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It’s the end of the road for Yahoo’s Maps site

Trevor Mogg
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its the end of road for yahoos maps site yahoo
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It’s the end of the road for Yahoo Maps – the company said Thursday it’s closing the site at the end of June. The decision was made in a move “to better align resources to Yahoo’s priorities as our business has evolved since we first launched Yahoo Maps eight years ago,” the company’s Amotz Maimon said in a blog post.

Those priorities include search, communications, and digital content, with a bigger mobile presence also playing an increasingly important role in the company’s long-term ambitions. Despite the closure of the Yahoo Maps site, which is currently powered by Nokia’s Here Maps, the service will remain in place for Yahoo Search and other Yahoo products such as Flickr, Maimon said.

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With Google Maps the go-to mapping service for so many users these days, and Apple planning to make major improvements to its once maligned maps-based offering, Yahoo’s move won’t come as a big surprise to many observers. Ever since Marissa Mayer took the CEO role of a struggling Yahoo back in 2012, the company has been overhauling its products one by one, or simply closing them down.

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Flickr, for one, has received a lot of love from Yahoo developers, the service having had multiple makeovers in the last three years, for both desktop and mobile. In contrast, the company last year brought the ax down on its Yahoo Directory search service, a product that many saw as well past its use-by date.

On the lookout for new opportunities to rebuild its business, the Web firm recently scored a major coup when it announced a deal with the NFL that’ll see it live-stream – globally and for free – the game between the Buffalo Bills and the Jacksonville Jaguars. The October event marks the first time for a regular-season NFL game to be broadcast in this way.

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Trevor Mogg
Trevor Mogg
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