Yahoo To Shut down ‘Yahoo Go’ – Shifts Focus Entirely On Mobile Web

The news of discountinuing services from Yahoo’s fold is no surprise as the company gears up to cut its cost and drive all its energy in its core segment i.e. Portal. This time Yahoo has decided to pull the plug from ‘Yahoo Go’ its mobile application.

Yahoo has notified its users that ‘Yahoo Go’ will be discontinued from Jan,2010. This was pretty much expected as Yahoo has not upgraded the application since more than a year. Yahoo has also doubled its resources on mobile web division as it feels that the improved browsing experience will allow it to capture mobile web market through its mobile portal.

Current active users on ‘Yahoo Go’ can start using the service on m.yahoo.com after Jan-2010.
‘Yahoo Go’ had tie-up with many handset manufacturers like Nokia, HTC to pre-install the app on their phones. The service which was launched in 2006 provided news, mail and weather updates on Mobile. Yahoo’s current mobile site allows all the similar feature along with additional features like IM, integration with social networks.

It might seem that Yahoo decision to shun its application comes on the heels of its decision to surrender its search services to Microsoft. Yahoo might deem it as a good cost cutting exercise but it is certainly not in company’s best interest to pull-out its mobile application completely at a time when Google is focusing its resources on Mobile market through android and various other apps. Instead it should have made the application more compatible to today’s browsing needs.

Mobile web market is turning into a hot trajectory as app revolution added with rich mobile browsing experience is seeing a surge in Mobile web adoption. The increase in mobile web usages has already seen Google making big ticket acquisition in mobile monetization space.

Facebook Is Catching Up With Yahoo Soon

Following Willis’ insightful post on the progress of Facebook and other social sites, I’m excited to present to you where Facebook stands in the presence of other giants: Google and Yahoo – The irrefutable number 1 and 2 in the online world.

Looking at last month’s statistics, Yahoo should already hear the footsteps of Facebook drawing near.

Would Facebook finally break into the top 2 soon? From the Compete chart below, it seems like it would.

Facebook is just behind Yahoo by 6 million unique visits. If Yahoo continues to dip while Facebook maintains its steady growth, a replacement of the no. 2 position is inevitable. We are living in an interesting time as we witness how Facebook could possibly overtake the search engines.

Following Facebook’s success and with more people embracing social media, social sites might just dominate the top spots one day. But will that really happen? Only time will tell.