a flexible product and release schedule where feedback can be implemented quickly.






• Final lessons

Handling Developer Outreach: Forums

http://developer.yahoo.net/forum

Handling Developer Outreach: Twitter

http://www.twitter.com/ydn

Handling Developer Outreach: Facebook

http://www.facebook.com/yahoodevelopernetwork

Handling Developer Outreach: Takeaways

You need appropriate supportchannels internal to the company.

Developers are your best sourceof bugs and features.

Not all outreach channels can be treated the same way.






• Final lessons

Final Lessons: Takeaways

If you can’t support it, don’t do it.

Support your community where it starts, don’t artificially create one.

Developers are not your enemy.

Learn from your mistakes and your user complaints. Build a better product.

Foster a culture, not a brand.

Questions?

http://www.slideshare.net/jcleblanc/historyofydn

Jonathan LeBlanc

Yahoo! Developer Network

Twitter: @jcleblanc