Oh well, had to happen sooner or later. Yahoo!’s (YHOO) second experiment with social networking, Yahoo! Mash, is officially shutting down on September 29, 2008.
The first experiment, Yahoo! 360, has already shut down. Sort of. It still exists at its URL. But Yahoo isn’t actively developing it anymore and is quietly transitioning it to “a more integrated Yahoo! ‘profile’ experience.”
I know the developers on both projects. Even managed some of them once. It’s kind of sad to see this happen. Not surprising at all, just a little sad, because I know how much hard work these developers (and the entire teams) put into these projects.
Unfortunately, the market just didn’t take to them. Both arrived late onto the social networking scene. Both didn’t do everything the market wanted, and did too much of the things the market didn’t want. And both carried the Yahoo brand, which was good and bad. Good in that thousands of Yahoo fans jumped on and loved its fledgling integration with the rest of the Yahoo network. Bad in that Yahoo didn’t seem as cool to the MySpace (NWS) and Facebook crowds.
It was great that the management team green lighted these two products originally. Too bad they didn’t green light them sooner or give them more resources to make better products. Both had big dreams. Seeing their full visions materialize would have been pretty cool. But alas, they were not to be.
Rest in Peace, Yahoo! Mash – and Yahoo! 360. You were interesting experiments. I hope somebody learned something from them.
I learned something. I learned never to use Yahoo for social networking. :D