Hackers armed with laptop computers, camping tents and dreams of software glory invaded Yahoo during the weekend as the Internet pioneer opened its strategy and its doors to outside developers.

The "hackathon" was as much a symbol of Yahoo rising from the ashes of a burned-out courtship with US technology colossus Microsoft as it was a chance for software wizards to work their magic on Yahoo's platform.

The approximately 300 hackers that swept onto the firm's campus in Sunnyvale, California, had the first chance to tinker with the inner workings of Yahoo online offerings such as its globally popular free email.

Yahoo earlier in the week outlined a shift to an "Open Strategy" that it believes will jazz-up the website and lead to meshing offerings from hot online properties such as Amazon and iTunes with its web pages.

"Open is a really important strategy for us," Yahoo Developer Network head Chris Yeh told AFP as hackers fueled up on pizza, keg beer and caffeine-based energy drinks for all-night software writing sessions.

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