Yahoo Maps and other services to shut; company to focus on search, digital content

Yahoo Inc said it was shutting down a few of its services, including Yahoo Maps, as it realigns itself to focus on search and digital content. Maps.yahoo.com will shut down by the end of this month, Amotz Maimon, Yahoo’s chief architect, said in a blog post, as the service faces intense competition from Google Inc’s Maps service. Yahoo’s search and other services including photo-sharing website Flickr will still support Yahoo Maps, Maimon said. These steps follow efforts by Chief Executive Marissa Mayer to revive meaningful revenue growth with a string of acquisitions and product revamps. Mayer has been under pressure to make quicker progress in strengthening the company’s media and advertising business. Yahoo is scaling back mail support on the built-in Mail app for older versions of Apple Inc’s iPhone operating system, Maimon said on Thursday. Yahoo said the Philippines homepage would be shuttered. It will also close Yahoo Music services in France and Canada and Yahoo Movies in Spain. Media services such as Yahoo TV and Yahoo Autos will be stopped in the UK, France, Germany, Spain and Italy at the end of June. Reuters