Yahoo Site Explorer, which went live in September 2005 is now going to be shut down by the end of this year.
Yahoo said:
In an August 2010 blog post, we said we would continue Site Explorer with a focus on new features for webmaster community, even after the transition to Microsoft platforms is complete. We listened to your feedback, and along with the team from Bing Webmaster Center looked jointly at the roadmap for the webmaster tools. Having two webmaster portals for a single source for organic results does not add enough value. Once organic results are transitioned to Bing in all the markets, we plan to shut down Yahoo! Site Explorer and Microsoft’s Webmaster Tools will be the source for Bing and Yahoo! webmaster site and analytics data.
Horrible news for many SEOs who have come to rely on Yahoo Site Explorer as a free, comprehensive and search engine backed competitive analysis link tool.
Sad news for me, being that Yahoo keeps failing on search. But we know. Tim Mayer, the equivalent to Yahoo's Matt Cutts back int he day, was personally responsible for setting up this beloved tool. So it is so sad to see it being shut down.
Microsoft Webmaster Tools, which isn't bad, is suppose to pick up where Yahoo left off. But I doubt Microsoft will offer a competitive link analysis tool within their webmaster tools. Google doesn't, Yahoo did, I doubt Microsoft will.
Yahoo has posted a detailed FAQ on this on their blog. Here are some of them:
When will Site Explorer shutdown?
We are working with Microsoft to transition organic results in all markets to the Microsoft Search platform. Site Explorer will shut down once all markets are transitioned. This is expected later this year. We will keep updating you with progress of the transition at our Search Blog.
Will the Site Explorer APIs be shut down?
The APIs were scheduled to be shut down at the end of last year, but the timeframe has been extended for the YDN Site Explorer API up until September 15, 2011. Note: For BOSS Site Explorer APIs shut down information, scheduled for July 20, 2011, please see this April 2011 blog post.
Will Yahoo! continue to crawl my website?
Although the organic results will be powered by Microsoft Search platforms, Yahoo! will continue to innovate on the search experience beyond the services delivered by Microsoft. In order to provide Yahoo! users with an amazing search experience, our slurp crawlers may continue to selectively crawl websites to help support these efforts.
Goodbye Yahoo Site Explorer!
Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.
