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Yahoo gets rid of some of their best services. Yahoo Geolocation Service, besides Google which was license restricted, was the most accurate service for puttin

by jdlyga 6y ago

Yahoo gets rid of some of their best services. Yahoo Geolocation Service, besides Google which was license restricted, was the most accurate service for putting in an address and getting latitude/longitude coordinates. But they sadly shut it down. I sure hope they don't shut down Yahoo Finance. It's the best thing that Yahoo currently has.

calvinmorrison 6y ago
How about the treasure trove that was geocities?
jethro_tell 6y ago
my stocks widget says that it's switching off finance (probably API?) next update because it's being discontinued. I have not validated that. I mostly use alpha vantage for my own projects now since finance (API) was down for a while.
kristianc 6y ago
> Yahoo gets rid of some of their best services. This was not one of them.
- challengly 6y ago
  Yeah, though it was their funniest service.
- echelon 6y ago
  The most memorable thing from Yahoo Answers is the "how is babby formed" meme. It never attracted high quality Q&A, and was a joke from day one.
  - TedDoesntTalk 6y ago
    https://youtu.be/Ll-lia-FEIY https://youtu.be/Ll-lia-FEIY Still makes me laugh
  - brudgers 6y ago
    The upside of the question is it was an example for StackOverflow...a negative example of course. Spolsky talks about it all the time in the early StackOverflow podcasts.
    - MiddleEndian 6y ago
      I think they were better than expertsexchange at least. It was low quality but it was simple and free to access.
      - aidenn0 6y ago
        expertsexchange had possibly the best (inadvertent?) double-entendre domain name ever.
        MiddleEndian 6y ago
        Can't argue with that lol
  - MiddleEndian 6y ago
    I mean, is it really any worse than Quora? I will miss it.
TedDoesntTalk 6y ago
The mismanagement of yahoo/oath/Verizon assets has been stunning. What a waste. Marissa Meyer started it. Her exit and the Verizon acquisition accelerated it. Now they are a husk of early web properties when they could have been an Amazon with the right leadership.
- perardi 6y ago
  Oh, I wouldn’t start that downfall during Marissa Meyer’s reign of error. Remember when Yahoo hired a CEO who lied about having a CS degree? https://money.cnn.com/2012/05/13/technology/yahoo-ceo-out/index.htm https://money.cnn.com/2012/05/13/technology/yahoo-ceo-out/in...
  - TedDoesntTalk 6y ago
    Ha, good point. Seems like ex-CEO Scott Thompson is doing ok these days: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scott_Thompson_(businessman) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scott_Thompson_(businessman) His Yahoo departure is attributed to thyroid cancer: "In 2012, Thompson was diagnosed with thyroid cancer, which was said to be a reason for leaving Yahoo!." And Marissa Mayer became extremely wealthy for her mishandling of Yahoo.
- koboll 6y ago
  I don't really understand the argument here. How is sunsetting Answers related to mismanagement? Seems like Answers, as cool and interesting and funny as it was, was probably not a major revenue driver or even loss leader anymore for Yahoo. Seems like it'd be an obvious candidate for being cut, as a deadweight project that siphons engineering time from initiatives that actually make money. Sure, it's sad that it's going away. But Yahoo isn't a charity, it's a corporation, and "jettison projects that cost money and focus instead on projects that make money" seems like one of the most basic tenets of managing a business. Like, I totally get the argument that when Yahoo or Google or whoever shuts down one of their services it's an annoyance for users. No doubt. But I don't understand how it's a sign of "mismanagement".
  - 6y ago

by jdlyga 6y ago

calvinmorrison 6y ago

How about the treasure trove that was geocities?

jethro_tell 6y ago

my stocks widget says that it's switching off finance (probably API?) next update because it's being discontinued. I have not validated that. I mostly use alpha vantage for my own projects now since finance (API) was down for a while.

kristianc 6y ago

> Yahoo gets rid of some of their best services. This was not one of them.

challengly 6y ago
Yeah, though it was their funniest service.
echelon 6y ago
The most memorable thing from Yahoo Answers is the "how is babby formed" meme. It never attracted high quality Q&A, and was a joke from day one.
- TedDoesntTalk 6y ago
  https://youtu.be/Ll-lia-FEIY https://youtu.be/Ll-lia-FEIY Still makes me laugh
- brudgers 6y ago
  The upside of the question is it was an example for StackOverflow...a negative example of course. Spolsky talks about it all the time in the early StackOverflow podcasts.
  - MiddleEndian 6y ago
    I think they were better than expertsexchange at least. It was low quality but it was simple and free to access.
    - aidenn0 6y ago
      expertsexchange had possibly the best (inadvertent?) double-entendre domain name ever.
      - MiddleEndian 6y ago
        Can't argue with that lol
- MiddleEndian 6y ago
  I mean, is it really any worse than Quora? I will miss it.

TedDoesntTalk 6y ago

The mismanagement of yahoo/oath/Verizon assets has been stunning. What a waste. Marissa Meyer started it. Her exit and the Verizon acquisition accelerated it. Now they are a husk of early web properties when they could have been an Amazon with the right leadership.

perardi 6y ago
Oh, I wouldn’t start that downfall during Marissa Meyer’s reign of error. Remember when Yahoo hired a CEO who lied about having a CS degree? https://money.cnn.com/2012/05/13/technology/yahoo-ceo-out/index.htm https://money.cnn.com/2012/05/13/technology/yahoo-ceo-out/in...
- TedDoesntTalk 6y ago
  Ha, good point. Seems like ex-CEO Scott Thompson is doing ok these days: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scott_Thompson_(businessman) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scott_Thompson_(businessman) His Yahoo departure is attributed to thyroid cancer: "In 2012, Thompson was diagnosed with thyroid cancer, which was said to be a reason for leaving Yahoo!." And Marissa Mayer became extremely wealthy for her mishandling of Yahoo.
koboll 6y ago
I don't really understand the argument here. How is sunsetting Answers related to mismanagement? Seems like Answers, as cool and interesting and funny as it was, was probably not a major revenue driver or even loss leader anymore for Yahoo. Seems like it'd be an obvious candidate for being cut, as a deadweight project that siphons engineering time from initiatives that actually make money. Sure, it's sad that it's going away. But Yahoo isn't a charity, it's a corporation, and "jettison projects that cost money and focus instead on projects that make money" seems like one of the most basic tenets of managing a business. Like, I totally get the argument that when Yahoo or Google or whoever shuts down one of their services it's an annoyance for users. No doubt. But I don't understand how it's a sign of "mismanagement".
- 6y ago