Yahoo is weighing its options with its blog-based social network tool MyBlogLog and has not ruled out closing down the site–and its API (our MyBlogLog API profile). When the MyBlogLog API launched, it looked to have a promising future, though this was before Facebook and Google released similar features.
ReadWriteWeb reported that MyBlogLog will be closed in January. Yahoo responded with its own post, which gives few details except to say no decision has been made:
Is a shutdown on the table? Sure, that’s an option. But there are other options as well. We know this creates some uncertainty for current MyBlogLog users. While we aren’t quite ready to share more details, we promise to keep you posted.
If you’re a developer using the MyBlogLog API, it’s difficult to take any solace from the Yahoo post.
If Yahoo does shutter the site and API there will be some fallout. The API never quite saw the adoption to the level of its potential (we list only 5 MyBlogLog mashups, including FOAFster, shown above, and at our profile). However, the MyBlogLog widget, the heart of the service, is still installed on thousands of blogs. Those sites will need to remove MyBlogLog and possibly move to other services. And, the toughest part, they’ll have to start all over with getting visitors to join that next network.
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