I've got some nostalgia for Yahoo Games. Here's an anecdote I've posted elsewhere:<p>I was on a phone interview to be a software engineer for a web game company in ~2013. The interview went very well. At the end I asked what I'd be working on, and they said blackjack.<p>I said, "Didn't Yahoo solve that problem in the 90s?"<p>I didn't get a call back.
Anyone complaining when google shuts down bum projects need to remember this. Yahoo let divisions fester along leaching resources from the company with no clear path to anything. When google cuts a project, even if you <i>super seriously love it</i>, they prevent an announcement like this.
Without analyzing any of the specific cuts, it is a brave move to cut divisions as well as people. Too often companies just say "Everyone bears their share of the 15% cuts" without changing priorities. It's rare to say, "Let's stop doing certain things" and make the cuts that way.
Yahoo Games was one of the best. I used to play games there when I was in elementary school (I am the 90s kid). Pool, poker, etc. But when I clicked on Yahoo Games the catalog reminds me of the hundreds of smartphone games in Android / iOS store that I don't want to play. What happened to the simple pool game graphic? Chess game?<p>What else? Those Flash games out there!
Yahoo! Store has been rebranded to
<a href="https://www.aabacosmallbusiness.com/ecommerce" rel="nofollow">https://www.aabacosmallbusiness.com/ecommerce</a>
which I assume means it is for sale or will be, but I haven't read any news to that effect.
Yahoo games seems like an odd choice. I think that lies of older people frequent that.<p>My parents for example spend lots of time after checking their Yahoo Email playing mahjong and various other games on there.<p>Now I'll get asked where they can turn to next to get their games fix!
This is one of the key requests made by advocate investors last year, although they wanted much deeper pruning. It seems like a good plan to me. I'm curious what's next.