14 DAY TRIAL // Yahoo has announced that, in a couple of months, it's shutting down Yahoo Meme, which you're probably hearing about for the first time. The site was Yahoo's take on Twitter though without the 140-character limitation, taking some cues from Tumblr as well. If you have heard about it or you're using it, read on.
The service debuted in Portuguese, targeting Brazil, and was later translated into English. But two years after launch, it failed to create any sort of buzz and Yahoo is giving it up.
Speaking of buzz, Meme joins Google Buzz and Yahoo's own Buzz in the list of social sharing services that bit the dust.
"Meme will be discontinued on May 25, 2012. You don't need to take any action. But if you want, you can export all your posts or delete your account," Yahoo announced.
"On May 25th, we will shut down the site and all Meme URLs will become inaccessible. From this point on, you will not be able to access Meme anymore. Your Yahoo account remains unaffected," the company explained.
The site will continue to work for another month. You will be able to post stuff and comment as you normally would until April 25th. After that though, the site will become read-only.
You won't be able to create new accounts, post anything new or even comment on something. Parts of the MEME API will also stop working.
For another month, your Meme blog will be live, but in May everything goes dark. You'll be able to export everything you've posted until that time, or delete your account before the site shuts down for good.
Yahoo has been shutting down products for a couple of years now, if not more and what it didn't close down it outsourced, including its search engine. Recently, it's more interested in squeezing money out of actually successful companies rather than try to innovate by itself.