Back in December of 2010, everyone (yours truly included) was making a huge deal out of a single image released by a Yahoo staff member. That image was of a slide shown at a Yahoo employee presentation, where the company was outlining its gameplan for survival in a world where Yahoo is less about search than ever before. The gameplan was to shut down a great number of its services so the company could focus on its stronger and more profitable sites. Well, that gameplan is now in action and veteran Yahoo services are dropping like flies – with Yahoo Buzz showing as the next site on the chopping block.
Yahoo Buzz, the Digg-like service from Yahoo, never saw a huge amount of attention, profit, or (simply put) success. As such, it’s not likely that users of Yahoo Buzz will be too dissapointed when they site becomes inaccessible on April 21st. Many analysts anticipate that the former Yahoo Buzz users will simply migrate to Digg or other social bookmarking services.
Yahoo’s statement on the shutdown reiterates the company gameplan. “This was a hard decision,” read the statement. “However this will help us focus on our core strengths and new innovations [sic].” Other services that are likely to be closed in the near future include AltaVista and De.Licious. However, numerous core features, including Yahoo Sports, Entertainment, and Mail, are continuing in strength.
[via Tech Land]
