MingleNow to Close 7 January - Forced By Yahoo?
MingleNow, the nightlife-focused social network that launched last October, is closing down on 7 January according to a statement on their blog. No reason was given, but Read/WriteWeb has learned that Yahoo may be behind the closure. Yahoo bought BlueLithium, an ad network, in September this year - and BlueLithium owns MingleNow.com. So our source tells us that Yahoo probably asked MingleNow to close down.
Interestingly the MingleNow blog post is telling users: "Feel free to take your photos and friends with you to other communities such as Flickr, post your events on Upcoming or find your favorite bars and clubs on 123out.com". Both Flickr and Upcoming are Yahoo! properties. As for 123out.com, it was a nightlife photography website but the URL re-directs to MingleNow currently. A July '07 blog post by MingleNow noted that they had merged with 123out.com - perhaps the latter will reappear as a standalone site after 7 January.
There's nothing untoward about all this, but if Yahoo has pushed for the closure - why isn't it being revealed publicly? One wonders what the MingleNow users think of having to move all their content to other (preferably Yahoo) sites?
Share
Comments
Subscribe to comments for this post OR Subscribe to comments for all ReadWriteWeb posts
yes, Yahoo is forcing us to close. they don't seem interesteed in maintaining our awesome site. I am crushed and disapointed, but I know our users loved our professional photography and real-world connections- another company will benefit greatly.
I bet Dennis Crowley would have some fodder to toss at the MingleNow folks in light of this...
Seems strangely (or perhaps not so strangely) analogous to the Goog/Dodgeball scenario.
By the way, I was a part-time photographer and user of Minglenow- I am just assuming that Yahoo made the decision because I never heard differently. I loved Minglenow and I will continue my photography elsewhere...Please don't read too much into my comment, sorry.
i never liked minglenow. i spent all my time on www.napkinnights.com anyways. the only thing minglenow had going for them was the green and blue. those colors are great!