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Tag: Xobni

  • Yahoo Shuts Down A Bunch Of Products

    Yahoo Shuts Down A Bunch Of Products

    Yahoo announced today that it is shutting down a handful of products: Newlook Service, Research Reports, Bookmarks.yahoo.com, People Search, Xobni, Yahoo Toolbar on Chrome, Yahoo Shine, Yahoo Voices, and the Yahoo Contributor Network.

    These follow the closure of Yahoo Avatars, Yahoo for BlackBerry, Yahoo Clues, Yahoo App Search, Yahoo Sports IQ, Yahoo Message Boards, Yahoo Updates API, Upcoming, Yahoo Deals, Yahoo SMS Alerts, Yahoo Kids, Yahoo Mail and Messenger feature phone (J2ME) apps, and older versions of Yahoo Mail last year.

    “Over the past two years, our teams have been incredibly focused on our mission: making the world’s daily habits more inspiring and entertaining,” says Yahoo’s Jay Rossiter. “This focus has allowed us to launch some new, exciting products while giving us the opportunity to make the core products our users already love even better.”

    Newlook Service and Research Reports were actually closed on April 30th. Bookmarks.Yahoo.com went away on May 26th. People Search is closing today, as is Xobni, which Yahoo just acquired it last year, though it has included features in Yahoo Mail.

    Yahoo Toolbar for Chrome is going away on July 22nd, and Yahoo Shine is closing on July 31st. Yahoo Voices will also be shut down that day, and at the end of August, the Contributor Network will be.

    Rossiter says, “By focusing our energy on Yahoo’s four core areas — Search, Communications, Digital Magazines and Video — and the two incredible engines that power them, Flickr and Tumblr, we can make a bigger impact on the things people do everyday.”

    More here.

    Image via Tumblr

  • Yahoo Acquires Xobni To Improve Yahoo Messenger

    Yahoo is confirming all kinds of acquisition rumors this week. Well, at least two. Yesterday, it was Qwiki, which the company acquired for somewhere around $50 million, according to one report.

    Today, Yahoo has officially announced its acquisition of Xobni, which was rumored over a month ago.

    A Yahoo spokesperson tells WebProNews in an email:

    We have acquired Xobni, a company dedicated to smarter inbox and contact management. The Xobni team developed a platform that is smart and intuitive — it processes contacts the way you do naturally in your mind. Xobni instantly provides a full view of each contact, complete with a photo, job title, company details, and email history, as well as updates from Facebook and Twitter. This acquisition will help us make improvements to Yahoo! Mail, Messenger and our overall communications offering on both desktop and mobile.

    Xobni continues on tis blog:

    We know that Xobni products have woven their way deep into your daily life. Many of our product improvements have come as a result of your enthusiastic, detailed feedback. We often hear customers say “I couldn’t live without Xobni.” Not to worry — we aren’t pulling the rug out from under you. If you’re using a Xobni product today, you can keep using it. To find out our plan for each product, please check out the FAQ. Of course, soon you’ll be able to use Yahoo! products with Xobni goodness baked right in.

    OK, back to the announcement. Did you ever meet someone who truly “gets” you? That’s how we feel about Yahoo!. The power within every Xobni product is that it responds to how you communicate. Every day you demonstrate who and what is important to you. That can benefit not just your inbox or smartphone, but the many services you use. Yahoo! gets that, and they want us to use our platform to make many Yahoo! services better for you. This is just the type of gig we’ve been preparing for throughout our history. We look forward to letting the results speak for themselves. Stay tuned….

    According to All Things D, who first reported on the rumored acquisition, the price is “upwards of $30 million”.

  • Yahoo Said To Be Possibly Acquiring Xobni

    Yahoo Said To Be Possibly Acquiring Xobni

    Yahoo could be getting ready to buy address book app company Xobni, according to a report. Xobni makes the Smartr Contacts app.

    Liz Gannes at All Things D reports that the two companies have been in talks for quite some time, but a deal appears “more imminent” now, according to her unnamed source.

    Such an acquisition would hardly be a shock, considering Yahoo’s spree of late, much of which has included mobile experiences. Here’s an interesting, interactive look at Yahoo’s acquisition history.

    Smartr uses your emails from Gmail, Yahoo Mail and Outlook for Windows to create an automatic address book. it also integrates with Facebook and Twitter, and supports iCloud.

    The app is available for iOS and Android. Here’s a look:

    The acquisition rumor is unconfirmed, so until further notice, please take with a grain of salt.