Yahoo’s spring cleaning continues.
Following its original declaration that it will “simplify” and streamline the company, Yahoosaid on Friday that it plans to kill off more of its products and sites. The victims: Yahoo Games, Yahoo Livetext, some regional websites such as Yahoo Astrology in certain countries, and Yahoo BOSS.
Yahoo’s gaming vertical has been around since 1998, but it looks like the company is no longer finding it valuable. Yahoo’s game site and publishing channel will shut down on May 13 in multiple markets, including the U.S., Australia, Germany, and Spain.
Livetext was Yahoo’s attempt at creating a hip messaging app, though that obviously didn’t pan out and surprising no one. Rolled out last summer, Livetext combines messaging, live video, but with a twist: no sound. Yes, that’s right. But with heavyweights like Snapchat, Instagram, Periscope, and a myriad of other already beloved apps out there, turns out people did not need a new messaging app (at least not that one) after all.
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Yahoo’s Build your Own Search Service (or BOSS) was the company’s system for providing an open search and web services platform. Yahoo is cutting some of the BOSS tools and recommending developers switch over to Yahoo Partner Ads and Yahoo Mobile Developer Suite.
Yahoo is also shuttering the following regional sites:
As Yahoo announced earlier this year, it wants to focus on its more successful products: Mail, Search, Tumblr, News, Sports, Finance, and Lifestyle. The search company has already be seen investing in those, like its addition of an eSport (the term for competitive video gaming) to its sports section earlier this month.