Yahoo offers rival to Live

Yahoo 360° 'social publishing service' announced

Yahoo UK has launched a public trial of a platform that is remarkably similar to the Microsoft Live  personal portal platform, a beta version of which was made available two days ago.

Yahoo 360° is described as an 'innovative social publishing service' that 'allows users to share the information that matters most to them and keep connected with the people they know – all in one convenient and customisable place.'

It includes tools for blogging and sharing photos, integrating under one portal services such as Yahoo Messenger, Yahoo Photos, Yahoo Groups, Yahoo Avatars and Yahoo Music.

Yahoo! 360° will also be part of the BT Yahoo online service and will be integrated into BT Communicator voice-over-IP client.

BT announced yesterday that Communicator is to be made available to to subscribers to other service providers.

It claims its charges to standard telephones are lower than those to rivals like Skype.