Yahoo today announced it is closing three more products: Yahoo Education, Qwiki, and Directory. The company says the decision is part of a broader strategy to focus on its more successful projects.
Yahoo Education will close down on September 30. The site is designed to connect users with education providers and content, but the company has concluded that education is an area outside of its core offerings “where users’ needs are already well served by alternative online resources.” For what it’s worth, we didn’t even know Yahoo Education existed.
Qwiki will shut down on November 1. The app, which Yahoo said would live on after it acquired the startup in July 2013, automatically creates short movies based on events from a user’s camera roll. If you’re a Qwiki user, you can grab your content at qwiki.com/download_videos.
Yahoo says this is an example of a technology that “can be best utilized through integration.” As a result, the Qwiki team is being transferred to work on “new digital media experiences for Yahoo users” though the company didn’t offer further details.
Directory will be retired on December 31. The service was started nearly 20 years ago as a list of websites that helped users explore the Internet. Yahoo’s argument here is that its business “has evolved” since then.
In regards to this axing, Yahoo says that advertisers will soon “be upgraded to a new service.” The company will be giving details to those firms directly, so watch your inbox if you’re involved.
Over the last two years, Yahoo has sunset more than 60 products and services. This initiative has been led by CEO Marissa Mayer, who previously worked at Google – a company which regularly trims the fat in its portfolio.
See also – Yahoo cuts the deadwood with closures of Upcoming, Yahoo Deals, SMS alerts, and Kids products on April 30 and Yahoo putting People Search, Yahoo Voices, Xobni and other products out to pasture to further its focus
Image credit: David Paul Morris/Getty Images
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