Yahoo Shutters Maps web page, Integrates again-finish Tech Into Search Engine

native, mobile search remains a robust center of attention for Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer, however the company mentioned this week it is going to shutter the Maps site on the end of June. it’ll continue to combine the again-finish infrastructure into search and other properties like Flickr, even though it made no mention of the reason instead of to better align tools to Yahoo’s priorities as its trade continues to conform since launching Yahoo Maps eight years ago. this is what i think.

the integration into the again finish seemingly will toughen native and hyper ad-serving, even if Yahoo makes no point out of the explanation in its announcement. reading between the lines, Yahoo will want some sort of mapping technology that ties into location signals to serve content from local companies.

after I presented the query to Mike Blumenthal, founder of the website online understanding Google places & local Search, he said: “i assume that you’re right. I also assume that their licensing costs may well be less the use of Maps” on the again finish, quite than a feature web page via its portal.

“the way forward for the net is cellular, and the way forward for mobile is local,” Blumenthal stated. “To be winning they need to deliver advertisements into that context, all of which desires mapping expertise to work.”

Blumenthal reminded me that Yahoo’s announcement did not point out the rest about native (i’m assuming as a result of Yahoo CEO Melissa Mayer’s focus on native, mobile search), they usually additionally can be hedging their bets against Nokia’s impending sale of here.

Nokia has put right here Maps on the public sale block, hoping to fetch as so much as $four billion. earlier reports suggest Uber and Baidu are teaming as much as bid for the corporate. The joint bid is being backed via Apax partners, in accordance to Bloomberg.

might Yahoo be making a play for here, or is it increasing on constructing out its own mapping know-how?

Yahoo said it also will shut down a few of its regional, genre-specific media houses to streamline its editorial providing. Yahoo will redistribute the content material from the web sites throughout the Yahoo community. Amotz Maimon, chief architect, wrote in a post that on the finish of June, the company will shut Yahoo television in the U.ok., France, Germany, Spain, Italy and Canada, in addition to Yahoo cars within the U.ok., France, Germany, Spain and Italy. In early July, Yahoo entertainment in Singapore will close.

Yahoo will strengthen the Pipes infrastructure until Sept. 30, 2015, in read-only mode to help builders migrate their data, however the firm stated it is going to now not toughen the site after August. Yahoo describes Pipes as a “composition tool to combination, manipulate, and mash-up content material from around the web.”