Over the past two years there has been a lot of discussion about the closure of Yahoo! 360° and the transition to our new profiles experience that we’ve had in the works. Today, we’re able to firmly say that on July 13, 2009 Yahoo! 360° will be closing down and you’ll be asked to move into your new profile on Yahoo!, by July 12, 2009.

While we know that many of you have faithfully used this service over the past few years, our goal has been to find a way to unify your social experience and connections across all of Yahoo! and anywhere you travel across the Web. So, while we’re sad to say that we will no longer be supporting Yahoo! 360°, we’re excited about this larger plan and hope you’ll transition over and be a part of it, too.

We also want to reiterate our commitment to preserving your blog content. We have been working to make sure we put the right mechanisms in place so that you can move your content and minimize disruption. It is with this thought in mind that we’re happy to introduce a new blogging feature that is integrated into your profile. You can find more information on this below.

With your new profile on Yahoo! you’ll be able to connect with other people on Yahoo!, and share your updates and activity with the people you meet on the Web.

While we know many of you are frustrated by this decision, we’d like to address some of the main questions you might have. If your question has not been addressed, please see our Help pages and list of frequently asked questions for more information. If you’d like to discuss this change, or, ask a question that was not addressed in the help pages or in the content below, please visit the Profiles News Blog at: http://www.yprofileblog.com. Though, I can’t promise to answer every question, I can promise to create additional posts on common issues and trends to make sure “hot topics” are addressed.

Why is Yahoo! 360 closing?

Though 360 gained a strong core of loyal users (you) who enjoyed the service, Yahoo! has been reprioritizing some products to help us deliver the best possible experiences to consumers. The decision to close Yahoo! 360 and transition users to profiles is part of this larger strategy, but we had been waiting until we had an alternative solution that we could offer to our community of Yahoo! 360 users until we officially shut down 360.

It’s been almost two years since you first announced 360 was closing—why shut it down now?

Before we could retire 360, we had to find a sustainable and adequate solution for your personal information. We know how important your blog entries and profile information is to each of you, and we wanted to be able to maintain the integrity of this content. Rather than rushing the process and risking data loss, we worked on a broader solution across Yahoo! that would meet our future goal of providing you the best possible social experience while at the same time protecting your privacy and data. We’re happy to say that we now have a solution that satisfies all of these requirements.

What is going to happen to my blog?

We know that many of you decided to blog in 360 because you enjoyed sharing your content with the people you met on Yahoo!, which is why we’ve created two options for your blog and all of its content.

The first is: you can start blogging on your profile on Yahoo!—we’ve created an all new blogging tool that will let you post content and also allows you to integrate photos right from Flickr. Once you create an entry, your post is automatically pushed out in your updates stream to your connections, saving you the hassle of sending out links to your latest entries.

A second option that we’re providing you is the ability to export your blog and all of your content and to any of the supported blogging systems (don’t worry—they’re popular sites like WordPress, Blogger, and MoveableType). We’ll even generate an archive with all of your entries and photos and will send you a link to download the archive. To get started with this option, please follow this link: http://download.360.yahoo.com/

First you shut down Mash, now you shut down 360—why should I give profiles a shot?

We understand you might have doubts—in the past few years, you’ve seen a couple of social sites come and go, and it means a lot to us that you’ve stuck around while we’ve tweaked each experience. Know that we’re committed to having a universal profile across Yahoo!, and we’re committed to working with you to improve and evolve this profile to make sure it’s what YOU want to use. That doesn’t mean we can implement every piece of feedback you provide, but it does mean we’re listening, and we are going to do our best to make sure your interests are incorporated into future releases and versions of your profile.

What about customization and photos? On 360 I can change the look and feel and upload multiple photos—can I do this with profiles?

At this time, your new profile does not have all the features and functionality of your 360 profile. However, we are looking at incorporating new ways of expressing yourself through your profile.

In regards to uploading multiple photos, your profile on Yahoo! allows for only one primary photo for now. This is also something we’re looking at improving/expanding based on your feedback.

We know that you will have lots of questions about 360 closing and how it will affect each of you. Be sure to check out the Customer Care help pages (including the FAQ’s) to help make this transition as smooth as possible.

Thank you.

Melissa Daniels
Yahoo! Community Manager

On Yahoo!’s Q3 Earnings call yesterday, it was announced that we intend to transition Yahoo! 360 to a more integrated Yahoo! experience in early 2008. We want to provide additional information on this news and assure you that we will minimize any disruption to you and our valued Yahoo! 360 community. We also want to assure you that you can still use all the features of Yahoo! 360 until this transition takes place in early 2008.

We will be sharing specifics of this transition over the next several months, but we can tell you today that Yahoo! 360 will transition to a new universal Yahoo! profile that will be closely tied to other relevant services across Yahoo!, and will include improved blogging capabilities.

With the announcement of this transition, we assure you:

• We will preserve your Yahoo! 360 blog content, profile photo, nickname, and friends lists during and after the transition
• We will provide the right tools to move your blog content;
• We will give you ample notice before this transition begins in early 2008.

The vibrant community that has flourished on Yahoo! 360 is important to many people, and it is important to Yahoo!. Providing a smooth transition is a top priority for us, and we want to emphasize that we are committed to preserving your blog content and friends lists throughout the transition.

Many of you have asked if Mash, Yahoo!’s experimental profile service, will replace Yahoo! 360. We know this is an important question for many of you, and even more so given this news. We don't have all the answers today, but we are testing solutions, including Mash, in order to provide a more integrated universal Yahoo! profile throughout the Yahoo! network.

We hear your concerns. We are listening to your feedback, and we are committed to providing a more useful, engaging, and valuable service in the future.

Best,

The Yahoo! 360 Team

I know some of you have been frustrated lately with problems sharing your Yahoo! Photos on Yahoo! 360°. A couple folks even contacted me directly, pointing out that they switched to Flickr and found it much more satisfying. Others wrote in, wondering why we had two photo sharing services -- isn't one enough? By focusing on a single photo service, they reasoned, wouldn't it make life easier for us all by doing one thing (and doing it really, really well)?

Well, as you may have heard, Yahoo! Photos is shutting its doors soon. And in the process, we’re making it easy for people to move their pictures from photos.yahoo.com to other photo sharing sites, including Flickr. This also now includes the Flickr transition for people who use international versions of Yahoo! Photos (especially since we’ve also recently launched Flickr in seven languages).

If you already have a Flickr account, you know that Flickr makes it easy to manage and share your photos. It also gives you lots of ways to find and explore interesting pictures from the Flickr community. And if you prefer to share your photos only with friends and family, Flickr offers a number of privacy controls.

If you don't already have a Flickr account, now is a great time to set one up. I think the Yahoo! Photos users who choose Flickr are going to have fun with it (and will enjoy being part of the Flickr community). If you want to share pictures with your friends on Yahoo! 360°, I'd recommend using Flickr. It's easy. Really easy.

If you don’t currently use Yahoo! Photos or Flickr, set up an account and upload photos on Flickr. For both U.S. and international Yahoo! Photos users, here’s how to move your photos to Flickr:

• Go to http://www.flickr.com
• Register with your Yahoo! ID
• Upload your photos. They need to be public on Flickr to appear on your Yahoo! 360° page
• Read more about public photos and privacy settings
• Next, share your photos on Yahoo! 360°:
• Go to My Page > Share Photos
• Click "begin sharing" and add the Yahoo! ID associated with your Flickr account

Any questions? Ask away in our comments section.

……………………………………………………….

as you may have heard:

http://yodel.yahoo.com/2007/06/13/give-your-photos-the-fun-of-flickr/

seven languages:

http://blog.flickr.com/en/2007/06/12/flickr-international-launch/

http://www.flickr.com:

http://www.flickr.com

upload:

http://flickr.com/photos/upload/

Read more:

http://360.yahoo.com/edit/yphotos.html

Share photos:

http://360.yahoo.com/edit/yphotos.html