Google Calendar and Outlook from Microsoft, which have hundreds of millions of users worldwide, are the undisputed leaders when it comes to online calendars and calendar apps. Another company is now looking to make a splash in the space by relocating there as well. Technology news website LahoreHerald has heard and confirmed that Yahoo is developing Day, a new standalone calendar app. According to our sources, the company has hired Jeremy Le Van, who co-founded another calendaring app, Sunrise, which has eventually sold to Microsoft for more than $100 million and used as the foundation of the company’s own extremely popular calendar platform, Outlook, to assist with the design of the product.
Many people have disappointed when Sunrise came to an end; now it appears that they may have a chance to see Sunrise 2.0, to put it another way.
In response to our question, a Yahoo spokesman stated, “We are investigating other ways to better serve consumers. And that includes new ideas surrounding mobile-first time management, calendar, and events”. In preparation for a more widespread launch, the service has now in an invite-only closed alpha phase (you can also sign up on the site).
Calendars are the foundation on which many of us build our day-to-day schedules, whether for work or for leisure activities. Moreover, it is possible that the greater the number of digital platforms used to organize our activities and schedule them, the more powerful calendars will become.
Google’s Calendar
Therefore, having a calendar function or app as part of a larger service for platforms is a good way to keep people engaged on the platform as a whole. It is also a way for the platform to gather more information about user activity. Google’s Calendar, for example, is extremely tightly and frequently automatically connected with the rest of the business’s suite of productivity and information services, providing the corporation with yet another spoke in its wheel to keep customers coming back for more.
And it’s not just Yahoo that might be interested in expanding its operations in this area. In 2018, Facebook purchased Redkix, ostensibly to expand the number of calendar and other productivity apps available in Workplace. In the end, Workplace integrates with third-party solutions and does not provide a standalone calendar application. Facebook’s main consumer app does not provide a standalone calendar feature, and neither does its business app. However, given the fact that people are organizing so much else on Facebook’s properties (not just through Events on Facebook, but also across Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger). It appears to be an area that the company may still potentially expand into in the future.
Even Yahoo itself includes a pared-down calendar widget that you can access through Yahoo Mail, which is a good starting point. Even if it’s fairly easy these days to combine one’s email with most other calendar apps. It’s not apparent how popular it is among users.
The question will then be how Day hopes to distinguish itself from the competition and how it intends to compete in the first place.
In contrast to the way Google, Microsoft, and even Yahoo itself now integrate calendar capabilities into their larger productivity suites. We gather that this is not the path that Yahoo is going with Day.
Yahoo’s Mail team
The software has developed by members of Yahoo’s Mail team. But it has handled “like a startup” within the company, according to our sources. And has granted permission to develop it independently. It does not have any special Yahoo branding and does not include any Yahoo integrations. This will has kept separate, similar to the many calendar apps — such as Sunrise — that are available in app stores. And will be something that can be integrated with whatever other email or other tools a person may be employing. Over time, it is possible that efforts may be made to sell Day through the use of Mail, which has approximately 200 million subscribers.
While Yahoo has been unsuccessful in other areas, such as messaging. It believes there is still room for more innovation in this crowded market with the right approach. This is despite the fact that it has a history of attempts to do so in other areas. Such as search and email, which have all been largely outperformed by Google.
According to a story about Calendly a $3 billion business that has proven to a major hit with people. Who need to organize meetings — calendar apps can also be difficult to use for another reasons. No doubt, they have widely utilized. But their importance has often overlooked: calendars are never the final destination for a person. But rather a place to record when, how, and with whom they will arrive. Is it possible to find further ways to improve that fundamental functionality?
Yahoo appears to believe that there exist such apps, and that consumers will want to use an app that has such functionality.
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