Yahoo! Extends Grasps of Xoopit, Closes It Down to Gmail Users
Back in July, the current year, news broke out that Yahoo! would acquire social email startup Xoopit for the sum of $20 million. The company, which made a Gmail plugin that let users browse and view photos and video links directly in the inbox window, would switch focus on Yahoo!’s email client, the aptly named Yahoo! Mail. With the aid of Xoopit, Yahoo! Mail would bring these features to the Yahoo! Mail user:
- Excellent photo organization.
- Enhanced photo sharing.
- The chance to discover photos in Yahoo! Mail that you forgot are in there.
“With the integration of Xoopit’s platform technology and capabilities, the task of sending photos via email will be as easy as it should be and sharing photo albums with friends and family members will also be a cinch. You’ll be able to share your pictures among a group of friends or family like never before – combining pictures from numerous sources into a single album for a private group to view. And soon your inbox will become an organized photo index as well. Just imagine having a tool that collects all the photos you’ve sent and received over the years into that scrapbook you’ve never had time to assemble,” commented SVP of Yahoo! Applications, Bryan Lamkin at the time.
Now that Yahoo! has acquired Xoopit, the company’s next step is to make it exclusive to Yahoo! Mail users. This is bad news for the Gmail user that has grown accustomed to the functionality that Xoopit provided. Xoopit is being pulled out of Gmail completely; on top of that, support for the Firefox add-on and the Facebook app for Gmail is being nixed as well. When? As of November the 13th.
“The Xoopit for Gmail service and the Xoopit web service are both closing down on November 13, 2009. We’re sad to say goodbye to our users on Gmail but we know that we will not be able to keep investing in our Xoopit for Gmail product. Your data will not be available to you after November 13, 2009. Xoopit will no longer have access to your data as of February 11, 2010,” explained Xoopit.
- Excellent photo organization.
- Enhanced photo sharing.
- The chance to discover photos in Yahoo! Mail that you forgot are in there.
“With the integration of Xoopit’s platform technology and capabilities, the task of sending photos via email will be as easy as it should be and sharing photo albums with friends and family members will also be a cinch. You’ll be able to share your pictures among a group of friends or family like never before – combining pictures from numerous sources into a single album for a private group to view. And soon your inbox will become an organized photo index as well. Just imagine having a tool that collects all the photos you’ve sent and received over the years into that scrapbook you’ve never had time to assemble,” commented SVP of Yahoo! Applications, Bryan Lamkin at the time.
Now that Yahoo! has acquired Xoopit, the company’s next step is to make it exclusive to Yahoo! Mail users. This is bad news for the Gmail user that has grown accustomed to the functionality that Xoopit provided. Xoopit is being pulled out of Gmail completely; on top of that, support for the Firefox add-on and the Facebook app for Gmail is being nixed as well. When? As of November the 13th.
“The Xoopit for Gmail service and the Xoopit web service are both closing down on November 13, 2009. We’re sad to say goodbye to our users on Gmail but we know that we will not be able to keep investing in our Xoopit for Gmail product. Your data will not be available to you after November 13, 2009. Xoopit will no longer have access to your data as of February 11, 2010,” explained Xoopit.
