In a first of its kind, Mint.com, one of the leading PFM providers announed the launch of a "Mint Lite" application on Yahoo. It is available on "My Yahoo" start pages. Mint's start page widgets are build with the Yahoo Application Platform, and only show current spending trends, relative investment gains in charts and graphs, and basic assets-versus-debt information in a fairly customizable box or vertical toolbar. If you want actual account balances and all the other Mint tools, you have to click through to the site, which, of course, the Yahoo application makes pretty easy.
It seems like a smart strategy for both Yahoo and Mint. Yahoo is struggling to maintain its leadership in the web world adds some meaningful content while Mint gets exposed to millions of loyal yahoo users. The value of the data of course is a little limited - most users need access to account balances etc. to help them make money management decisions which will only be available through Mint.com website for security reasons.
This is indeed a great start and demonstrates the types of applications that are possible once you have access to reliable data - iphone apps, My Yahoo are just the beginning. This moves also creates additional pressure for banks and CUs who are struggling to keep pace with the innovation in the PFM space over the last 12-18 months.
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