Yahoo and Six Apart have partnered to pre-install Movable Type on Yahoo’s small business hosting. Yahoo’s hosting customers will now be offered Movable Type pre-installed. This should help Yahoo move a few more hosting units, and will certainly expand the playing field for Six Apart. It’s a good deal for both companies, particularly Six Apart.
And taken in a vacuum, this news is pretty damn boring.
But what is exciting is how aggresively Yahoo is attacking the consumer market right now. They are making bold new products that really resonate with consumers, buying best of breed web 2.0 companies and partnering with others.
And they are doing all of this in such a nice guy fashion. Executives are embracing and listening to bloggers and others,and the late nineties arrogance is completely gone. Yahoo is clicking on all fronts right now. Google’s arrogance and their “screw the customer” mentality is their biggest weakness, and Yahoo is taking full advantage of it. Success and humility is a pretty powerful combination.