Startup Meme

If you’re new here, you may want to subscribe to the RSS feed of Startup Meme.

Multiple sources are reporting that Yahoo has decided to pull the plug on Yahoo Photos in favor of Flickr, a photo sharing service they acquired in March 2005.

Although Yahoo Photos still massively trails flickr, hosting 2 billion photos against Flickr’s 500 million, but the growth of Yahoo Photos has stalled or rather declined during the past year. From April 2006 to April 2007 visitors to Flickr rose by 22% whereas Yahoo Photos lost 60% of its user traffic according Hitwise Intelligence.

The closure would be transitioned over a couple of months and users of Yahoo Photos will be allowed to transfer their images to Flickr, Shutterfly, Snapfish, Kodak Gallery or Photobucket. Users will also be allowed to order print or CD copies of their original photos at a discounted rate.

The move is an acceptance of the demise of Web 1.0 based simple photo hosting service and a bid to focus energies to where they should be, building better community oriented and social services. I would keep my ears open for a similar announcement from Google that they are shutting Google Video in favor of Youtube.

Subscribe