Yahoo Inc. is closing GeoCities, a website publishing and hosting service it bought in May 1999 at the height of the dotcom boom for around US$3 billion in stock.
The service will be shut down later this year. Visitors to the site now see a message that says new GeoCities accounts will not be available and gives them the option to sign up for Yahoo’s web hosting service for $5.98 a month.
GeoCities is not the only Yahoo service to get the axe—Yahoo Briefcase, Farechase, My Web, RSS ads, Yahoo Pets, Yahoo Live, Kickstart and Yahoo For Teachers all are being eliminated as well. The search giant also recently outsourced Launchcast radio to CBS Corp.
“As part of Yahoo’s ongoing effort to build products and services that deliver the best possible experiences for consumers and results for advertisers, we are increasing investment in some areas while scaling back in others,” the statement said.
The trimming is part of a process that started in 2007 while Jerry Yang was still chief executive, to close down services that aren’t profitable or don’t fit into the company’s long-term vision.
The revamp has accelerated under new CEO Carol Bartz, who was hired in January.
