A million dollars for a software app that lets a user click once to send a "Yo" to a contact.
Yup, that's the state of mobile apps today, and clearly illustrates venture capitalists are so hungry to invest they're not thinking much.
And such plentiful financial support naturally draws a lot of attention, and as usual, it's not all good attention given the hack that hit Yo last week. But then again, as someone once said, any publicity is good publicity.
Yo is the Internet's version of the Pet Rock. For those too young to remember that product, click here. (For those too lazy to click, it was a rock sold as a pet and yes, it sold well. Every parent in America shook his or her head in disbelief as it showed up on birthday and Christmas lists. The 'inventor' sold 1.5 million Pet Rocks and became a millionaire )
So right now hackers are having the big laugh on Yo. They've gotten their hands on data on those who jumped on Yo. Yo's creator Or Arbel, yes, that's his name, claims the security flaw has been fixed. In fact he claims he fixed it in just a few hours. Meanwhile the hacker, Chintan Parikh, says it took just an hour to hack Yo.
"We were actually just messing around," said Parikh. He's a 19-year-old student at the Georgia Institute of Technology and said he figured out how to get Yo users' phone numbers and see contact information. He said he sent Arbel a note about the flaw.
Meanwhile Arbel acknowledges there are other security issues with Yo, which hit the market in April, and which he claims he built in just one work day.
"Some of them have been fixed, and we're working on every one," Arbel said.
Meanwhile Business Insider is offering up a list of 10 ways to use Yo. It's worth a read.
Our favorite? It's this one: Annoy everyone in the office by Yo-ing them all at once. Since the days of taping down a phone's receiver are long gone, you could just also take the batteries out of the wireless mice around the office and then wait for the 'why isn't the Internet working' cries to begin.
