Yahoo to shutter AdSense clone at the end of April
Yahoo's Publisher Network might have been going strong for nearly five years, but in the face of tough competition from Google, it has decided to close it up on April 30.
Yahoo on Wednesday announced that it has decided to close the Yahoo Publisher Network, the company's answer to Google AdSense.
The Yahoo Publisher Network, an advertising platform enabling small Web publishers to place ads on their sites to drive revenue, will officially close on April 30. The service has been in beta testing since its launch nearly five years ago.
In an e-mail sent to Publisher Network users, Yahoo said users of its service might want to consider moving to Chitika, another ad platform that the company says serves more than "2 billion monthly impressions across more than 80,000 Web sites." Chitika has posted a page to help Yahoo Publisher Network users join the service.
Yahoo said the closure of the Publisher Network is a necessary step, as it moves to further focus on its own in-house ads.
"Yahoo continuously evaluates and prioritizes our products and services, in alignment with business goals, and our continued commitment to deliver the best consumer and advertiser experiences," a representative wrote in an e-mailed statement. "After conducting an extensive review of the Yahoo Publisher Network beta program, it was determined that the resources that would be required to advance the program to the level expected by our publishers would be better utilized in other areas of Yahoo's business."
Publisher Network joins a growing number of services that Yahoo has shut down for not making strong financial sense. One of the more notable examples occurred last April, when the company announced that it would be shutting down GeoCities. The service was officially discontinued in October.