14 DAY TRIAL // Yahoo is reportedly getting ready to close down its four-year-old Yahoo Go service. Starting the beginning of 2010, the service will be discontinued, though it seems that the company plans on maintaining a focus on the development of applications and services for high-end smartphones, including those based on the Android operating system or the iPhone.
As many of you might already know, Yahoo Go delivered access to Yahoo’s search and email, as well as to third-party services. The application was available on a number of more than 400 handsets, and also came to the market through carriers around the world. However, Yahoo Go will be brought down and all users should receive an email today informing them that the service will be discontinued starting with January 12.
“These monolithic all-in-one app experiences were a great strategy for the time, and it gained millions of users, but we’ve evolved with the market. Everything we’ve done so far in 2009 is a fulfillment of that strategy,” is what Adam Taggart, Yahoo Mobile’s head of Global Marketing, stated in this regard, according to mocoNews. In addition, Yahoo's strategy for the mobile market is said to include investments in the mobile browser and in building applications for smartphones.
The email Yahoo Go users should receive is said to encourage them to access its new mobile homepage through their browser, so as to enjoy “an even richer, more personalized Yahoo! experience.” Unfortunately, it seems that the exact number of users hasn't been unveiled, though Taggart said that millions were attracted by it. “It was the first high quality PC-like interactive experience on the phone,” is what he added.
Yahoo’s mobile group is now focused on delivering apps for Flickr, Fantasy Football, and Finance, as well as on offering a Yahoo Go-like experience to those accessing its homepage through a mobile browser or through an iPhone app. The Android will be one of the main areas Yahoo will work on, as the platform is gaining momentum.