Computer and Library Learning (Archived)

Yahoo Mail went down yesterday for some of its users, including some Toronto Public Library customers. Yahoo acknowledged through its Twitter feed that Yahoo Mail could not be accessed by some users. The global number of Yahoo Mail users exceeds 270 million, according to Yahoo’s own estimates late last year. Those users unable to obtain Yahoo Mail access used Twitter to register their frustrations. CRN reminded readers that Gmail users experienced a large outage in February 2011 and Windows Live Hotmail users experienced a similar problem in late 2010/early 2011. eWeek reported that some users were also having trouble accessing Yahoo’s online photo posting service, Flickr.

These developments are all the more interesting after The Next Web reported on April 19, 2011 that Microsoft was urging Yahoo Mail users to switch to Windows Live Hotmail through a website called SwitchToHotmail.

In other developments this week, Yahoo reported on April 27, 2011 that it was selling the Delicious social-bookmarking site to YouTube co-founders Steve Chen and Chad Hurley through their new company AVOS. (Chen and Hurley left YouTube in 2009 and 2010 respectively.) Yahoo had purchased Delicious in December 2005. Yahoo now wishes to focus on its core services and support new innovations.