It was probably inevitable that Yahoo’s Livestand
app would be discontinued — as was
announced earlier today. Though a noble attempt, it was always a weaker product than some of its competitors, including Flipboard and Zite. Livestand was announced in November, just six months ago.
Whatever strategy gave birth to Livestand, under Carol Bartz, is no longer in place at Yahoo. Blake Irving, former Yahoo Product Chief, was the one who introduced Livestand and IntoNow last year. He’s no longer with the company, resigning during the short-lived Scott Thompson regime.
Livestand had improved during its short life but didn’t get the promotion and attention it needed to become a successful product.
In this category of personalized news-magazine aggregator-apps, Flipboard is the most well-known; however Zite is the best and must usable. Others include AOL Editions, Taptu, Pulse and Google Currents. Currents still seems to be alive and kicking. I wonder how long before it gets discontinued.
Yahoo Livestand was part of Yahoo’s “mobile first’ strategy. Yahoo Axis is now the poster child for Yahoo’s mobile efforts.
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