Yahoo to Yahoo Photos: 'A la Peanut Butter Manifesto–Disappear!'

We want to do everything and be everything to everyone. We’ve known this for years, talk about it incessantly, but do nothing to fundamentally address it. We are scared to be left out. … I’ve heard our strategy described as spreading peanut butter across the myriad opportunities that continue to evolve in the online world. The result: a thin layer of investment spread across everything we do and thus we focus on nothing in particular. I hate peanut butter.”

– Yahoo Senior VP Brad Garlinghouse, The Peanut Butter Manifesto

I guess Yahoo really does hate peanut butter. The company has begun to consolidate its redundant services, as Garlinghouse suggested it should. The first to get the ax? Yahoo Photos. The company has finally announced plans to shutter its long-running photo service in favor of Flickr, a rival it acquired in 2005. Not a big surprise, really. Yahoo Photos lost 60% of its audience in the past year, according to measurement service Hitwise. Meanwhile, Flickr’s audience grew 22%. If you didn’t see this one coming, you’re probably still using a Polaroid Land Camera. Or you’re a Flickr founder. (Just kidding.)

“No. Yahoo Photos will get a lot of Flickr features, and there are a lot of other areas around Yahoo that will also be Flickrized where Flickrization would be good,” Flickr co-founder Caterina Fake wrote when the site was acquired by Yahoo. “Yahoo Photos and Flickr have different kinds of users with different needs, and will remain separate for the foreseeable future. Flickr would also suffer from a sudden deluge of LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! omg! so we’re going to grow it carefully.”