A few years ago, Yahoo purchased the popular photo-sharing site Flickr. This was in addition to their Yahoo Photos site, which offers nearly the same service. It won't for long, however, as Yahoo has decided to shut down Yahoo Photos, in favor of the more popular Flickr. It isn't really a surprise, as Yahoo Photos has been declining in numbers and Flickr has grown much larger. At this point, they are only developing Flickr:
"Our increased focus on Flickr aligns with Yahoo's mission to connect people to their passions, their communities and the world's knowledge, while focusing on delivering value to consumers and advertisers," said Yahoo Network Division Executive Vice President Jeff Weiner.
With the same stroke, Yahoo will also dismantle their auction site. Why all the consolidation? It certainly doesn't help to quell rumors of a possible buyout by Microsoft.
Do other sites acquiring tools better than their own face similar fates? Google acquired YouTube, which has become immensely more popular than Google Video. Though Google has stated they have no plans to axe the latter, one must wonder.
Yahoo is giving existing Yahoo Photos users three months to move their content before they pull the plug.