Yahoo Buys Online Suite Zimbra

Yahoo made an interesting announcement today - they announced an agreement to acquire Zimbra for $350 million. In other words, don’t count them out yet. According to the Yahoo blog, "Zimbra is a global leader in email and collaboration software and its services are aimed at universities, businesses, and ISPs worldwide, which is a major driver of what made the company so attractive to us. We’re constantly being approached by these entities for our expertise in email and communications. Combining the best of Zimbra with what’s made Yahoo! Mail the top dog in web mail will not only allow us to cater to these markets better than anyone, it will allow us to expand our presence to partners and consumers at school, work, and home."

It looks like every web company will have some sort online suite, now. However, Zimbra isn’t really what you would call an online "office" suite. If anything, it looks more like web mail on steroids…or, as Zimbra would say, it’s "collaboration software." What makes Zimbra so "damn cool" as the please-think-we’re-hip Yahoo blog post title claims, is the suite’s mashup abilities. Zimbra can recognize patterns in your email and identify them as an address (click to see the map in Yahoo Maps!), a phone number (click to call with Skype!…if they’re up), or even a Purchase Order (click to approve!). The suite will fit just fine into the Yahoo world…I can see Yahoo’s beefed-up mail client now - complete with pop-up bubbles appearing all over the place as you mouse hovers over all the "patterns Zimbra recognizes" in your email. I see the spammers drooling now about how they can take advantage of this new ability. And if I ever see a company trying to run its merchandising department by clicking on numbers in their Yahoo Mail…