It comes as no surprise that the MyBlogLog service will be closing this year, following the leaked statement in December 2010 concerning the closure of a stream of services including Delicious, Yahoo Buzz and Yahoo Picks. The leaked screenshot surfaced when it was posted to Twitter by former Yahoo employee and founder of MyBlogLog, Eric Marcoullier.

MyBlogLog was acquired by Yahoo little over 3 years ago for a sum of $10 million. Its purpose was the creation of widgets which site owners could insert in order to track fellow MyBlogLog members who read their blogs. Similar to the idea behind the display of “like” widgets by external websites.

The service is to be officially shut down on the 24th May this year, with any unused subscription portions due to be refunded back to premium service users.

UK SEO company QueryClick.com commented on the familiarity of the ill-fated acquisition:

“The demise of MyBlogLog is the latest in a series of failed acquisitions by the company. Such an anti-climactic relationship has become a miserable familiarity where Yahoo is involved, with many citing the persistent failure to follow up on initial hopes and promises as the major flaw of both sides.”

Several examples can be cited, such as the largely forgotten acquisition of ‘Upcoming’ (a site providing a local and national listing of events) in 2005 and the deal between Yahoo and Flickr dating back to the same year. The latter promised much, but has since withered into the background for anyone except photo enthusiasts, with Facebook consuming up more and more of the photo sharing market. Upcoming on the other hand, was one of the Yahoo services earmarked for mergers or consolidation in the leaked screenshot of December 2010.

The cuts being made are in accordance with the overall plan to reduce costs within Yahoo, who had also made the decision to layoff hundreds of staff at the end of last year.

The demise of so many of Yahoo’s acquisitions can be categorised under one main defect, largely the neglect of the acquired company following the initial phase of thrill and ambition for the future. A spokesperson for SEO experts QueryClick.com pin-pointed the common factor between the doomed Yahoo acquisitions:

“For so many of those start-ups taken on by Yahoo, a primary sense of optimism was soon stifled by an excess of bureaucracy and an inability to agree and get to work on new products or innovations.”

Via EPR Network
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