After months of indecisiveness, finally, Yahoo’s Delicious has been sold to the founders of YouTube, Chad Hurley and Steve Chen. An official announcement stated that Delicious will now be run by AVOS, a new Internet startup launched by Hurley and Chen.
Yahoo Sells Delicious
At this point, there’s no official disclosure from both the parties about the cost involved. But in March there were rumors that Delicious might be sold for around $1m, which is a huge drop from the $30m Yahoo had to pay to acquire Delicious in 2005. We have to wait for further news on that.
YouTube founders Chad Hurley and Steve Chen made their announcement that they have acquired Delicious from Yahoo! They plan on making Delicious “easier and more fun” to save, share and discover the web’s “tastiest” content, as well as “improve its ability to help users manage information overload,” said Yahoo and AVOS on Wednesday.
A Delicious announcement stated, “Yahoo! will continue to operate Delicious until approximately July 2011. When the transition period is complete, users’ information will be moved over to Delicious’ new owner.”
Delicious will remain in Yahoo’s custody until July 2011, when the official transfer to AVOS will take place. Delicious whose future has been in question, also said, “We wanted to find a home for the product where it can receive more love and attention. We think AVOS is that place.”
Yahoo acquired Delicious in 2005 and last year revealed its intention of selling the bookmarking service
The speculation of a sale was started in December, when a leaked screenshot of an internal webcast at Yahoo suggested Delicious as one of the many products slated for “sunset.”
“We’re actively thinking about the future of Delicious and we believe there is a home outside the company that would make more sense for the service and our users. We’re in the process of exploring a variety of options and talking to companies right now. And we’ll share our plans with you as soon as we can,” announced Yahoo.
The bookmarking site, Delicious, was launched in 2003 by Joshua Schachter who no longer has anything to do with it. His creation ushered in the Web 2.0 era of online applications, along with Flickr, which was acquired by Yahoo. But Delicious has shown a steady decline in traffic over the last many months.
The transition for Delicious users
Both the companies say their only goal is to make sure the transition is smooth for users. During the transition period, Yahoo will continue to operate Delicious, and users will be asked to sign up for a new account with AVOS. All private and public bookmarks of users will be maintained during this period. Users who opt to sign up with AVOS will have their bookmarks transferred exactly as they are, once the transition period is over. Those who do not sign up with AVOS, will lose their bookmarks after the transition date.
Delicious on its blog said, “Starting today, we will ask you to login to Delicious again and agree to let Yahoo! transfer your bookmarks to the new owner. That way, you’ll enjoy uninterrupted use of the service and will keep your account and all of your bookmarks when we make the transition. For more information on the Delicious transition, please refer to this FAQ.”
What is Delicious?
If you’re never used Delicious before, it is a social bookmarking service that allows users to save, share and discover web bookmarks. Millions of users use Delicious to access and add bookmarks from anywhere and any computer. Check it out here.
The new owners of Delicious are said to be very excited at their acquisition. They plan to work closely with their new users over the next few months and develop innovative features. Hurley and Chad are also aggressively hiring to build a world-class team to take on this challenge.
Tags: Delicious, Yahoo sells Delicious, YouTube founders acquire Delicious
what????? after closing down yahoobuzz now left Delicious
they acquired delicious for $30m in 2005 and now sold it for around $1m? that does not seem to be a smart move by Yahoo
I was only talking about the “rumors” at that point that Delicious might be sold for around $1m.
The financial terms of the actual deal are not known yet.
I was only talking about the “rumors” at that point that Delicious might be sold for around $1m.
The financial terms of the actual deal are not known yet.
Yahoo brought it then put on the shelf doing nothing with it. Hopefully AVOS shows it the love Yahoo never did.
Yes, all Yahoo did was throw Delicious into a deep pit and AVOS may or may not rescue it, but there's very little to lose. For now, I'm hoping for the best and actively backing AVOS.
Let's see how delicious gonna change in the hands of it's new owners. So have to get avos accounts to preserve whatever we have in delicious yet.
good news