Back in September the Sunnyvale company Yahoo launched Yahoo Mash, a social network which is currently in private beta, being based on an invite only system. At that time, I knew that Mash is the best replacement for Yahoo 360 although there was no sign of a potential closure of the service. A few days ago, after more than one month, Matt Warburton, Yahoo! Community Manager, confirmed that Yahoo 360 might be shut down soon but avoided to mention what will happen next. Also, the Yahoo official refused to confirm if 360 is replaced by Mash but stated that anything is possible and at this time, they are involved into a deep testing process.

"On Yahoo!'s Q3 Earnings call today, it was announced that we intend to transition Yahoo! 360 to a more integrated Yahoo! experience in early 2008. I want to provide additional information on this news and assure you that we will minimize any disruption to you and our valued Yahoo! 360 community. I also want to assure you that you can still use all the features of Yahoo! 360 until this transition takes place in early 2008," the Yahoo official wrote.

Some say that Yahoo 360 is pretty unpopular and only a few users access it. According to Alexa, 360 is the third Yahoo technology when it comes to popularity, attracting no less than 5 percent of the total visitors who connect to the main Yahoo page.

But what Yahoo is trying to do is pretty interesting and as far as I can see, it might represent something new on the web. According to Yahoo's official, the giant portal wants to create a single universal profile, compatible with most technologies powered by the company and able to offer the access into any of the service signed by Yahoo.

"We will be sharing specifics of this transition over the next several months, but I can tell you today that Yahoo! 360 will transition to a new universal Yahoo! profile that will be closely tied to other relevant services across Yahoo!, and will include improved blogging capabilities."