Here is a partial quote from a recent release from Yahoo, concerning new sharing options for Yahoo groups;

"WHAT AND WHY

Over the past few months across Yahoo!, you may have noticed a new feature called "Updates", which is a way to share what you're doing on Yahoo! with your connections and to see what your connections are up to on Yahoo! as well.

Yesterday, this feature was introduced to Yahoo! Groups giving users the option of sharing their activity on Groups into their Updates feed on http://profiles. yahoo.com. For example:

* A user posting pictures to a quilting group could share these pictures with their friends as well.

* A user who has posted to a travel group about the best rides at Disney World could let their connections know about this review in case they also had Disney plans.

* A user who has posted an answer to a tax question on an accounting group with public archives could in essence publish their answer to all their connections or anyone who comes across their profile.

For members, Updates is a way to offer more exposure to the content they have created and to effortlessly share with friends.

For moderators, Updates can drive new members and increase the level of activity in their groups.

FEATURE SUMMARY

* Updates allows an easy way to share your group updates with all your connections (ie. Updates are shown to your connection across Yahoo properties such as Yahoo Mail, Yahoo IM, Yahoo Profiles).

* Currently only photo updates are being published. In the upcoming weeks more update types such as message posts, polls, links etc. will be published. When you opt-in to this feature all your update types will be published as they become available.

* Updates is a feature that is fully opt-in per user per group (ie. you can opt-in in one group while remaining opted-out in another).

* Updates is defaulted off for all groups. No updates will be shared unless you explicitly opt-in."

This may help to fire up yahoo groups again and increase use as it will add further distribution of scientific data, news, photos and more. Also it seems to imply a new social networking aspect being introduced to groups, that will make groups more competitive with other social networking sites.Now if we can only get them to bring back our Chat Rooms.

Mystery