Yahoo to shut down Yahoo Photos service, push Flickr

By Eric Auchard

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Yahoo Inc. is shutting down Yahoo Photos, an online photo storage site, and asking users to move instead to its Web 2.0 photo sharing site, Flickr, a Yahoo official said.

In June, tens of millions of registered users of Yahoo Photos will be notified of various options including upgrading to Yahoo's Flickr service or various outside-photo storage sites, according to Flickr co-founder Stewart Butterfield.

Yahoo also will offer consumers the option of loading their photos on competing sites when users are notified next month.

Outside sites include PhotoBucket -- the most popular online photo sharing service among users of social network sites like News Corp.'s MySpace -- or more conventional photo printing and storage site such as Kodak Gallery, Shutterfly Inc. or Snapfish, he said.

"Flickr will get top-billing, of course," Butterfield said in an interview late on Thursday about the plan to give users multiple alternatives.

Butterfield and co-founder Caterina Fake, his wife, sold Flickr to Yahoo in 2005. Butterfield is now a director of product management at Yahoo.

Later, Jeff Weiner, executive vice president of Yahoo's Network Division, said in a company statement: "We are making great strides in our ongoing efforts to align Yahoo!'s resources and focus on core strategic priorities."

"Part of this progress is today's decision to close Yahoo! Photos to better serve our valued customers through Flickr."