Ok, that’s not fair. Yahoo! did try and buy Facebook for a rumoured one billion dollars, and Mark Zuckerberg allegedly turned him down.

But I’ll take the bait and I’ll say it: Yahoo!’s alleged change in strategy is a smart one.

No one is ever going to out-search Google (sorry Mr. Calacanis). So it makes a lot of sense that Yahoo!, even its all of its storied Web 1.0 glory, shed any pretense of trying.

What Yahoo!, I think, is trying to say, is that when you look at the trends in what younger folk are doing, they are all migrating to social networks. From totally anecdotal evidence (someone point me to a Forrester Report), more and more people are doing the majority of their online work through online networks. And it seems like the younger you are, the more likely that you’re actually happy living in these walled-in communities if (and that’s a heavy if), all of your friends are there already.

It seems peculiar, but I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard myself and from others, how some teenagers, or even folks in their early twenties, don’t use email. Or instant messaging systems. They only and exclusively use the communication tools within their social network of choice — whether it be Facebook or Myspace or what have you.

Let’s cue in Cynthia Brumfield of IPDemocracy, who at Mesh said (and I live blogged this) :

CB: I have a teenage daughter, and they will be happy to wander in enclosed spaced. First its myspace, then it was xanga, now its facebook. They don’t seem to want to cruise and do what people in their 20’s do. They don’t do email — they do instant messaging.

How about putting it another way?

They don’t use email — so they don’t really use Gmail as much as their internal messaging systems.

And they don’t really use search to find stuff unless they really need to — like Google, but they’d rather stick to doing fun things in their own walled gardens.

So I’ll buy the argument that the future isn’t search.

But what’s Yahoo! really going to do to win this new priority in personalization and — in my opinion — social networks?

It seems like Yahoo’s new venture into this space will be called “Front Doors”. Will it be through a portal system? Another “My Yahoo” attempt? And speaking of mediocrity, they’ve done a bang up job of acquiring seemingly smart Web2.0 companies with a predilection towards community and royally twiddling their fingers about it. Duplication of services about amongst other things — and what about MyBlogLog? The ultimate superspatial layer for the blogosphere? Where does that figure into the move towards personalization?

And really — what about the giant elephant in the room?

What about Facebook?

Is Yahoo!’s product going to be so good its going to steal people away from Facebook or MySpace? Some might argue its a zero-sum game, but let’s be honest here. It makes no sense to join another network if none of your friends are on it.

I’m all for Yahoo! changing gears — but manifesto’s aside (even the Peanut Butter ones) — its going to take some extra special stuff to take on the current challengers in this space. I’m eager to see how it turns out, because, let’s be honest, the whole Yahoo vs. Google thing was getting a little tired.

Yahoo vs. Facebook, though?

Now, that’s getting interesting.