A Fool Looks Back

Yahoo!'s more notable axing was del.icio.us. Beyond being perhaps the most popular site using the ".us" domain-name extension, the social-bookmarking site was a welcome indication at the time that Yahoo! understood the importance of Web 2.0. After conflicting reports, it now appears that del.icio.us will try to find a new home outside Yahoo! rather than shut its doors.

Obviously, Yahoo! isn't the only online portal to get rid of sites that aren't living up to their potential. Google and Microsoft have blood on their neck-wringing hands, too. It's arguably more noteworthy when Yahoo! does the same thing because this is a company that would seem to have the most to gain from nurturing fringe properties that still generate traffic. It needs to do whatever it can when it's competing against Google or the market-share-gobbling Bing.

Saying goodbye to del.icio.us? The site may not have lived up to its initial potential, but this is not a tasty move.

Briefly in the news
And now let's take a quick look at some of the other stories that shaped our week.

• Love him or hate him, Jim Cramer always draws a crowd. So it's a good thing that TheStreet.com has locked in its fiery co-founder for another three years.
• It took a while, but Amazon.com (Nasdaq: AMZN) is finally rolling out its MP3 store as an app for Research In Motion's (Nasdaq: RIMM) BlackBerry owners. This is a good fit, since RIM is one of the few smartphone platforms that also isn't peddling music.
• Sirius XM Radio (Nasdaq: SIRI) had Paul McCartney take the stage in New York on Monday to celebrate the service's surpassing 20 million subscribers. Between Howard Stern's renewal and yet another credit-rating agency upgrade a week earlier, McCartney had some pretty good opening acts.

Until next week, I remain,

Rick Munarriz

© 2010 UCLICK L.L.C.