Yahoo Killing Maps, Pipes & More
alphadogg writes: Yahoo is shutting down its mapping service, Pipes and reducing the availability of Yahoo TV and Yahoo Music. The company has decided instead to focus on three major parts of its business: search, communications, and digital content. "We made this decision to better align resources to Yahoo's priorities as our business has evolved since we first launched Yahoo Maps eight years ago," says the company.
To watch Yahoo slowly die because they got out classed by all the upstarts in the market.
Really, they fell prey to the PHB effect before their competitors did. MBA's took over too fast at Yahoo after the founders took their money and ran...
"File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
Who knew?
The company has decided instead to focus on three major parts of its business: search, communications, and digital content.
So that's what Yahoo does. I wondered what was their business besides unreliable email and annoying CEOs.
lucm, indeed.
Yahoo should concentrate on figuring out who will be the last person out of the building, so they can make sure to turn off the lights.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
...reducing the availabilty of TV and Music ...instead focus on digital content
Laying off all their remote workers really saved them!
Interesting to know that was their whole problem all along! /s
yahoo mail is barely usable at all any more, and it is so full of spam...
the usability has reached a new low, and I think they must be selling targeted email, because I get so much stuff that is obviously spam that it is ridiculous.
Had I not been using yahoo mail pretty much since it was announced in 1997, and I still have people who only know me at that address, I would not use it at all.
Maybe it is time...
there are 3 kinds of people:
* those who can count
* those who can't
fuck proffit, guys give us useful creative tools
its like companies want RSS to die or something.
Just die...
"If any question why we died, Tell them because our fathers lied."
They should hire Abe Vigoda to do ads for them.
Left MS Windows for Linux Mint and never looked back!
Vote for Bernie in 2016!
For killing off the unholy spawn that was Yahoo Maps. I keep our web information up to date with the major players out there, and by far and away the absolute WORST to deal with was Yahoo Maps. Bing Maps? Not as bad by even half. Google Maps? We're stuck with them, but at least you can call someone for help on the really stupid problems. Yelp? Same.
But OH GOD is dealing with problems on Yahoo Maps a pain. Can't die soon enough.
Yahoo had a relatively great email system... then they removed POP/IMAP access and it no longer became something usable (forcing you to use the web interface at all times)
Then Gmail came along and offered this for free and enough space to never have to delete anything.
Pipes... only gets used for malware/anonymous-proxy abuse, so I'm not sad to see that go. Too bad for people who actually used it for something not copyright-infringing.
Yahoo is another worthless portal that nobody needs. If they went away tomorrow the internet would survive.
http://maps.yahoo.com/
Played with it a bit, it feels like the old google maps (i.e. fast) and doesn't need flash. None of the lag and those too many stupid boxes seen on new google maps.
Looks like it was based on Nokia here. Guess that is why it's going away.
I use pipes every single day in bash. What are we supposed to do now, redirect everything into a temporary file, like in the early days? That gets cumbersome with many steps, and anyway it is less multi-processor efficient, and CPUs have more than one core these days!
Yahoo decided software engineering is too hard and decided to just hire a bunch of writers.
I didn't even know Yahoo had a maps service. I knew they had a TV service that I never used but otherwise I had heard of none of these services. I'm interested how "search" is still a major part of it's business. Isn't it just now regurgitated bing results?
Yup, that's what you get when you hire Marissa Mayer.
What is Yahoo! ?
flickr is the only service yahoo should focus on. In fact they should rename themselves to flickr and remove the annoying yahoo toolbar on the top of the page.
Yahoo Maps wasn't the only great thing about Yahoo! in its hey-day. They had a great news section, then destroyed it. They removed the open source section!!!! And layer destroyed to layout/design that actually worked for one that didn't. They also destroyed Yahoo! Mail multiple times. And the main page as well! Well- they destroyed pretty much everything but... they actually had a decent web chat too in the early 1990s.
Yahoo! is dead and I haven't visited a Yahoo! property in years (until today- and it looks more like advertisements on scammy web sites... then again it reminds me of some of the Microsoft properties as well).
Dear Yahoos,
Please give your map data to openstreetmap or better yet completely open source it. Yahoo might then at least leave a legacy
I was using Yahoo maps before Google maps, and I've been using Google maps a lot longer than 8 years.
Secession is the right of all sentient beings.
Since Google has started disabling the old version of Maps i have seen people suggest Yahoo Maps as a good choice to move to for those who thing the new Google Maps is too slow and painful. That probably wouldn't add enough new users for them to justify keeping it, but it's still a little sad for anyone who just recently decided that Yahoo was the right place to move to for maps.
(I didn't go that route myself because i dislike having the entire browser window covered with the map, so i'm thinking of moving to Bing instead.)
This Space Intentionally Left Blank
I like Yahoo Groups because it provides a functional interface w/reasonable features to several niche hardware/software vendors/authors and interest areas - all w/a single login and all available in the same browser window. What's annoying is that many vendor Groups are moving to their own little custom forums w/unique interfaces and more bells and whistles than is necessary. Add multiple passwords/windows and it's typically more hassle than it's worth for casual access to see what's going on in the user community. I don't know if Yahoo could have done more to keep these groups from moving or they moved because they saw some shiny forum software glittering w/a lot of features and figured why not.
Okay, sure, they're in a tough spot. None of us knew they even had maps, their email sucks, and nobody wants to work there because of recently introduced draconian measures.
But that logo tweak Marissa Mayer shepherded to completion is amazing!
#DeleteChrome
Who knew?
The last update to yahoo mail was horrid. I am far from the only person who thought so.
I stopped using yahoo maps a long time ago when they screwed that up.
Never used pipes, but would love to see them open source what they can. Even if it's incomplete, it would be a really good show of good will and who knows, maybe someone could do something with it that would give Yahoo some cred back.
Really you want to know how long it takes, or how many miles it takes
So, um, like, that's what a scale bar TELLS YOU. Without having to click "directions". Especially for walking directions.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Yahoo is [...] reducing the availability of Yahoo TV and Yahoo Music. The company has decided instead to focus on three major parts of its business: search, communications, and digital content.
Okay, TV and Music seem to be "digital content." So they're reducing what they're focusing on?
And if they're reducing, why are they spending what I assume is a ludicrous amount of money on this?
The person who finally killed yahoo
The company has decided instead to focus on three major parts of its business: search, communications, and digital content.
I'm sure they had something more specific in mind, but "communications" and "digital content" covers just about everything.
I recently discovered the nice work they did on their Android apps (finance & weather). I had completely written Yahoo! off before then. If they keep that up, they might get some traction from them. (It even got me to sign in to my old account)
Some sort of digital archive for cowboy yells?
Nobody at Google listens to the "Report a problem" issues you click on in any significant way.
Most likely all the responses to that are collated and "data mined" for the most common phrases or words.
Why do I say that?
There are *numerous* issues with the new Google Maps (when compared to the old) that have been reported in this fashion that Google has done nothing about.
Google doesn't want to know about your problems, they just want to create the "next cool thing" for you.
Fuckers.
Just use bing instead of Google. Google are too big and too egocentric.
It's doubtful they own the data but instead lease/rent/buy it from third parties and can't "give it away" except via limited interfaces such as Yahoo Maps.
Yahoo has decided that it's major focus must me more Kim Kardashian stories. Apparently only 2/3rds iof their total content isnt enough.
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
I haven't found anything that matches Yahoo! for its financial pages. I've used their Portfolios feature to keep track of a variety of investments for quite some time. Portfolios can be set up with a variety of views that gives me what I want to know about my investments.If you want historical information on particular stocks, mutual funds or indices, you can usually find it there. If others here have a better free recommendation I'd like to hear about it. The yahoo.com home age aggregates information that's of interest to me, but maybe not everyone in this thread. I have a Yahoo! mail account, though I don't have any correspondents there, but I can't remember whether that's required to access other features. Gmail works well for me either in the web view or via my imap desktop app.
It's too bad Yahoo! may fail. Maybe they've tried to be everything to everyone. A smaller number of best of class features might let them survive.
In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act. George Orwell
The company has decided instead to focus on three major parts of its business: search, communications, and digital content.
I'm sure they had something more specific in mind, but "communications" and "digital content" covers just about everything.
I'm not sure they have *anything* in mind. It seems like they're a goddamn disaster.
Marissa needs money to build another daycare nextdoor to her spacious office. Can't afford to keep the business services running.
Now they're REALLY going to start skiming Bing and Google for results!
how long has it been since I've used it?
The history of the Big Sites on the Internet:
1. Provide a somewhat useful thing, like Yahoo Maps or Google Maps.
2. Encumber it with pop ups, driving instructions, ads, images, street views, all the while slowing it down. (And it's impossible to turn all that off)*
3. Wonder why people stop using it. (See #2)
BTW, in my opinion Goggle maps is worse than Yahoo.
10, even 5 years ago Yahoo and Google had okay maps. Google got better. Now-a-days, Google, the lapsed worshiper of simplicity, Maps are sloooow, and try to outguess you, and cover large sections of the maps with bars showing businesses.
Maybe I'm upset because I just want a map, with a zoom in and out feature, and the ability to move around via the cursor.
Maybe I'm upset because, at 64, I'm one of the last persons who knows how to a read map?
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* The Wannabe Swiss Army Knife Effect: the compulsion of designers of things to want everything to have multiple functions, like a Swiss Army Knife. Comment: usually the compass on a hammer or the wifi on the toaster or the DNA sequencer on a diaper doesn't work very well, if ever, and often interferes with the basic function.
If you go the the cloths iron section at a store, or Amazon, it's amazing how all the upper priced ones have "Digital" splayed across the box.
anyone know a pipes alternative? It's very useful in combining feeds for mashups
Bah - Yahoo's dumping their maps just about the same time that Google's been making Google Maps much less usable, at least on browsers. Not only does it take a lot longer to load the map of where it thinks you are before it's willing to listen to you type what you really want a map of, it's been getting much harder to actually display directions even after that. For instance, if you want to go from A to B, it shows you a short abstract of the directions, and lets you click on parts to expand them. But you can't just expand the area around B without losing the fat purple line display of the route. Almost all the time, when I'm looking for directions to somewhere, the part I need the most detail about is the area around the destination; I usually know where I am, and how to get to the freeway from there.
For a while I was able to use "Classic Google Maps" and avoid this "upgrade", but that seems to have gone away.
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
What beats me about this is why do you shut it down at all?
Surely it would make more sense commercial to sell them off than simply shut them down? They've spent a lot of money building and maintaining the products, so why not try to recoup some of it? There must be companies out there that would like to own a mapping service?
This also applies to all the things Google has shut down over the years. Some of the things that Google have switched off have been pretty good products, and with a reasonably solid user-base. Surely at least some of them could have been sold to someone else who would have kept them up and running?
As mentioned at the start of the thread it's sad to see yahoo starting to shutdown. I remember when Yahoo was considered the leader of the pack and the most used search engine.. I was one of it's first users but Google was better from day one and offered less on it's main page so I switched.
Not the first site I've had an account yet can't access anymore, so a different note bye bye Yahoo, I spent three hours tonight trying to create a new account on yahoo.com (for the PowerPro discussion group) after numerous verifications replies I still couldn't get in. HOSTS file was blocking me (yes, it took that long to figure out, as it rarely causes problems), I'm not going to disable my HOSTS file for yahoo, and it's too large to effectively find the offending entry.
If it was a problem I'd trim the file down a bit but only yahoo has given me any problems.
incompetent Yoohoo Web monkeys can't even get the comics feed working right - it has been broken many times over the years and currently isn't working right now - what a joke!
I tried to watch Community on their TV service but even when logged in, it didn't keep track of what I had seen (it tried but was never correct) and rarely displayed the next episode when I finished one. It would auto play an episode 3 or 4 away from where I was in the show. The steam itself was okay once it got started, but if I paused the playback, upon resume the CC would have to be manually turned off. It's a hot mess and I don't see how they could continue with it. I guess my point is that I agree with their decision to "reduce availability" of Yahoo TV.
Whenever I get called in to cleanup unwanted malware from the PCs of family and friends it is most commonly search hijacking by Yahoo.
This increasingly desperate behaviour is ultimately counter productive, the Yahoo brand is trash and some friends actually call the search hijacking they suffer the "Yahoo Virus".
They were right after mapquest to jump into the mapping game. Their China coverage is miles and miles better than Google, with both english and mandarin names on the map (google is only mandarin when you are in China). Too bad.
I thought that Yahoo had become all but irrelevant years ago, staying alive only from a technical point of view.
Excuse my living-under-a-rockedness... what is the PHB effect?
I use Yahoo Pipes to "repair" RSS feeds that only have one-line summaries and replace them with the whole article. Does anyone know of an alternate that does the same?
Support Right To Repair Legislation.
Communications is code for email/IM and social networking.
Digital Content is code for "news" and buzzfeed-style articles.
Yahoo Japan seems to be completely independent from Yahoo! US. It is now owned by Softbank (the country's 2nd largest telephone provider and majority stockholder in Sprint). I wonder what they're going to do.
I find ut pretty amusing to call me an "old man" when your response is to go find some paper maps...
Digital Density is the realm of the young, my friend.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
http://alternativeto.net/software/yahoo-pipes/
You're welcome.
Losing it sucks. Not sure how to replace it.
I think the pedophiles are the reason why chat was ended.
Yahoo! Mail, Yahoo! Answers, and Yahoo! Groups are doing well, aren't they? Well, except for the people they lost when they redesigned Yahoo! Mail.
I would suggest to Yahoo! that they modify the $50 subscription for an ad-free Yahoo! Mail so it makes their entire website ad-free.