Yahoo! 360 To Shut Down Next Month, Make Room for Yahoo! Profiles
Good news and bad news from Yahoo! today. The good news is that Yahoo! Mail has such an awesomely efficient search feature that it can even search within attachments (details here); the bad news is that Yahoo! 360, the online service that has been in Beta since it was launched in March 2005, will shut down come July 13th. So if you have a Yahoo! 360 profile, then hurry up and move all your stuff to Yahoo! Profiles.
Yahoo! is already sending out email messages informing Yahoo! 360 users of the upcoming change. “We will be officially closing Yahoo 360 on July 13, 2009, to focus our efforts on making your new profile on Yahoo the place where you connect with the people who matter to you most. As a result, you will need to move your 360 information to your new profile before this date. After July 12, 2009, your content on Yahoo 360 will no longer be accessible” says the email.
It must be said that this is not the first time there is talk about Yahoo! 360 being shut down, but it is the first time we have an official confirmation date. The social networking site was supposed to be shut down in October 2007, then in early 2008, and then again in the second half of 2008. Because Yahoo! Profiles was not complete at the time, the Sunnyvale-based company had to postpone shutting 360 down. It seems that this time there are no more blockers and you will have to make the transition, despite the fact that moving to Yahoo! Profiles does not provide the same functionality you’ve grown to love in Yahoo! 360.
Yahoo! Community Manager, Melissa Daniels, explains: “At this time, your new profile does not have all the features and functionality of your 360 profile. However, we are looking at incorporating new ways of expressing yourself through your profile. In regards to uploading multiple photos, your profile on Yahoo! allows for only one primary photo for now. This is also something we’re looking at improving/expanding based on your feedback.”
Yahoo! is already sending out email messages informing Yahoo! 360 users of the upcoming change. “We will be officially closing Yahoo 360 on July 13, 2009, to focus our efforts on making your new profile on Yahoo the place where you connect with the people who matter to you most. As a result, you will need to move your 360 information to your new profile before this date. After July 12, 2009, your content on Yahoo 360 will no longer be accessible” says the email.
It must be said that this is not the first time there is talk about Yahoo! 360 being shut down, but it is the first time we have an official confirmation date. The social networking site was supposed to be shut down in October 2007, then in early 2008, and then again in the second half of 2008. Because Yahoo! Profiles was not complete at the time, the Sunnyvale-based company had to postpone shutting 360 down. It seems that this time there are no more blockers and you will have to make the transition, despite the fact that moving to Yahoo! Profiles does not provide the same functionality you’ve grown to love in Yahoo! 360.
Yahoo! Community Manager, Melissa Daniels, explains: “At this time, your new profile does not have all the features and functionality of your 360 profile. However, we are looking at incorporating new ways of expressing yourself through your profile. In regards to uploading multiple photos, your profile on Yahoo! allows for only one primary photo for now. This is also something we’re looking at improving/expanding based on your feedback.”
