MicroHoo Applications # 1

Welcome to the first (and possibly the last) post in ‘The MicroHoo Applications’ series.

I will cast into the future to dream up new Microsoft products and services should the company complete its acquisition of Yahoo!

Applications #1: Microsoft Office + Flickr Service Pack

Flickr content is made available in Office in the same way that Clip Art is accessed via:

Insert> Picture > Clip Art…

A preview collumn similar to the working area on the right hand screen in PowerPoint, where you chose slide templates, insert clip art, re-format slides etc, would present images from Flickr. The images offered up would be related to the words that the user is using in the Office document or presentation.

Flickr users could opt in or out of the program i.e. they could choose to make some, all or none of their pictures available to Office users. They would sign a copyright waiver in return for a share of the fee (paid for by Office users). The rest of the fee going to Flickr obviously.

This would bring social to Office, it would benefit users who would otherwise go to iStockPhoto or something similar and it would monetize Flickr, something that Yahoo! has failed to do, up to now.

Here is a mock up. I’ve used PowerPoint to provide the example. You can see that the images relate to the words that are being used.

Stay posted for MicroHoo Applications # 2.

I’d be interested in any other ideas.

Tags: Acquisition, Applications, Flickr, Google, iStock, Microsoft, Office, social