site-deaths
Where incredible journeys end
Site deaths are when sites go offline, taking content and permalinks with them, and breaking the web accordingly. Site deaths are one of the big reasons why you should own your own identity and content on the web.
This is a chronology of content hosting sites that have died, removing millions (billions?) of permalinks from the web. This is specifically for content hosting sites which permitted end-user posting. Not random sites nor pure "app" sites where there's no loss of user data. If a game site goes down and takes down play history/scores, or if Gmail went away those would both represent loss of user data (though no public permalinks).
The tendency for big companies to shut down a service and delete all your things has now even been satirised by XKCD. Andy Baio talks through one example from creation, to growth, acquisition, acquihire, disillusionment, neglect, and shutdown.
Research
- Losing My Revolution: How Many Resources Shared on Social Media Have Been Lost? | arXiv.org by Hany M. SalahEldeen, Michael L. Nelson
Upcoming
This is a partial list, please add more, e.g. from other sources like:
- ArchiveTeam Watchlist.
- Our Incredible Journey - "a snarky and angry response to companies and people who profit from an acquisition while showing little regard for the efforts of the thousands of people who spent time on their service.". Creation thereof: 2013-02-27 Our Incredible Journey
- Anything acquired by Yahoo (based on their track record, see below. Bonus: update that the table at that Wikipedia link to include a "Shutdown date" column with dates from the article for each acquisition.)
Expected/announced site deaths. Check them upon announced shutdown date.
- If site shutdown is confirmed, move to #Past by year.
- If site is still up as of shutdown date, move to #Any_Day_Now
Soonest first:
Post News
2024-04-19: Post News announced they would be closing in the next few weeks.[1] (archived)
We are releasing a feature that allows you to download your content. It will be available next week. We recommend you run the export once you feel you are finished posting here at Post News. You can access this from SETTINGS > ACCOUNT. Once your data is prepared, it will be emailed to you directly.
Any Day Now
These sites are officially closed, but some functionality may still be working (e.g. logging in and viewing your activity).
- 2017? Vine On 2016-10-27 they announced they would be discontinuing the mobile app, but keeping the website online. [2]
Acquihires
The announcement of an acquihire or other exotic corporate acquisitions by silos or other companies may, but does not necessarily, indicate a potential future site-death. Exporting your personal data from these services may be a good preventative measure against potential future data loss.
- 2020-05-07: Keybase acquired by Zoom and the team is now working on Zoom security instead, with no specific plans for Keybase.
- No subsequent Keybase updates as of 2022-09-14, but site is still online
- add acquihire companies here
Speculative
- 2017-01-01 "Facebook will lose 80% of users" Facebook will lose 80% of users by 2017, say Princeton researchers
- Response: Debunking Princeton
- Summary of debate: It's Facebook vs. Princeton in study smackdown
- 2017-04-30 Google and Facebook "might completely disappear"[3]
- 2017-07-12 Soundcloud laid off 40% of its staff last week and some speculation indicates it may not last. At present, Soundcloud doesn't have a bulk export feature.
- 2022-10-26 Mark Zuckerberg Is Going To Kill His Company
The net result will be the death of this company. Eventually, the internal frustration with Zuckerberg’s endless cash burn will lead to a brain drain in the company, and similarly a problem in hiring.
…
I am not saying that Facebook or Instagram will die, but I believe they will become significantly more painful products to use as Zuckerberg gets more desperate.
…
The likely death spiral will be a slow decline in advertising revenue as people flee these platforms, with investors continually calling for Zuckerberg’s head as he burns $15+ billion a year trying to prove that the world wants to chat to Wii avatars “in the metaverse.” - 2022-11-11 Elon Musk warns of Twitter bankruptcy [4]
Near Misses
These services announced potential shutdowns but circumstances ultimately evolved to save all or parts of them and the data they maintained. Users of these services should still use caution with regard to their data and community.
Frontback
- 2015-07-24 frontback [5]
- "Frontback as a service will be winding down on August 15th. On this page we provide you with an easy way to export all your photos. Your data will be available to download until September 15th, 2015. After this date, all photos and data will be permanently deleted from our servers."
- Frontback announced on 2015-08-01 that they're staying open.
We just signed an agreement with a partner who believes as much as we do that there’s something incredible with Frontback. This partner is fully committed to make Frontback an even better place to share your moments, we were impressed by how much they understand the platform and we will help the new team to make the transition as smooth as possible.http://blog.frontback.me/post/125627783291/important-message-to-our-community
8Tracks
- 2019-12-31 8Tracks, an online social site for making remixes popular among DJs will shut down.
8tracks has had a long run and its day in the sun. We’re sad to announce, however, that the company and its streaming service will wind down with the end of the decade, on December 31st, 2019.8tracks blog
- 2020-04-19 A group of 8Tracks fans apparently bought the service and are relaunching it. TL;DR: The 8tracks platform & brand are now owned & operated by BackBeat Inc., a new startup which acquired a portion of 8tracks’ assets during its wind-down earlier this year.
Craftsy / Bluprint
- 2020-05-24 Bluprint (previously Craftsy), a platform providing online craft courses/videos, patterns, and supplies, will be shutting down. (Craft Industry Alliance)
Past
This is an incomplete list. Please help by adding examples from these sources (in particular when user authored content was lost):
- Our Incredible Journey - tumblr of screenshots of company acquisition postings along with (simultaneous or subsequent) shutdown notices.
- Pinterest Google Graveyard
- Pinterest Microsoft Morgue
- ArchiveTeam Dead sites (feel free to contribute to, share there too).
See also (and add one-line summaries to) the history page.
In reverse chronological order:
2024
TinyLetter
- 2023-11-29 : Mailchimp is shutting down TinyLetter (archived)
The service will be discontinued on February 29th, 2024, according to a message I see when logged into my TinyLetter account.
- 2019-??? TinyLetter according to http://www.businessinsider.com/tinyletter-will-fold-into-mailchimp-in-the-future-but-its-not-going-to-happen-in-2018-2018-1
("won't happen this year", "no plans ... sunset ... in 2018" => so 2019 then)MailChimp has plans to merge its TinyLetter product with the rest of its newsletter services — though the change won't happen this year.
...
"there are no plans to sunset TinyLetter in 2018."- 2020-10-13 Tinyletter (by Mailchimp) is still up and running; it's more likely to be merged completely into MailChimp than shut down.
- 2018-01-31 Jeremy Cherfas asked about obtaining the text of past newsletters and received this response: "It's not possible to export your previous newsletters, but if you visit the archive page, you can print them to PDF from there. Alternately, you can copy and paste the text from the "sent" page in your account." Users of TinyLetter and Mailchimp have always been able to download a list of subscribers. No other data are available to users of TinyLetter, and any replies to newsletters are forwarded to the user, who should therefor have a copy of them.
- 2011-08-31 MailChimp Acquires TinyLetter
2023
Blogs.Harvard
A read-only archive as of 2023-07-31.
- 2018-07-13 Blogs.Harvard Blogging Platform announced in a post https://blogs.harvard.edu/blog/2018/07/13/upcoming-changes/ they will be shutting down the platform and transitioning to a new blogging platform. Any user without an official Harvard identity will be removed but given the opportunity to export their data.
- 2019-02-28: As of today, the register page is still linked from blogs.harvard.edu and appears to allow anyone with a harvard.edu email to sign up.
- 2022-12-14: Still up as of today, though the registration link is temporarily limited to on-campus/VPN clients to curtail abuse.
- 2023-03-02 : Blogs.harvard.edu Shutting Down June 30, 2023; Sites.harvard.edu available for Harvard community members (archived) "we are decommissioning the blogs.harvard.edu platform effective June 30, 2023"
- 2023-07-01: Updated previous post (archived) explaining they're deferring to 2023-07-31:
We are deferring the shutdown of blogs.harvard.edu until July 31, 2023. During this period, the blog server will be placed into a read-only mode to allow blog users additional time to migrate and for the potential creation of an online archive. The deferred shutdown and archive would also provide link integrity and continuity for blogs that are not being migrated to other platforms.
- 2023-07-31 Read-only archive (archived):
This archive is hosted by Automattic in coordination with the Berkman Klein Center in an effort to keep this important historic piece of the internet online.
IRL
- 2023 "IRL(.com)" social media silo shut down 2023-06-27 (https://web.archive.org/web/20230628161920/https://www.irl.com/) because “most of IRL's users were bots”, launched in 2021 (https://www.theverge.com/2021/6/15/22534253/irl-social-network-facebook-groups-calendar-events-messaging), and is subsequently being sued: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cgxqw505pq4o
Revue
Revue (https://www.getrevue.co/) was an editorial newsletter service for writers and publishers.
- 2021-01: bought by Twitter.
- 2022-12-20: all paid subscriptions set to cancel at end of billing cycle.
If you run a paid newsletter, on December 20, 2022 we will set all paid subscriptions to cancel at the end of their billing cycle. This is to prevent your subscribers being charged for Revue content after the point where it is no longer possible to send newsletters from Revue.
- 2023-01-18: shutdown, no longer able to access your account
From January 18, 2023, it will no longer be possible to access your Revue account. On that date, Revue will shut down and all data will be deleted.
- 2023-03-15: Domain was last online and archived.
Prior link to download subscribers, newsletters, and analytics: http://www.getrevue.co/app/offboard
It was used by several new media journalistic organizations including The Markup (https://www.getrevue.co/profile/klaxon).
2022-12-14 : We’ve made the difficult decision to shut down Revue. (archived)
2022
Kinja
- 2019-11-04 G/O Media has indicated that personal Kinja pages will be removed and unavailable in the coming weeks (see also G/O Media Says It's Deleting All Personal Kinja Pages Amid Deadspin Reader Revolt (Update: Maybe Not?).
G/O Media now says that it is "reevaluating the options for maintaining Kinja user pages and they will remain accessible at this time."
- 2019-11-04 they've reversed their decision to give greater thought, but there is obviously no guarantee the sites/pages will stay up.
- 2020-10-13 Kinja pages are still available and function
- 2022-04-04 some Kinja pages are still available (e.g. https://kinja.com/kylenw), however others are gone now:
2024-04-19: Reviewing: The kylenw example was last archived 2022-12-08 before it started redirecting to deadspin.com profile. Expect that's the case for other profiles, so categorizing this as a 2022 site death.
Reading.am
- 2022-06-02 Greg Leppert announced via email and on Twitter that he was shutting down Reading.am on 2022-06-30. The code was later released open source: https://github.com/reading-am.
You’re receiving this email because, at some point in the last decade, a Reading.am account was created using this address. Apologies, but I’m closing up shop at the end of this month and will take the site offline, permanently, at 11:59pm ET on June 30th, 2022.
If you’d like to download your bookmarks, you can do so in HTML, CSV, and JSON formats at this link: https://www.reading.am/settings/extras
If you have any difficulty logging in or downloading that data, please do let me know in the next couple of weeks and I’ll make time to troubleshoot.
Reading was always a labor of love and I want to thank you for being a part of it. If you’re curious about what I’ll be up to in the future, you can follow me here: https://twitter.com/leppert
And, as always, you can respond directly to this email; I’d love to hear from you.
—Greg
2021
Spectrum.chat
Community platform spectrum.chat got acquired by Microsoft and is being "sunset" by August 2021. According to the official announcement old content will be kept in a read-only state "for the forseeable future"; the team mentions in their comments that there is neither a path to directly contact community members about the changes nor a means to transfer existing content over to the new product (GitHub Discussions).
Google App Maker
2021-01-19 Google App Maker shut down (per https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_App_Maker), it was a G Suite program that builds apps.
- 2022: https://appmaker.google.com/ shows:
Error: Page not found
The requested URL was not found on this server. - Available to Business G Suite accounts, users can create a project as easily as creating a Google Doc or Google Sheet.
- On January 27, 2020 Google has announced the termination of this service due to low usage.
2020
Yahoo Groups
- ~2020-12-18 Yahoo Groups Officially shut down per https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yahoo!_Groups, started redirecting in January of 2021.
- 2020-12-15 Yahoo Groups will officially be shut down as announced on 2020-10-12.
- 2019-12-14: Yahoo Groups removing ability to upload content and removing previously uploaded content. [6] (archived) Appears it will still work as a mailing list, but no message digest/history stored on the site.
- 2019-10-28: won't be allowed to upload any more content to the site.
- 2019-12-14: deleting previously uploaded content
- Export: https://help.yahoo.com/kb/photos-files-saved-sln2526.html and https://help.yahoo.com/kb/download-data-privacy-dashboard-sln28671.html
Yahoo has made the decision to no longer allow users to upload content to the Yahoo Groups site. Beginning October 28, you won't be able to upload any more content to the site, and as of December 14 all previously posted content on the site will be permanently removed. You'll have until that date to save anything you've uploaded.
The Yahoo Groups site will continue to exist, however, all public groups will be made private or restricted. Any new group members will need to request an invite or be invited by an admin. Admins will still be able to manage various group settings, though some functionality will be limited.
...
Photos and files can be saved right from the Yahoo Groups site, or you can download your data from the Privacy Dashboard.
Firefox Send / Notes
2020-09-17: Mozilla shuts down Firefox Send and Firefox notes after ~18 months of operation
Vampirefreaks
2020 February: vampirefreaks, a goth/industrial/darkwave/etc social network closed all social aspects of their site and became an alternative fashion outlet. It was similar to MySpace in many aspects, including hosting music, and allowing niche bands - examples: Combichrist, Emilie Autumn and The Birthday Massacre - to kickstart their carrier.
- Farewell To VampireFreaks: The Website That Changed More Than Alt Cuture
- The Goth Sanctuary VampireFreaks Closes its Doors
TinyCards
2020-09-01 TinyCards was a flashcards/spaced repetition service (web, iOS and Android apps) created by Duolingo. Users could create and share their own card decks. Duolingo announcement Reddit thread
- 2020-07-01 Email notice sent to users on July 1, with planned closure on September 1.
Mixer
2020-07-22 Mixer was a live streaming silo service
soup.io
soup.io was "blogging from the rest of us". It will shutdown "in less than 10 days"
Heroes Wiki
- 2020-06-01 The Heroes Wiki was shutdown due to decreasing traffic (and thus ad revenue) being insufficient to maintain the site.
- 6,536 content pages (MediaWiki) when shutdown
- 9,992 user accounts (ibid)
- Mirror was set up that same day (2020-06-01) using an "XML dump" from the original, apparently imported into another MediaWiki install (except for the users):
- http://heroeswiki.ddns.net/ (pages have full version history, except usernames replaced with inactive names prefixed with "imported>")
Wunderlist
- 2020-05-06 Wunderlist was shut down by Microsoft.
- https://techcrunch.com/2019/12/09/microsoft-to-finally-shut-down-to-do-list-app-wunderlist-on-may-6-2020/
- Users can still sign in to get a copy of your lists, tasks, subtasks, files, and comments as a .zip file. You can export your data through Sunday, November 15, 2020.
Bittr
- 2020-04-28 After 3 years it launched the founder of Bittr announced the shutdown of their service. The company which was a bitcoin savings platform through which European consumers can safely buy bitcoin regularly, straight into their own bitcoin wallet and the cause of this shutdown was the AMLD5 law in The Netherlands.
Highly
- 2020-01-27 The Highly service has been shut down and the team is moving to Twitter. On 2020-01-22 The service emailed users to download their data by January 27th. As of 2020-01-31 the site indicates that the service is shuttered and that "The Highly Team has joined Twitter."
- 2019-04-17 Highly announced on Medium that they would be joining Twitter. They indicate that their service should continue though some paid portions will change or be discontinued.
2019
Sandstorm
- 2019-12-31 Sandstorm Oasis is Shutting Down
Sandstorm was enables non-technical end users to install and run arbitrary software on servers they control. Apps could downloaded from an app store and installed with one click, like installing apps on phone. Each app was running in a secure sandbox, where it could not interfere with other apps without permission.
Sandstorm shutdown beacause team was forced to look for new jobs. Most of them were hired by Cloudflare, though some chose to go elsewhere.
Mozilla Thimble
- 2019-12-18 Mozilla shuts down Thimble
Thimble was an open-source project created by Mozilla in partnership with CDOT at Seneca College. Since its inception, Thimble contributors from all over the world played an important role in making it a success. More than 350 contributors from over 30 countries localized Thimble into 33 languages. Thimble had active users in scores of countries.Mozilla Foundation
- 2018-12-18 Mozilla announced the pending decommission of Thimble Announcement
Over the years, Mozilla’s educational software has helped teach critical digital skills, from creating content to mastering HTML and CSS. But as new threats and opportunities to the open internet arise, Mozilla sometimes decommissions projects to focus on new ones.
We expect Thimble to be fully retired by December 2019
- 2019-08-23 Mozilla Backpack, a site for displaying open badges officially shut down and users encouraged to export to [7] Badgr.
- 2019-08-15 : The Mozilla Backpack is Transitioning to Badgr (archived)
- 2019-08-20 : Mozilla backpack transition to Badgr FAQs (archived)
- 2019-04-02 Google Plus officially shut down though it may still offer data export.
- Google is expediting shutdown of Google+ for consumer version in April 2019. Initial date was August 2019.
- 2018-10-08 : Project Strobe: Protecting your data, improving our third-party APIs, and sunsetting consumer Google+ (archived)
- 2018-12-10 : Expediting changes to Google+ (archived)
goo.gl URL shortener
- 2019-03-30: goo.gl (Google's URL Shortener) will shut down completely: "If you have existing goo.gl short links, you can continue to use all features of goo.gl console for a period of one year, until March 30, 2019, when we will discontinue the console. You can manage all your short links and their analytics through the goo.gl console during this period. After March 30, 2019, all links will continue to redirect to the intended destination."
CiteULike
2019-03-30: CiteULike announced on 2019-02-19 that they will be shutting down their education-related social bookmarking service.
- 2019-02-19 : CiteULike is closing down (archived)
Unfortunately, the costs associated with providing it and the fact that none of us really has any time to put into the maintenance and development of the site mean that we have to call it a day.
Zcast
- 2019-01-31 https://about.zcast.co/ ZCAST - a podcast host - will shut down.
After 4 years, we have made the hard decision to end our ZCast journey.
ZCast will run in minimal capacity between now and the end of January 2019, and will then shut down indefinitely.
If you have any content you recorded on ZCast that you wish to download, we have enabled the download feature to all users.
2018
Unixcorn.xyz Mastodon
- 2018-11-01 https://unixcorn.xyz/ Mastodon instance shutting down. [8]
- Appears to be part of a wider shutdown of Unixcorn Project https://unixcorn.org/
- FR
J'ai décidé d'arrêter Unixcorn, je suis fatigué et las de l'hypocrisie du truc collectif alors qu'en fait je porte tout seul le truc depuis plusieurs années. J'ai échoué à rendre ce truc réellement collectif et souhaite maintenant passer à autre chose.
- EN
I decided to stop Unixcorn, I'm tired and weary about the hypocrisy of presenting the project as a collective one. I took care of it alone for years and now I want to let go and go on. https://unixcorn.xyz/@unixcorn/100661173664470093
Path
- 2018-10-18 Path Notice of shutdown on 2018-09-17
- 2018-10-01: Unable to download/update the app in iTunes and Google Play
- 2018-10-18: Termination of the Service (Unable to access to Path)
- 2018-11-15: Path related customer service will be closed
- Export your data before 2018-10-18. See Path#How_to_export
It is with deep regret that we announce that we will stop providing our beloved service, Path.
We started Path in 2010 as a small team of passionate and experienced designers and engineers. Over the years we have tried to lay out our mission: through technology and design we aim to be a source of happiness, meaning, and connection to our users. Along our journey we have laughed and cried with you, and learned valuable lessons. And it is now inevitable to wind down the service to prioritize our work to serve you with better products and services.
It has been a long journey and we sincerely thank each one of you for your years of love and support for Path.
Quitter.no
2018-09-05 GNU Social instance Quitter.no 2018-06-17: Notice of shutdown on 2018-09-05 (archived)
abjectio @knuthollund!quitterno 17 jun Message to users of quitter.no. I've decided to close this site on it's 4th birthday, that is 5th September -18. I do not have the energy and capacity to host the site anymore. Please "migrate" or find a new GNU Social home. I've decided to not handover the maintenance or data to anyone else - so please do not ask to get the data to host this site further. Thank you all for using Quitter this period and for following it's users. - A. !quitterno #gnusocial #quitter
Wikispaces
- 2018-07-31 Wikispaces hosted wiki provider
Over the last twelve months we have been carrying out a complete technical review of the infrastructure and software we use to serve Wikispaces users. As part of the review, it has become apparent that the required investment to bring the infrastructure and code in line with modern standards is very substantial. We have explored all possible options for keeping Wikispaces running but have had to conclude that it is no longer viable to continue to run the service in the long term. So, it is with no small degree of nostalgia, that we will begin to close down later this year.
WikiSpace stopped working after a technical review informed the team that the infrastructure and code in accordance with modern standards were very important.
Phased shutdown:
- Classroom and Free Wikis end of service: 2018-07-31
- Plus and Super Wikis end of service: 2018-09-30
- Private Label Wikis end of service: 2019-01-31
Yahoo Messenger
- 2018-07-17 Yahoo Messenger shutting down
Through the end of November, 2018, you can download your chat history to you personal computer or device.
- Go to the downloader request site.
- Sign in.
- Select a verification method, then enter the Account Key sent to you.
- Click Download.
- Enter the email where you want the file sent and click OK.
- Watch your email for the file.
StumbleUpon
- 2018-06-30 StumbleUpon.com was a social bookmarking, discovery, and advertisement engine that pushed web content recommendations to its users. It was shut down in June 2018 in favor of a new discovery platform called Mix. Apparently they emailed users prior to the shutdown/switch over to migrate usernames and data, but apparently many users 1 lost all their bookmark data. According to their shut down post, there were 40 million people who used it over the lifetime of the product.
GNUsocial.de
- 2018-05-31: GNUsocial.de
Klout
2018-05-25: Klout shut down.
The Klout acquisition provided Lithium with valuable artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning capabilities, but Klout as a standalone service is not aligned with our long-term business strategy. We appreciate the loyal Klouters out there who stuck with us all these years – keep influencing!
Foodspotting
- 2018-05-25: Foodspotting shutting down
"To request your Foodspotting photos, please contact foodspotting@opentable.com through May 25, 2018."
- http://davidjohnmead.com/blog/2018/04/05/19710/
- 2018-09-04: foodspotting.com redirects to opentable.com
Storify
- 2018-05-16: Storify closing https://storify.com/faq-eol (archived)
- As of December 12, 2017, no new Storify.com accounts can be created.
- New stories can be created until May 1, 2018
- See: Storify#How to export
X-marks
- 2018-05-01: X-marks was a cross-browser bookmark synchronization service owned by LogMeIn (parent of LastPass) that was shut down on May 1, 2018. [9]. LogMeIn provided some reasonable advance notice of the shutdown, and because of its basic fuctionality, ideally, did not result in the loss of data following its shut down.
Mozilla Webmaker
- 2018-04-30 Mozilla's communication director notes the webmaker app and website would no longer be supported by Mozilla.
Mozilla is no longer supporting Webmaker for Android; we're currently devoting our resources to our advocacy, leadership, and Internet Health Report work. Mozilla is in the process of updating older properties. Thanks for writing — and let me know if I can answer further questions.</blockuote>
- 2016-04-25 Webmaker for Android receives it last update. [10]
witches town
- 2018-04-30 witches.town (a popular Mastodon instance) shut down per https://twitter.com/thalestral/status/980849208532938752 and follow-up https://twitter.com/maverynthia/status/981051350124519424
- "So apparently one of the so progressive instances on mastodon that I was advised to join (I didn't) is shutting down after the admin went on a transphobic rant against non-binary folk 😑
If you're on http://witches.town I advise moving ASAP." @thalestral April 2, 2018 - ??? number of permalinks lost
- ??? number of user profiles lost
- 410 error properly returned for permalinks e.g. https://witches.town/@TheSupreme/99790692010452099
- "So apparently one of the so progressive instances on mastodon that I was advised to join (I didn't) is shutting down after the admin went on a transphobic rant against non-binary folk 😑
Polyvore
- 2018-04-05: Polyvore fashion website posted on 2018-04-05 that the site would be immediately shut down following their acquisition. They set up a separate website where users can download their data and opt out of the data sharing agreement with the acquiring company. However, many users seem to be having trouble actually exporting their data.
Digg Reader
- 2018-03-26: Digg Reader has shut down per notice on homepage: http://digg.com/reader
- The shutdown had been previously announced with the following message: "Digg Reader is planning to shut down on March 26, 2018. Sign in to export your data. It’s been fun."
Bumpers
- 2018-03-06: Bumpers and Captioned closing.
- 2018-02-06 : Shutting down Bumpers (archived)
- bumpers.fm was an app that let you record a podcast from your phone and hosted the podcast for you.
BeeHub
- 2018-03-01: BeeHub was a SURFsara's file storage and sharing service through the WebDAV protocol, which shut down on 2018-03-01.
Mapzen
- 2018-01-31: Mapzen was a mapping platform using open-source map technologies (https://mapzen.com/about/), which shut down on 2018-01-31 (https://mapzen.com/blog/shutdown/).
Lanyrd
- 2018-01-24: Lanyrd events listing site returns an error page as of 2018-01-24. Has been neglected and overrun with spam since purchase by Eventbrite.
- Complaints regarding Lanyrd "dying on the vine" since Eventbrite purchase have been around since at least 2015-09-29 (see Dear EventBrite and Lanyrd: WTF? by Dan Applequist)
- notist has built a pseudo-export tool that will pull your data into their system as well as email you a copy.
Huffington Post contributor platform (blogs)
- 2018-01-18: Huffington Post announces that their contributor platform, a blog silo, is shutting down and will be superceded by new Opinion and Personal sections.
2017
VersionEye
VersionEye was created in 2012 and allowed to monitor the project files of package managers on GitHub, Bitbucket or Stash. The project was stopped in October 2017 for various reasons:
- Revenue
- Sales
- Support
- Competition
- Motivation
Plaxo
- 2017-12-31: Plaxo is shutting down - plaxo.com
- No longer allowing new Plaxo accounts.
- Will begin purging user data on 2018-01-01
- Export instructions on https://help.plaxo.com/index.php?/Knowledgebase/Article/View/105/0/how-to-export-my-contacts-from-plaxo
- Archived announcement
Gratipay
Gratipay announced they would close at the end of 2017
- 2017-11-01 : The End of Gratipay (archived)
2017-12-29: gratipay.com switched to a static site
Microsoft Codeplex
- 2017-12-15 Microsoft Codeplex - https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/bharry/2017/03/31/shutting-down-codeplex/
- read-only archive at https://archive.codeplex.com/
AIM
- 2017-12-15: AIM is shutting down.
Gimme Bar
- 2017-12-06: Gimme Bar is shutting down.
- Announced 2017-12-06 by email and Twitter from a developer's account [11]
- As of 2017-12-07, it appears you cannot save new bookmarks. Logging in showed a message that my export has not been generated yet and to contact the supplied email to get it gRegor Morrill 14:38, 7 December 2017 (PST)
Popup Archive and Audiosear.ch
- 2017-11-28 Popup Archive and Audiosear.ch, a service for transcribing audio, are shutting down. In their blog post announcement (archived), they describe how to export your data before they shut down.
- As of 2018-03-14 the website does not resolve.
Opinion
- 2017-11-01 Opinion, an app and silo for publishing short audio podcasts, is shutting down because of server costs. There is information on migrating content and feeds (archived). The app will apparently continue (archived).
Pronoun (publishing platform)
- November 2017 Pronoun was a New York-based company that provides free book publishing, marketing, and analytics services to authors. Pronoun was launched in 2015.
Before its purchase by Macmillan Pronoun was preceded by Vook, a digital book publisher that combined text, video and links to the Internet and social media in unique applications available online and on mobile phones. Vook was founded by Bradley Inman, a serial Internet entrepreneur, and announced in April 2009. In November 2017, Macmillan announced the closing of Pronoun, with no new authors or books being accepted. Legacy writers were told they could continue their account activities with already submitted materials but that Macmillan expects to terminate distribution around mid-January 2018.(More).
TwitPic
- 2014-09-25 Twitpic announced it would be shut down, but on 2014-09-18 TwitPic stated it was acquired and would not be shut down.
- "We're happy to announce we've been acquired and Twitpic will live on! We will post more details as we can disclose them"[12]
- Original reason for the shutdown announcement:
A few weeks ago Twitter contacted our legal demanding that we abandon our trademark application or risk losing access to their API. [..] Unfortunately we do not have the resources to fend off a large company like Twitter to maintain our mark which we believe whole heartedly is rightfully ours. Therefore, we have decided to shut down Twitpic.
- Data export:
You will be able to export all your photos and videos. We’ll let everyone know when this feature is live in the next few days.
- 2014-10-25 Twitpic’s Future
Emphasis added, thus implying domain and permalinks still at risk.[…] we have reached an agreement with Twitter to give them the Twitpic domain and photo archive, thus keeping the photos and links alive for the time being.
- 2017-12-30 Twitpic.com now redirects to Twitter.com - permalinks, if available, to content still resolve to the original photos
dasklub.com
das Klub was a US based social network centered around industrial music and industrial community that was shut down by the single admin without any proper announcement. Everything was deleted, no data export was possible, the site is gone.
atomenabled.org
Was the canonical site for the Atom syndication format and publishing protocol.
- 2015-05-07 archive appears to be the last archived version of the home page before Minecraft spam.
- Sometime before 2016-02-16: site was compromised and injected with Minecraft-related spam.
- 2015-05-12 archive appears to have the first occurrence of Minecraft related spam ("Super Miner Bros")
- 2017-08-22: Kevin Marks pinged Sam Ruby and Tim Bray. No (public) response.
- Between 2017-08-22 and 09-05: Domain expired. Now evidently owned by Traffic Club, redirects to one of their clients at random.
SquirrelSave
- 2017-08-09 SquirrelSave - an encrypted cloud backup facility that offered unlimited storage space for any number of PCs for a flat monthly fee - has been discontinued [15]
- 2017-07-19 Announced [16]
We regret to announce that SquirrelSave will be shutting down on the 9th August 2017. All existing customers have been notified, but we would like to take this opportunity to thank all of our customers for choosing SquirrelSave for your backup requirements. Please do email our customer care team should you have any questions or require assistance.
Hackpad
- 2017-07-19: Hackpad shutting down after acquired by Dropbox.
- 2017-04-21: Email to users encouraging them to try Dropbox Paper, with the options of importing Hackpad pads into Paper, or exporting pads into a single zip folder, or do nothing and let pads be automatically migrated to Paper on 2017-07-19, or opt out of automatic migration.
Clammr
- 2017-06-28 Clammr, an audio sharing site, announced by email that "we will be shutting down the Clammr service at 11:59pm ET on 2 July 2017." The company offered advice on how users can save their Clammrs.
Imzy
- 2017-06-23 Imzy shutting down.
- 2017-05-23 Announced [17]
Data export requests must be received by June 16th. We will do our best to accommodate last minute and late requests but it is not guaranteed. The site will go read only on the 16th. You will have access to your data until June 21st. The site will go dark on June 23rd.
del.icio.us
- 2017-06-15 del.icio.us (while not a traditional site-death) is stopping active service after being purchased by Pinboard, but will remain online in read-only mode.
- 2017-06-01: Acquisition of delicious by Pinboard announced with outline of future plans
- The ultimate fate of the service has yet to be determined 1
- The ability to export data can be done at https://del.icio.us/export, but there's also an available export tool as well: Delicious exporter on Github
Clef
- 2017-06-06: Clef shutting down.
- 2017-03-06: Announced [18]
The Clef product will continue operating for three months, starting today, with a final shutdown date of June 6, 2017. Everything will remain fully functional and maintained until that date, at which point the mobile apps will cease functioning and be removed from the Google Play and Apple App stores.
- As of 2017-06-08, the closure has been extended by one month "Clef will stop working on July 7, 2017 -- we recommend transitioning to Jetpack’s two-factor authentication as soon as possible."
AgileZen
- 2017-06-01: AgileZen is shutting down email announcement from CA
FFFFound
- 2017-05-08: FFFFound is shutting down per tweet by founder Yugo Nakamura and notice on home page.
mlkshk
- 2017-05-01 mlkshk to shut down
- 2017-22-02 Sunset announced on blog (archived)
- 2017-04-01 turning off the ability to upload files to MLKSHK and the ability to view posts without being signed into your account. At that point we’ll provide a method for downloading all of your files to your computer.
- 2017-05-01 MLKSHK will discontinue serving files
Flavors.me
- 2017-02-15: Flavors.me shutting down
- 2017-03-31: Closed all free accounts
Autodesk 123D
- 2017-03-31: Autodesk 123D shutting down.
so.cl
- 2017-03-15 So.cl is saying farewell.
App.net
- 2017-03-14 App.net is shutting down. All code is being open-sourced, and user data has been deleted.
- 2016-11-30 Termination date announced. No data export option is being offered.
- 2017-01-12: Data export option explained
- appdotnet GitHub repositories
Tribe.net
- 2017-02 Tribe.net ceased being accessible: servers shut down in Jan/Feb 2017.
OpenStudy
- 2017-01-31 OpenStudy, a social learning site focused on helping students with homework, is scheduled to stop service at the end of January. OpenStudy was acquired by Brainly. Users weren't given the ability to export data prior to shut down and it wasn't ported over to Brain.ly. Users of the service needed to create new accounts on Brain.ly to continue usage.
- Please expand with any information about number of users who lost data.
Parse
- 2017-01-28 Parse shutting down
- http://blog.parse.com/announcements/moving-on/
- Parse is shutting down and giving developers one year notice to migrate (announced on 2016-01-28).
- ??? user profiles lost, ??? permalinks lost
- Releasing a database migration tool, open sourcing the Parse Server, and released a migration guide.
2016
TiddlySpace
- 2016-12-09 TiddlySpace closes
- TiddlySpaces provides hosted private TiddlyWiki installations - a personal wiki notebook service.
- Code is open source and available at https://github.com/TiddlySpace
- http://osmo-service.tiddlyspace.com/ServiceUpdate20161205
- 2017-03-06: archived home page
- 2016-08-26: Termination date announced.
- 2016-01-12: Change of service outlined. Included indication that service may be terminated within the year.
TiddlySpace is/was an online notebook that builds on the tried and tested "tiddler" model introduced by TiddlyWiki by moving tiddlers to the web. Details for exporting data were provided in a related Google Group
Persona
- 2016-11-30 Persona Login Service shuts down
Fetchnotes
- 2016-02-15 Fetchnotes is shutting down. In an email to users on 2016-02-03, Fetchnotes announced they would be shutting down the service in 13 days. A data export tool is provided in the website.
- "We considered selling Fetchnotes to another company, but we preferred to do right by all of you in making sure that you could take your data with you. Even if we left it running, once we handed it off to somebody else, there's no way to know for sure how things would end."
- 2016-02-17 revived with plans to crowdsource. [21]
- 2016-10-08: Announced final shutdown would be 2016-11-08, after not receiving the necessary support.[22]
Panoramio
- 2016-11-04 Panoramio closes
Dipity
2016-09: Dipity shut down
Orkut
- 2016-09 Orkut Export shuts down.
- 2014-09-30 Orkut shut down. Public archives read-only archives available at https://orkut.google.com/
- "We are preserving an archive of all public communities, which will be available online starting September 30, 2014. If you don't want your posts or name to be included in the community archive, you can remove Orkut permanently from your Google account." [23]
- "People can export their profile data, community posts and photos using Google Takeout (available until September 2016)" (ibid)
Readability
- 2016-09-30 Readability bookmarking service shutting down. [24]
You can export your bookmarks by visiting your Tools page, scrolling down to the Data Export section, and clicking the Export Your Data button. You’ll receive an email soon after that contains your bookmarks. Similar services like Instapaper will allow you to import your bookmarks into their service.
The Readability Parser API for developers will continue to be supported and will continue to function as always. We plan to put new energy and focus on the Readability parser, and further announcements will follow.
Symantec Personal Identity Port
- 2016-09-12 Symantec Personal Identity Port
- Symantec will be discontinuing the service currently located at: https://pip.verisignlabs.com/
- Announced in an email on 5/6/16: "All content from the service will be discarded and there will be no backups made. It is the user's responsibility to remove any content as after the date above it will not be recoverable. This will be the only notification provided. Due to the nature of the service, there is no migration plan available. If you have any questions you can send an email to: support@verisignlabs.com"
- The service previously allowed: One-Click Sign In to store your usernames and passwords in PIP. Then click a link in your browser to quickly sign in to your accounts; Quickly and conveniently sign in or register at any Web site that displays the OpenID logo; Use your Personal Identity Page to display information you want people to know about you and to link to your other social networking sites; Protect your important files and records by safely storing them in the online File Vault.
Hi.co
- 2016-09-01 Hi.co shuts down.
- You can export your stories until the close date by going to
http://hi.co/people/{yourname}/export
We’re printing — using a microscopic ion-etching process — the entire website upon a 2" × 2" nickel plate, giving it a fire- and saltwater-resistant shelf life of 10,000 years.[¹] At least five plates will be produced, to be held by five stewards — museums and libraries — around the world.https://medium.com/@craigmod/archiving-our-online-communities-e5868eab4d9a#.sx6vs0b5m
- You can export your stories until the close date by going to
Google Drive web hosting
- 2016-08-31 Google Drive [25]
- Beginning August 31st, 2015, web hosting in Google Drive for users and developers will be deprecated. You can continue to use this feature for a period of one year until August 31st, 2016, when we will discontinue serving content via googledrive.com/host/[doc id].
Picturelife
- 2016-08-22 Picturelife shut down after several months of photos being offline.
- SmugMug worked with Picturelife to rescue photos and make them available again.
Togethera
- 2016-08-04 Togethera and Upshot
- Startup that provided private sharing of photos (etc.) for families. Announced via blog post on 2016-07-04 that they had failed to secure funding. The owners said that they will email current users with a link to download all uploaded material three days after the site shuts down. They also announced that the side project Upshot (which allows users to share pictures from nights out together that auto-delete after one week) would be shut down. (TechCrunch article, Tweet)
ReadLists
- 2016-07-31 Readlists, a part of Readability announced on 7/12/16 that they would be shutting down at the end of the month. Curatorial in nature, the bookmark driven site allowed users to save URLS in collections and then embed, email, save and even export them as ebooks to various platforms and e-readers. Despite their announcement date, the site evidently went down a week earlier than expected, leaving users without the ability to export their data.
ThinkUp
- 2016-07-18 ThinkUp
- Announced 2016-06-13 that the service would shut down and refunds would be issued for the balance of member subscriptions.
- New signups closed as of 2016-06-13
There have been significant changes from Instagram, Twitter and Facebook that make it too hard for us to keep the service running, especially since we’ve been struggling as a business. We’re sorry, and we’re going to try to handle this shutdown the right way. https://medium.com/@anildash/the-end-of-thinkup-e600bc46cc56#.n1rxxbe6m
Tomatoist
- Tomatoist web app for tracking the Pomodoro Technique went offline around 2016-09 due to hosting/database issues and possibly old dependencies in the code. Unclear if it will be coming back or not. The code is available open source: https://github.com/voxdolo/tomatoist [26] [27]
- 2017-10-31 domain name no longer resolves
Facebook Paper
- 2016-06-29 Paper.app, iOS app, by Facebook, for using Facebook. http://www.theverge.com/2016/6/30/12062124/facebook-paper-shutdown
Poetica
- 2016-06-01 Poetica
Portable Contacts
portablecontacts.net, the canonical site for the Portable Contacts standard, died in May 2016, zombie reincarnated in July 2016, and is a zombie site to this day (2018).
- 2016-05-16 portablecontacts.net domain expired and was not subsequently renewed in time by site owners
- ... domain was squatted by someone else
- 2016-07-31 https://web.archive.org/web/20160731191234/http://portablecontacts.net:80/ zombie reincarnation started with new WordPress install that eventually redirects to a t.co link (hence unlinked archive.org link)
See Portable Contacts for more (past archives etc.)
Revolv
- 2016-05-15 Revolv
- Startup that sold $300 home automation hubs. Bought by Nest, a Google/Alphabet subsidiary, and due to be shutdown. The shutdown of Revolv has caused a lot of customer anger on Twitter and elsewhere. Guardian article, The Verge article, Medium post by customer
"The Revolv app and hub don’t work anymore, but we are offering a refund for your Revolv hub. To get your refund, please email us at help@revolv.com."
MetaMind
- 2016-05-04 MetaMind
- MetaMind has been acquired by SalesForce and they will be shutting down the service on 2016-05-04 for unpaid users and 2016-06-04 for paid users. All data will be deleted. https://www.metamind.io/salesforce-acquisition (archived)
Picasa
- 2016-05-01 Picasa
- Google announced on 2016-02-12 that it will be retired in favor of Google Photos. The desktop software will no longer be maintained after 2016-03-15 and changes to the web albums will begin 2016-05-01. [28]
- 2016-08-02 update: The album archive page for Picasa Web Albums is now live. You can view, download, or delete your Picasa Web Albums data on this page: https://get.google.com/albumarchive
Livemocha
- 2016-04-22 Livemocha, online language learning service. Got bought by competitor, Rosetta Stone, and now being shutdown. Shutdown notice (archive version)
Experience Project
- 2016-04-21 Experience Project, a site that asked users to contribute anonymous personal stories and confessions. On 2016-04-21, they will prevent new signups. After that date, they will allow one month for users to export their content before the site is "frozen". The reasons cited for the site shutdown is a combination of attacks on user privacy and being overrun with "bad apples" (malicious users, trolls etc.) Blog post (archived)
Coinkite Bitcoin web wallet
- 2016-04-07 Coinkite, Bitcoin web wallet service. Announced on 2016-03-28 that the site would shutdown in approximately 30 days. (Coinkite blog, archive version)
- Closure page: https://coinkite.com/faq (archived)
Yahoo BOSS hosted search
- 2016-03-31 Yahoo BOSS hosted search [29]
At Yahoo, we’re always looking for ways to streamline and simplify products for our customers. With this focus in mind, we will discontinue BOSS JSON Search API, BOSS Placefinder API, BOSS Placespotter API and as well BOSS Hosted Search, on March 31, 2016.
Moving forward, customers can instead use YPA, a Javascript Solution that provides algorithmic web results with search ads for publishers who manage their own search engine results pages (SERPs)
- Access to the BOSS will continue until March 31, 2016.
Dropbox Carousel
Shelfari
- 2016-03-16 Amazon-owned Shelfari—a silo for logging and sharing what books people are reading—is shutting down and merging with Goodreads. There's a CSV exporter. Announcement blog post
- As of 2016-06-13 shelfari.com redirects to Goodreads with a banner at the top "Shelfari has merged with Goodreads. Take a look around and let us know if you have any questions or need any assistance."
dotCloud
- 2016-02-29 dotCloud Platform as a Service [31]
- "The dotCloud platform as a service (PaaS), which developers can use to build and run apps without worrying about the underlying infrastructure, will be shutting down on February 29."
- "This is pure poetry" (@pinboard)
- 2016-03-29 confirmed dead
- "The dotCloud platform as a service (PaaS), which developers can use to build and run apps without worrying about the underlying infrastructure, will be shutting down on February 29."
Mailbox
Google Code
- 2016-01-25 Google Code [33]
- "March 12, 2015 - New project creation disabled."
- "August 24, 2015 - The site goes read-only. You can still checkout/view project source, issues, and wikis."
- "January 25, 2016 - The project hosting service is closed. You will be able to download a tarball of project source, issues, and wikis. These tarballs will be available throughout the rest of 2016."
- From the comments: "I work on Google Code, and we will be putting a service in place to redirect deep links to project homepages, issues, etc. to their new locations."
Plancast
- 2016-01-21 (apparently) Plancast (plancast.com) is unresponsive as of 2016-02-17 and has not been crawled by archive.org in almost a month.
- 2016-01-20 last crawl from archive.org[34] (which was otherwise crawling it every day or few days)
- 2014-01-26 most recent posts on their Twitter @plancast, and Facebook / Plancast
- 2012-08-15 Acquired by Active Network
- 2012-01-22 The Uphill Battle Of Social Event Sharing: A Post-Mortem for Plancast by founder & CEO Mark Hendrickson (effectively, shutdown announced)
Yo
- Yo, an app that let you send the word Yo to people in your contacts list, shut down in 2016.
- At one point, Yo raised $1.5 million in venture capital at a valuation of $5-$10 million, according to Business Insider.
2015
Rdio
- 2015-12-22 Rdio [35]
- Filed for bankruptcy 2015-11-16.
- Bankrupt and assets being acquired by Pandora. [36]
- Rdio blog on 2015-11-16 [37]:
Rdio's service will not be interrupted today. We will have more updates in the coming weeks on what this process means for your Rdio account, but for the time being the service continues unchanged.
- As of 2016-02-12, rdio.com indicates "After logging in with your Rdio account below, you will be able to download an archive of your collection and take a look back at your life on Rdio."
Prismatic
- 2015-12-20 Prismatic [38]. "[...] our iOS, Android and web news reader products will no longer be available and access to our Interest Graph APIs will be discontinued."
- As of 2016-02-12, getprismatic.com is blank due to DNS failure
Lumia Storyteller
- 2015-10-30 Microsoft closes the "Lumia Storyteller" page which could be used to publish photo stories from the Lumia smartphones.
- This was announced on 2015-09-04; users had ~60 days to backup their data
We’ve said goodbye to Lumia Storyteller. Online stories previously shared here are no longer available. Thanks for using Storyteller!
ReadingPack
- 2015-10-?? There was apparently no notification about shutdown or ability to export data announced. Time of site death is based on the relative time of their Twitter account's last tweet on 24 Sep 2015. The demise was directly confirmed on 10/29/16. ReadingPack was one of many bookmarking and read later silo services that allowed sharing to other social networks, but also served as a social service within itself for discovering interesting material to read.
Comcast/Xfinity Personal Web Pages
- 2015-10-08 Comcast/Xfinity Personal Web Pages [39]
- announced around 2015-07-06
- As of 2015-11-20, Comcast Personal Web Pages return a 404 with the message "Error: Your request of "[username].home.comcast.net" was not found on redirect platform."
Mozilla Appmaker
- 2015-05-04 Mozilla leaves Popcorn, a webmaker app, available but pulsl supports. [40]
- 205-09-30 Mozilla discontinues and shut's down the project in favor of a new Android based webmaker program [41]
As our tools evolve, we will no longer support Appmaker and Popcorn Maker. Instead, we’re focusing our efforts on Webmaker for Android, which empowers smartphone users to create local content and read, write and participate online.
Mozilla Popcorn
- 2015-05-04 Mozilla leaves Popcorn, a webmaker app, available but pulls supports. [42]
We also want to share news about Popcorn Maker. While the tool remains available, our team will no longer be providing support.
- 205-09-30 Mozilla discontinues and shut's down project in favor of a new Android based webmaker program [43]
As our tools evolve, we will no longer support Appmaker and Popcorn Maker. Instead, we’re focusing our efforts on Webmaker for Android, which empowers smartphone users to create local content and read, write and participate online.
Yahoo Pipes
- 2015-08-30 read-only; 2015-09-30 closed. Yahoo Pipes [44]
Pipes creation will not be supported as of Aug. 30 this year. Pipes infrastructure will run until Sept. 30, 2015 in read-only mode to help developers migrate their data. Please visit http://pipes.yahoo.com/pipes for additional details.
Plug.dj
- 2015-09-29 plug.dj [45]
- Closed the same day as announcement.
Unfortunately, we didn’t get enough support through our subscribers to keep the site running month to month. We’re truly thankful for the donations we received that helped keep the site up until now. If it wasn’t for you, the site would have shut down 3 weeks ago. For the people who are currently subscribed, all active subscriptions will be cancelled today. At 3PM PDT we’ll be shutting our doors.
This Is My Jam
- 2015-09-26 This Is My Jam [46]
This Is My Jam will become a read-only time capsule on September 26, 2015. This means you won’t be able to post anymore, but you’ll be able to browse a new archive version of the site.
Your profile data (jams, loves, etc) will also be exportable in a few formats, including text lists; the read-only API will stay online for developers who want to play; we’ll also be open sourcing as much code as we can on Github.
Kippt
- 2015-09-06 Kippt was a social bookmarking service founded in 2011 which has helped hundreds of thousands of people store and share knowledge, ideas and inspiration from around the web.
- 2014-05-06 Announcement of closure
- Export Options – Including a Kippt Export Browser: Kippt's users can export their data which we made available in three different formats (Web browser, standard Netscape bookmarks export and JSON).
- Exports will be available until April 2016 but we recommend downloading your data today. To keep collecting important thing on the web and using your data, we recommend Pinboard, Dropmark and Pocket. You'll find instructions how to import your data in your export.
Google+ Photos
- 2015-08-01 - Google+ Photos begins to shut down. Google+ Photos was a photo service integrated into Google+. In May of 2015, Google created a new photos product that had no relationship with Google+. Since all information was migrated, and it is still a service of the same company, incorporating many of the same features, it could be considered more of a 'spinoff'.
Emojli
- 2015-07-31 Emojli shut down on 2015-07-31 after the maintainers determined it would cost too much to keep running it. Service was launched 2014-06-30.
Google Moderator
- 2015-06-30 Google Moderator, a service collect and rank user-submitted questions, was made read-only. It will completely shut down in 2017.
Yahoo Maps
- 2015-06-30 Yahoo Maps [47]
The Yahoo Maps site will close at the end of June. However, in the context of Yahoo search and on several other Yahoo properties including Flickr, we will continue to support maps. We made this decision to better align resources to Yahoo’s priorities as our business has evolved since we first launched Yahoo Maps eight years ago.
- 2015-07-22 http://maps.yahoo.com now redirects to a Yahoo search for "maps"
Balanced Payments
- 2015-06-11 Balanced Payments [48]
We started building a payments service for marketplaces in 2011. We were shocked with the state of payments at the time, and the pains a marketplace had to go through. Unfortunately, we haven't been able to reach the escape velocity necessary to be a large, innovative, independent player in the payments space and have decided not to continue building Balanced. We reached out to Stripe and have been working with them to provide a smooth path forward for our customers. Our full API and dashboard will be available until June 11, 2015, and support for issuing refunds, querying transactions, and fighting chargebacks will continue until October 9, 2015.
Branch
- 2015-06-03 Branch discussion service shutdown, as well as related site Potluck[49][50]
- ???? user profiles lost
- ???? discussion posts lost, including this about silos vs. the indieweb:
- 2014-01-13 Facebook acquired Branch and Potluck[51]
Gitorious
- 2015-05-31 Gitorious [52]
- Users have until the end of May 2015 to import their repositories into Gitlab.
- See https://about.gitlab.com/2015/03/03/gitlab-acquires-gitorious/ for the announcement
- As of 2015-06-04, gitorious.org still lists a message at the top of the page indicating it will be shut down "end of May"
- As of 2016-10-27, gitorious.org indicates "This is a read-only mirror of the former gitorious.org code hosting website"
Lyrk.de
- 2015-04-30 Lyrk.de map tile service (copy of email sent to tommorris)
- "We are really proud to have created an OpenStreetMap map style that has raised the bar in terms of accuracy and visual quality, but weren't able to create a sustainable business."
Grooveshark
Grooveshark (grooveshark.com) was a streaming music service.
Google OpenID
According to Google's Timetable. Unsure if actual shut down dates differed. This was only noticed after a tweet lamenting the takedown
- 2015-04-20 OpenID 2.0 is shut down. A static error page will be displayed on all requests.
- 2015-03-23 Grace period for developers using the openid_shutdown_ack parameter ends, warning is shown and auto-approval turned off for all applications.
- 2015-02-23 Auto-approval is turned off, users must consent on each request. Developers passing openid_shutdown_ack are unaffected.
- 2015-01-12 Auto-approval is progressivly disabled for more and more users, these users will be forced to re-consent. Developers passing openid_shutdown_ack are unaffected.
- 2014-12-01 Auto-approval is disabled for a small number of requests on an intermittent basis, some users will be forced to re-consent.
- 2014-11-18 User-facing warning message may be shown on consent dialogs, directing users to this help article. Developers may suppress deprecation warnings by adding the openid_shutdown_ack parameter, as specified above.
Trovebox
- 2015-03-31 Trovebox [55]
- Users have until March 15, 2015 to grab an archive of their photos before the service shuts.
- The service was open source though, so you can keep running your instance yourself. It will also be continued by at least one IndieHoster.
FriendFeed
- 2015-04-10 FriendFeed shutdown(per Wikipedia article).
- 2015-04-09 shutdown expected[56]
- ". . . the number of people using FriendFeed has been steadily declining and the community is now just a fraction of what it once was. Given this, we've decided that it's time to start winding things down. Beginning today, we will no longer accept new signups. You will be able to view your posts, messages, and photos until April 9th. On April 9th, we'll be shutting down FriendFeed and it will no longer be available."
- Via http://recode.net/2015/03/09/facebook-shuts-down-friendfeed/
- ???? FriendFeed user profiles lost
- ???? FriendFeed posts lost, permalinks broken
tvtag
- 2015-01-01 tvtag (tvtag.com) shut down.[57][58] "Effective January 1st, tvtag is offline. Thanks for tagging along!"[59] It was for checking into TV shows.
- "If you're interested in requesting a copy of your data, please email your username in the subject line to datarequest@tvtag.com"
- ???? tvtag user profiles lost
- ???? tvtag checkins lost
2014
Yahoo! Directory
- 2014-12-31 Yahoo! Directory [60] [61]
- 2015-01-19 dir.yahoo.com and directory.yahoo.com redirect to business.yahoo.com, still appear to be visible but perhaps not changing.
- 2017-10-31 dir.yahoo.com no longer resolves
OpenSocial
- 2014-12-?? OpenSocial shut down their site opensocial.org when they transferred everything to W3C and redirected all opensocial.org URLs to a W3C blog post.
- ??? # of blog posts, comments, etc. lost at opensocial.org
Netflix API
- 2014-11-14 Netflix shut down their API.
- Announced in a blog post 2014-06-13 [62]:
To better focus our efforts and to align them with the needs of our global member base, we will be retiring the public API program. Effective on November 14, 2014, public API developers will no longer be able to access Netflix content. All requests to the public API will return 404 errors.
- Announced in a blog post 2014-06-13 [62]:
43things
- 2014-10-28 43things, a website used to collect and and set personal goals, is shutting down:
Ohlife
- 2014-10-11 Ohlife.com, a small free service allowing people to write a letter to their future self [63]. Users were told that they could save their entries to a text file and given a link to download those files before the shutdown date.
Petition Online
- 2014-09-30 Petitiononline.com shutdown by owner Change.org (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PetitionOnline)
- As of 2019-05-31 the site http://www.petitiononline.com/ (archived) still says
The End
We'd like to thank all of you for your participation in the Petition Online community and how you used it to change the world. Sadly, the continued cost and maintenance of the site has made it no longer viable, especially with other alternatives out there.
- ???? Petitions lost (thousands, with 10s of millions of signatures as of 2008 per Wikipedia)
- As of 2019-05-31 the site http://www.petitiononline.com/ (archived) still says
MyFamily
- 2014-09-30 MyFamily.com shutdown by owner Ancestry.com (Slate.com: Deleting the Family Tree: MyFamily shuttered: Ancestry.com deleted 10 years of family history)
- 2014-06-04 MyFamily shutdown announced[64](see comments on that blog post for user outrage)
- 2014-06-05 MyFamily shutdown announced to happen 2014-09-05[65]
- Export was photos only, all text / correspondence lost[66]
- Over 1.5 million (as of 2004!) user profiles lost [67]
- Exaggerated claim:
[68]“[u]nlimited storage space and SiteSafeSM technology keep all of your family memories safe and secure. No matter what.”
markbox-io
- 2014-08-?? markbox.io, a small paid hosting service shut down when its single server "simply went away". The guts of the service were simplified and open-sourced as boxpub.
Svpply
- 2014-08-31: Svpply will be sunset by eBay.
- "We regret to announce that Svpply.com and its associated apps — Svpply and Want by Svpply — will retire on August 31st."
- Export of link data added to the site is available from users' account settings.
- In response, the founder launched a Kickstarter campaign to build a new version of the site, called Very Goods. It was successfully funded on 2014-07-21.
- 2015-01-19 svpply.com simply redirects to www.ebay.com, and pages inside redirect as well, e.g. their sunset announcement svpply.com/sunset redirects to pages.ebay.com/sunset (a 404).
Fotopedia
- 2014-08-10 Fotopedia photo encyclopedia and photo album host to be shut down
- Announced 2014-07-31: ". . . your data will be available to download until August 10, 2014. After this date, all photos and data will be permanently deleted from our servers."
Readmill
- 2014-07-01 Readmill "app will no longer be available ... All of your books, reading data and account information will be permanently deleted. User information will not be archived, shared or saved in any way."[69].
Export data includes books, followers, followings, readings, highlights, reviews, comments and likes on your highlights and reviews, and highlights you liked.
- ???? Readmill profiles being lost, including followers/followings lists, readings, highlights, reviews, comments, likes, comments and likes on your highlights and reviews, and highlights liked
- ???? purchased ebooks lost
Repost-us
- 2014-07-31 Repost.us "On July 31 2014 we will shutdown the Repost api servers and all embedded content will cease to be available"[70]
- Will redirect API requests to a service that returns errors (to help callers avoid hanging) through 2014-12-31
- Link shortener s.tt remains active through the end of the year 2014-12-31
Springpad
- 2014-06-25 Springpad "will be shutting down."[71]
myOpenID
2014-06-19 myOpenID.com finally disappeared according to Archive.org.
- 2015-01-19 verified myopenid.com server not found (likely gone in 2014 per Archive.org data)
- 2014-06-18 Archive.org last saw myopenid.com online
- 2014-05-31 still able to sign-in to myopenid.com, and e.g. view account activity. - Tantek
- 2014-02-01 myOpenID officially closing on 2014-02-01, but appears to still be online.
- Initial shutdown email quoted here and here in full
Codespaces
- 2014-06-17 Codespaces.com experienced a DDOS and an unauthorized person gained access to their EC2 control panel. From http://www.codespaces.com:
. . . removed all EBS snapshots, S3 buckets, all AMI's, some EBS instances and several machine instances.
In summary, most of our data, backups, machine configurations and offsite backups were either partially or completely deleted.
Code Spaces will not be able to operate beyond this point, the cost of resolving this issue to date and the expected cost of refunding customers who have been left without the service they paid for will put Code Spaces in a irreversible position both financially and in terms of on going credibility.
As such at this point in time we have no alternative but to cease trading and concentrate on supporting our affected customers in exporting any remaining data they have left with us.
Justin-tv
- 2014-06-15 Justin.tv no longer archiving live broadcasts and will be deleting all archived videos with two weeks notice.
- "All VODs will be removed after June 15, 2014. We recommend downloading your recorded videos before the date."
- Initially this reported "June 8, 2014", but as of 2014-06-24 the page says June 15.
- 2014-05-29 https://help.justin.tv/entries/41803380-Changes-to-Video-Archive-System
- Justin.tv shut down and transferred all focus to gaming-related content platform Twitch Interactive. Videos on Justin.tv are no longer accessible for download. Video archiving and VODs was removed on June 15, 2014.
- Accounts only saved for users who used their justin.tv account to login to Twitch, or signed up for Twitch. Users still using their Justin.tv logins to log into Twitch will need to complete a form to have account transferred to Twitch for full site use.Justin.tv will move your account within 72 hours. Request to transfer account must be received on or before Friday, September 5, 2014. The Justin.tv site reminds users "Twitch is a site for gaming-related content only" and that all content posted to Twitch must follow Twitch TOS.
- Justin.tv accounts tranferred to Twitch will keep the username and email address associated with the Justin.tv Accounts will continue to follow any currently followed Twitch channel, but not any JTV channel, unless that channel is also transferred to Twitch. Users will NOT keep JTV followers, unless those followers have also transferred to Twitch. VODs will not be transferred to Twitch.
- Active Justin.tv Pro Account Users will be refunded. An email to members communicated the cancellation and refund process.
- Mobile apps, APIs, broadcast tool, and all other components of the site no longer work. Users were referred to YouTube, Ustream and Livestream for live video content.
- ???? Lost videos
- ???? Lost user accounts
- Archive.org downloaded all Justin.tv videos with more than 10 views. https://archive.org/details/justintv Archive.org also took requests to download and archive specific videos by request.
- "All VODs will be removed after June 15, 2014. We recommend downloading your recorded videos before the date."
Ubuntu One
- 2014-06-01 Ubuntu One cloud sync service run by Canonical, makers of Ubuntu, to be discontinued.
- ". . . user content will remain available for download until 31 July, at which time it will be deleted."
Spreadly
- 2014-06-?? Spreadly social sharing platform
- Service was shut down because company closed. All data was deleted without providing any kind of export.
Editorially
- 2014-05-30 Editorially collaborative writing and editing platform
- Service will be shut down; did not get enough users to make it sustainable. Users have until shut down date to export their data. Archive will include a plain text file for every version of every document you have access to; it will also include comments, version notes, tags, activity, and other metadata about your documents. That metadata will be provided in the form of a YAML file. https://editorially.com/help
- 2014-02-12: http://stet.editorially.com/articles/goodbye/
- 2014-06-24: Announced that Editorially has been acquired by Vox Media and they want to "release parts of the code via an open source license." Interestingly, "Absolutely no user data — no names, email addresses, documents, or any other user data — will be transferred to Vox Media."
- 2014-12-31: "Remaining data backups will be permanently deleted" (until then "users may request a backup of their data by emailing support@editorially.com" - http://editorially.com/ )
- Service will be shut down; did not get enough users to make it sustainable. Users have until shut down date to export their data. Archive will include a plain text file for every version of every document you have access to; it will also include comments, version notes, tags, activity, and other metadata about your documents. That metadata will be provided in the form of a YAML file. https://editorially.com/help
Loom
- 2014-05-16 Loom cloud-based photo storage
Qik
- 2014-04-30 Qik video hosting service retiring. Qik service retiring in April 2014 – IMPORTANT, PLEASE READ
On April 30, 2014, Qik.com will be retiring. [...] Videos uploaded, shared and embedded using Qik will no longer be available through Qik.
Zootool
- 2014-03-15 Zootool.com "shutting down"[74]. Site already has goodbye message as of 2014-02-10. Email also sent to users with same message dated 2014-02-10.
- Deletion coming:
On March, 15th all data and images will be deleted forever.
- 150,000+ user profiles will be lost
- "millions of collected items" will be lost
- Amazing insight quote in shutdown notice:
Zootool made us realize that the general idea of running a central service is nothing we believe in any longer. Your data should belong to you and shouldn't be stored on our servers. You shouldn't have to rely on us or on any other service to keep your data secure and online.
- Data export promise:
You will have the chance to export your data over the next weeks. We offer export for bookmark files, which can be used to import your bookmarks in all common browsers and most other bookmark services. You can find the export in your Settings.
- 2014-02-14 Read only mode expected:
Starting by the end of this week we are going to switch Zootool into read-only mode. You will still be able to browse your collection, but you will not be able to add new bookmarks.
- Deletion coming:
Vizify
- 2014-03-06 Vizify gets bought by Yahoo! and will be "sunsetted" (oh, euphemisms!) on 2014-09-04.
My Opera
- 2014-03-03 My Opera shutdown by Opera Software.[75]
- was launched in 2001
- ??? user profiles lost
- ??? permalinks lost
Donna
- 2014-02-27 Donna by Incredible Labs (intelligent personal assistant app)
- Incredible Labs Acquired By Yahoo, Mobile Assistant App Donna To Be Shut Down.
Ptch
- 2014-01-02 Ptch shut down. Ptch Joins Yahoo. Instructions provided for how to save user content.
2013
Hyves
2013-12-31 Hyves, formerly the major social network of the Netherlands, turned into a gaming site with all new accounts. Announced closing 2013-10-31. Offered download until 2013-12-31.
ClaimID
2013-12-12 ClaimID "ceased operations"[76] after "7 years, 6 months, and 20 days of service"[77].
- 100,000s profiles / identities lost
HipGeo
2013-12-01 HipGeo travel journal app that allowed people to track their travels and location. Site replaced with a WordPress installation with one post and a default comment. All permalinks from Google search results for the brand broken [78]. ??? profiles lost. Shutdown announcement: [79]
Everpix
2013-11-05 Everpix photo content hosting silo announces shutdown, immediately goes "read-only", and says they will "email instructions to all Everpix users on how to download their photos".[80][81][82] [83]
Sold
2013-11-05- Sold, a service to help people sell things, was acquired by Dropbox and shut down. *http://usesold.com/
- https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6672364
- Some instructions were provided to users to finish their transactions.
iGoogle
2013-11-01 iGoogle shut down What's happening to iGoogle? The mobile version was retired on 2012-07-31.
Dopplr
2013-11-01 Dopplr discontinued (home page and [84]).
- Announced 2013-10-18 - just two week notice.
- Data export still available after logging in at: http://www.dopplr.com/account/data_export
- See http://www.dopplr.com/account for individual ICS and Atom feeds, under heading "Getting things out of Dopplr").
- To export your contacts, in Firefox go to http://www.dopplr.com/account/connections and then "Save Page As..." (be sure "Web Page, complete" is selected in the popup). There's also http://www.dopplr.com/account/others if you're a completist.
DarQroom
2013-10-11 DarQroom started as a free photograph storage / publication / printing platform until the end announced by Thierry Ferey - former co-founder and CEO of DarQroom
Yahoo Term Extraction API
2013-09-28 Yahoo! Term Extraction API (citation needed)
- We are eliminating direct access to the Yahoo! Term Extraction API and as of September 28, will require developers to go through YQL. We encourage all existing users of the Term Extraction Legacy API to migrate to YQL requests by September 28. You can use the YQL forums for any questions you might have about migrating to YQL. If you are already using the Term Extraction API via YQL, you don’t need to take any action.
Net Magazine
2013-09-19- .Net Magazine, a web industry magazine, merged with creative bloq
- www.shanehudson.net/2013/09/19/stop-deleting-content/
- how many URLs lost? apparently top 500 articles out of > 9000 were moved with proper redirects, working on moving others
GeoURL
2013-09-01 GeoURL 503 Service Unavailable
- GeoURL is (was) a location-to-URL reverse directory. This will allow you to find URLs by their proximity to a given location
- http://www.crunchbase.com/organization/geourl reports "Organization closed on September 1, 2013"
- At least these two domains: geourl.org & geourl.com
Yahoo Astrid
2013-08-05 Yahoo! Astrid (task tracking service)
- Astrid’s team has made a data export tool available and pointed to former competitors Wrike, Wunderlist, Sandglaz, and Any.do as potential replacements.
- 2013-07-06: http://techcrunch.com/2013/07/06/astrid-goes-dark-august-5-goodnight-sweet-squid/
Yahoo Local API
2013-09-28 Yahoo! Local API
- "As part of this shutdown, all Yahoo! Local API documentation will also be removed from the Yahoo! Developer Network portal."[85]
- 2013-10-15 Stack Overflow: Yahoo Local Search API Is Not Working At All
Alice
2013-08-21- Alice.com a grocery delivery service, shuts down. Launch article from 2009. http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10270643-2.html Announcement of Shutdown on YCombinator. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6250893
- how many user accounts were lost?
- as any user content lost?
- were any public permalinks to user content lost?
Google Latitude
2013-08-09 Google Latitude retired[86].
- how many user accounts were lost?
- and thus friends lists
- Location history still supposedly available at: https://maps.google.com/locationhistory/b/0/
Silent Circle
2013-08-09 Silent Circle Maryland-based encrypted private email provider preemptively shut down following suit of Lavabit. Two Providers of Secure E-Mail Shut Down, Silent Circle Preemptively Shuts Down Encrypted Email Service To Prevent NSA Spying
Lavabit
2013-08-08 Lavabit Texas-based encrypted private email provider shut down due to its affiliation with being whistleblower Edward Snowden's email provider since 2010. Lavabit's founder Ladar Levison decided to shut down the service after a cost benefit analysis on whether to shut down the service or become "complicit in crimes against the American people". Lavabit, email service Snowden reportedly used, abruptly shuts down
Snapjoy
2013-07-24 Snapjoy shut down after being acquired by Dropbox. article
Yahoo Neighbors Beta
2013-07-08 Yahoo! Neighbors Beta (was local.yahoo.com/neighbors) shutdown.[87][88]
- Unknown number of user questions & answers lost.
Google Reader
2013-07-01 Google Reader shut down.[89][90]
- ???? number of (users) / user feed reading lists lost
- ???? number of saved/faved reading items lost
MySpace User Blogs
2013-06-12 Myspace.com User blogs after MySpace redesign. MySpace Punishes Its Few Remaining Friends By Vanishing Their Blogs
Blogtv.com
2013-03-13 Blogtv.com shut down after purchase by YouTube and merged into YouNow.
- Archived page [91]
Upcoming
2013-04-30 Upcoming.org after being acquired by Yahoo
Posterous
2013-04-30 Posterous.com Thanks from Posterous after being acquired by Twitter
- ???? photos, videos and documents lost
- Archives will be available until 2013-04-30 http://posterous.com/#backup
EveryBlock
2013-02-07 EveryBlock.com ultralocal news/information site shutdown with "zero warning". Farewell, neighbors
Yahoo Voice Phone In Out
2013-01-30 Yahoo! Voice Phone In and Phone Out feature shut down
Mixel
2013-01-22 Mixel [94] - social network shut down. (Mixel has been acquired by Etsy)
- App removed from Apple's App store, network shutting down early September (2012-09).
- current Mixels can be shared, bulk export functionality on its way
- ???? user profiles lost
2012
Wunderkit
Yahoo Messenger Services
- 2012-12-24 Yahoo! Messenger Public Chat Rooms, Yahoo! Messenger Pingbox, Yahoo! Messenger interoperability with Microsoft Windows Live Messenger, shut down
Tungle
- 2012-12-03 Tungle.me, a social calendaring app which began in 2006, shut down
- 2012-09-18 Following the acquisition (acqui-hire) of Tungle by RIM (makers of Blackberry) in April 2011, the core team announced they were shutting down the service on December 2012.
Twistory
- 2012-12-03 Twistory [98]
- Not accepting new users as of 2012-11-07
- Paying users were no longer be billed, and had "several months" to download a .csv of their data
Batch com
- 2012-10-31 Batch.com photo sharing site shut down. article
DailyBooth
- 2012-10-12 DailyBooth photo sharing site shut down. article
OStatus org
- 2012-10-09 OStatus original site ostatus.org died when it was redirected to a W3C Community Group link and none of the ostatus.org URLs (specifications, blog posts, etc.) were preserved/recreated at the new destination.
Webshots
- 2012-10-02 Webshots photo hosting site relaunched as "Smile", removing photos unless users intervened. article
- Faded Pictures a personal editorial, published 2017-11-15.
Google Knol
- 2012-10-01 Google Knol last day to download your Knol pages
- 2012-05-01 Google Knol discontinued - was at knol.google.com
- 2012-10-01 Download your Knol - til 2012-10-01.
- ??? number of Google Knol pages lost
- ??? number of links to Google Knol pages broke
- 2008-07-23 Google Knol launched to the public.[99]
- 2007-12 Google Knol private beta launch.(ibid)
Picplz
- 2012-09-02 picplz - last day to supposedly login and download photo archives
- 2012-07-03 site already shut down: http://picplz.com/
- 2013-08-02 picplz.com domain not found
- 2012-09-03 "Photo archives will be available until September 3, 2102" (ibid)
- picplz shut down planned: http://blog.picplz.com/post/24234358861/picplz-shutting-down
iGoogle mobile
- 2012-07-31 iGoogle mobile version shut down.(What's happening to iGoogle?)
KLIK
- 2012-07-20 KLIK - last day to login and download photo archives
- Going down with the Face.com API due to acquisition by Facebook.
- 2013-08-01 domain not found
Plazes
- 2012-07-05? Plazes downloads were available.
- Export was available (for who knows how long) - "you can download and keep your Plazes history" (checked as of 2012-07-05)
- 2012-06-30 Plazes site officially shut down http://tantek.com/2012/130/t2/plazes-shutting-down-download-ownyourdata-indieweb
- Export available (for who knows how long)
Apple MobileMe Gallery iDisk iWeb
- 2012-06-30 Apple MobileMe Gallery, iDisk, iWeb downloads.
- "For a limited time, you can still move your account to iCloud, download your photos from Gallery, and download your files from iDisk."[100]
- MobileMe: How to move an iWeb site from MobileMe to another web hosting service
- 2012-06-30 site officially shut down. See below.
- 2012-06-30 Apple MobileMe Gallery, iDisk, iWeb[101],[102],email
- as of 2012-07-05 on http://www.me.com: "For a limited time, you can still move your account to iCloud, download your photos from Gallery, and download your files from iDisk."
- who knows how long you can still get your data.
- "Closed." screenshot(on Flickr).
- 2011-06-06 Apple Support Communities: What happens to iWeb when there's no Mobile Me?
- Note first comment: "FYI, Apple is deleting some topics pertaining to people voicing their opinions on iWeb and iDisk. Just be careful."
- as of 2012-07-05 on http://www.me.com: "For a limited time, you can still move your account to iCloud, download your photos from Gallery, and download your files from iDisk."
Tabblo =
- 2012-05-30 Tabblo shutdown by HP. Was at http://tabblo.com
- ??? number of photos lost (Archive Team has "almost everything" and is posting them to Archive.org)
- ??? number of "tabblos" (collection of photos) lost
- ??? number of links to photos / tabblos broke
- 2012-01-31 All original Tabblo employees gone (from HP) as well as those they directly hired.[103]
- 2007-03-23 HP acquired Tabblo[104].
- "five million pictures" (at time of acquisition)
- 2006-06 Tabblo launched. (ibid)
Google Wave
- 2012-04-30 Google Wave shut down.[105],[106]
- 2012-01-31 Google Wave went read-only.(ibid)
- ??? number of Google Waves lost
- ??? number of migrated Etherpads lost
- ??? number of links to Google Waves broke
- 2010-08-04 Shutdown implied: "We don’t plan to continue developing Wave as a standalone product, but we will maintain the site at least through the end of the year..."[107]
Gowalla
- 2012-03-11 Gowalla shut down
- ??? number of user profiles lost
- ??? number of user check-in permalinks lost
- Despite promises of the ability to export check-ins, their CTO eventually announced that the servers had all been spun down.
Google Friend Connect
- 2012-03-01 Google Friend Connect retired for all non-Blogger sites - was at www.google.com/friendconnect
- Export your community data - unknown how long it will be supported.
- limitation: "Export Community is limited to your site’s first 2000 members" (ibid)
- encouraged to transition to Google+: "create a Google+ page and place a Google+ badge on your site".
- 2008-05-12 Google Friend Connect launched.[108][109]
- Export your community data - unknown how long it will be supported.
2011
Google Buzz read only
- 2011-12-15 Google Buzz put into read only mode (Buzz API shut down), subsequently killed in 2014
- ??? number of Google Buzz posts lost
- ??? number of Google Buzz user profiles lost
- ??? links to Google Base posts broke
- 2014-08-16 (or earlier) Google Buzz permalinks stopped working, starting 404ing.[110]
- 2011-12-15 Google Buzz permalinks switched to read-only mode.[111][112]
- 2011-10-14 Google announced the shut down with only 2 months notice[113][114][115].
- From Gizmodo: Gizmodo RIP Google Buzz
emphasis added.I'd say I'm going to miss Buzz, but to be honest I had all but forgotten about it. Oh well. If you need me, I'll be hanging out on Google Wave.
- From Gizmodo: Gizmodo RIP Google Buzz
Trim URL shortener
- 2011-07-11 tr.im URL shortener failed.[116]
Google Real-Time Search
- 2011-07-02 Google Real-Time Search was shut down.
Google Base
- 2011-07-01 Google Base shut down - was at base.google.com.
- ??? number of Google Base pages lost
- ??? links to Google Base pages broke
- 2011-06-01 Google Base account freeze - no new account creation
- 2005-11-15 Google base launched, i.e. see Tom Coates's post: In which Google Base launches... where he references a specific Google Base page - a recipe (dead base.google.com link).
YIID
- 2011-01-17 YIID was shut down (german article)
Windows Live Spaces
- 2011-03-16 Windows Live Spaces not so alive any more
- unlike the usual shutdowns they offered an opt-in migration to Wordpress.com in an automatic and user-friendly way
2010
Brightkite
- 2010-12-10 Brightkite shut down - was at brightkite.com
- ??? number of user profiles lost
- ??? number of user check-in permalinks lost
Cliqset
- 2010-11-22 Cliqset shut down - was at cliqset.com[119]. See Cliqset for history.
- ??? number of user profiles lost
- ??? number of permalinks to user notes posts lost
Vox
- 2010-09-30 Vox shut down - was at vox.com.[120]
- 2010-09-15 Vox went read-only (ibid)
- ??? number of Vox blogs / posts lost.
- ??? number of migrated Pownce profiles lost.[121]
- ??? links to Vox posts broke.
Magnolia
icanhaz
- 2010-06 icanhaz.com shut down URI shortener
- Had previously stopped accepting new URIs but continued to serve old ones
- 55437 short URIs lost
Etherpad com
- 2010-05-15 Etherpad.com offline taken offline by Google. (including their own blog post of their transition: http://etherpad.com/ep/blog/posts/transition-update). Etherpad went read-only a month beforehand (2010-04-14).
Twine
- 2010-05-14 Twine taken offline at twine.com by Evri and redirected to evri.com.
- 2010-03-11 Evry acquired Twine.
- ??? number of Twine pages lost.
- ??? links to Twine pages broke.
- 2008-10-21 Twine launched publicly
2009
- 2009-12-31 Radio Userland service closing. [124]
- ?? number of blog posts lost
- ?? hosted comments and trackbacks lost
- 2009-12-29 Haloscan commenting service shut down.[125]
- ??? number of comments lost
- ??? number of links to comments broken
- ??? number of blogs with embedded Haloscan commenting broken
- 2009-10-26 Geocities.com went offline.[126] - was at http://geocities.com : "Sorry, Geocities has closed."
- 23 million pages gone[127]
- 2009-10-26 Tears in the rain - confirms closed on that date.
- 2009-10-23 Yahoo GeoCities closes on Oct. 26
- 2009-08-13 The Life and Death of Online Communities
- 2009-04-28 The Death and Life of Geocities
- 2009-04-23 Yahoo to shut down GeoCities - Free web-hosting service stops accepting customers
- 2009-04-23 shutdown announced by Yahoo. Yahoo's Cuts Fall on GeoCities; Service Will Shut Down (has reference to that day "Thursday").
- 2009-08-24 Microsoft Popfly went offline
- Warning given on 2009-07-16
- ??? number of user-created sites gone
- 2009-06-11 Hello.com shut down by Google
- announcement
- "We're shutting down Hello to focus our efforts on the development of Picasa and Picasa Web Albums and other photo sharing efforts, including Talk and the new OpenSocial effort."
- 2009-04 Dodgeball.com shut down by Google
- 2009-02 Pownce.com went offline. Was previously scheduled to go offline 2008-12-15, but voluntary code patches/contributions from Tantek helped them to transition to public read-only access (to increase chance of archival of content) on that date for about 2 months.
- 2008-12-15 went read-only.
- ??? number of Pownce profiles gone.
- ??? links to Pownce posts broken.
- Migration Advised: import to Vox: "Six Apart is encouraging Pownce members to join its blog platform Vox".[131]
- 2009-01-30 Ma.gnolia.com shutdown.[132]. Ma.gnolia.com suffered catastrophic database corruption and lost all user data.
2008
- 2008-03 Consumating.com shut down by CNET.[133]
- ??? number of Consumating profiles/posts lost.
- ??? links to Consumating posts broken.
- 2008-10-31 AOL Hometown shutdown [134] by AOL.
- At least 14 million sites lost. [135] 2002 stats estimate 14 million sites on Hometown that year.
- "Well it looks like AOL did it again. Another sneaky move. The Hometown pages all seem to have disappeared. [...] I only discovered this morning that AOL pulled the plug on Oct 31st, 2008." - taimantis.com, November 11th, 2008[26]
- "Lots of information on AOL Hometown very important to people who put hard work into these efforts is being lost, possibly without notice." - David Dillard, "Meet the Googles" Visits the Grave Site of AOL Hometown to Ponder Its Past All to Short Life[27]
- "I was surprised to find that AOL just shut down their homepage service on Oct. 31st. There were many great websites created through that service that simply no longer exist." - Dr. Jitters, November 12, 2008[28]
- "I knew this was coming, I just didn't know the day. I tried, with the help of some great people, to get AOL to donate ficlets to a non-profit, with no luck. I asked them just to give it to me outright since I invented it and built it with the help of some spectacular developers and designers. All of this has gone nowhere. [...] I'm disappointed that AOL's turned its back on the community, although I guess I shouldn't be surprised." - Kevin Lawver, Ficlets Est Mort[29]
- "A terrible thing happened recently. You might have missed it. AOL Hometown, which itself was actually a combination of a bunch of previously acquired websites, shut down. [...] It's all fine and good, those readers who sneer and say 'you get what you pay for' and 'ha ha, losers'. But the fact is, these people were brought online and given a place for themselves. Like a turkey drawn with a child's hand or a collection of snow globes collected from a life well-lived, these sites were hand-made, done by real people, with no agenda or business plan or knowledge, exactly, of how everything under the webservers worked. They were paying for their accounts, make no mistake – this was often provided to them as a tool combined with their AOL accounts. Some were absorbed from other companies as AOL purchased them. Some of these websites had existed for a decade. [...] We're talking about terabytes, terabytes of data, of hundreds of thousands of man-hours of work, crafted by people, an anthropological bonanza and a critical part of online history, wiped out because someone had to show that they were cutting costs this quarter." - Jason Scott, Eviction, or the Coming Datapocalypse [136]
2007
Fucked Company
Per Wikipedia, in 2007 August, Fuckedcompany.com's home page was changed to read
R.I.P. 2000-2007.
As of 2018-029, only the home page and http://fuckedcompany.com/servermon/ are returned for a site:fuckedcompany.com web search. All other attempts at loading various pages at that domain return a "403 Forbidden".
Fuckedcompany was a popular site-deaths (actual, impending, at-risk) tracking site near the end and after the first dotcom boom.
- ???? number of posts lost
- ???? number of company profiles lost
- ...
It appears the Internet Archive has (as of 2022 or perhaps earlier) stopped showing fuckedcompany.com captures:
However the US Library of Congress apparently has a few snapshots of it from 2002 and earlier, e.g.:
2006
2005
2004
2003
2002
2001
- 2001 Desktop.com shutdown[137] suddenly, without users being able to download their documents.
- ??? user profiles lost
- ??? user documents lost
- 2001 SixDegrees.com (wikipedia), one of the first social networking services
2000
- 2000-07-02 PlanetAll shutdown[138] by Amazon.
Unknown Year
- Wannadoo/orange personal sites
- Zooomr.com photo sharing / flickr competitor
- yfrog photo service for Twitter, owned by ImageShack. http://www.yfrog.com redirects to https://imageshack.com/lost. The service was very popular, along with TwitPic, in the early years of Twitter. Resurfaced images via apps like Timehop appear as broken links.
- WebDAV Resources (webdav.org, on the internet archive) was a site documenting all things WebDAV and hosted implementations as well as a test suite (Litmus, also on the internet archive).
Related
- Why - other problems with using and depending on 3rd party sites
- Google Graveyard (on pinterest.com)
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Google_products#Discontinued_products_and_services
- http://techcrunch.com/tag/deadpool/
- http://www.reddit.com/r/shutdown/
- Gallery 404: a gallery of net.art dead links from the last 30 years.
- Dead Internet Theory: Most of the Internet is Fake (warning: borderline conspiracy theory)
Brainstorming
Publish on silo.rip
- Create a MW template for listing shutdowns
- Add h-event markup to the MW template, noting the date, company, and description of the shutdown. (maybe logo too somehow?)
- Aaron Parecki can write a parser that takes the list of h-events and reformats them nicely to fit on silo.rip
See Also
- history
- timeline
- site-changes
- site-hacks
- acquihire
- http://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/vine-and-the-new-gatekeepers-of-self-expression
- http://kottke.org/17/04/pour-some-out-for-the-sites-that-arent-here
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microblogging#Defunct
- https://goodbye.domains/
- https://killedbygoogle.com/
- https://gcemetery.co/
- https://longreads.com/2018/04/06/digital-media-and-the-case-of-the-missing-archives/amp/?__indieweb_impression=true
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BPt9uX9Gf2A
- “Facebook is, in a phrase, “so high school”; however, unlike “so middle school” Myspace, the slow death of Facebook is infinitely more justified.” https://thebaffler.com/salvos/404-page-not-found-wagner
- 2019-01-03 YQL per https://developer.yahoo.com/yql/
As of Thursday, Jan. 3, 2019, the YQL service at query.yahooapis.com will be retired. This will impact users of datatables.org
- https://mycroft.ai/blog/closed-platform-deprecation-beware-the-google-graveyard/
- https://twitter.com/BeardOps/status/1104546904254296064
- ""I've seen things you people wouldn't believe..." https://gcemetery.co/ https://killedbygoogle.com/ https://indieweb.org/site-deaths" @BeardOps March 10, 2019
- https://twitter.com/cariefisher/status/1106197453487906818?s=19
- "don't worry, I fixed it" @cariefisher March 14, 2019
- https://twitter.com/waxpancake/status/1107442118643994624
- "Myspace accidentally lost all the music uploaded from its first 12 years in a server migration, losing over 50 million songs from 14 million artists. https://twitter.com/textfiles/status/1107306991066759168" @waxpancake March 18, 2019
- https://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/b2381s/myspace_lost_all_music_uploaded_from_2003_to_2015/
- Killed by Google – The Google Graveyard & Cemetery by @codyogden @google #killedbygoogle desktop PyPortal version
- https://twitter.com/erincandescent/status/1184587323599736837?s=20
- "Today it was announced that Yahoo! Groups is shutting down, and taking with it a piece of critical national infrastructure: the Oftel Yahoo Group which is used for managing UK phone number assignments.
Yes, really: See Ofcom's website https://www.ofcom.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0027/56646/simwood.pdf" @erincandescent October 16, 2019
- "Today it was announced that Yahoo! Groups is shutting down, and taking with it a piece of critical national infrastructure: the Oftel Yahoo Group which is used for managing UK phone number assignments.
- Around Nov 25, 2019, Twitter announced to shut down accounts who fail to accept their new ToS by Dec 11, 2019 (not a "site death" in the traditional sense, but a closely related issue).
- This has generated attention to the problem of user accounts of deceased former users being deleted: https://twitter.com/textfiles/status/1199459588594176000
- Thread of various sites that died and Internet Archive captured: https://twitter.com/textfiles/status/1204428332361814016 (note each site, year/date of death, and number of user accounts and or GB/TB lost / archived
- "Xanga was/is a blogging site that announced they were converting to "2.0" and the websites that had been around for 15 years were going to go through a little rough patch, i.e. stored and inaccessible, unless the user took action. We backed it up. 10 terabytes." @textfiles December 10, 2019
- https://www.theverge.com/2019/12/13/21019565/murfie-madison-wisconsin-store-stream-cd-vinyl-collection-closed
- https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/katienotopoulos/how-we-killed-the-old-internet
- 2020-01-02 First site-death of 2020, fenderforum.com (see also admintax) after running for 20+ years RIP Fenderforum
- lost sites
- https://twitter.com/killedbygoogle
- soon/announced: 2021-05-04 Yahoo Answers: https://twitter.com/verge/status/1379153188239110144
- "Yahoo Answers will be shut down forever on May 4th https://www.theverge.com/2021/4/5/22368488/yahoo-answers-shutdown-may-4-internet-era-over-rip?utm_campaign=theverge&utm_content=chorus&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter" @verge April 5, 2021
- Google Sites (classic) to be shut down in 2022: https://9to5google.com/2020/08/06/google-sets-timeline-for-deprecating-classic-google-sites/
- https://www.cjr.org/analysis/linkrot-content-drift-new-york-times.php
- 2021-06-02 “Trump’s blog” shut down and scrubbed from site. CNBC: Trump blog page shuts down for good via https://twitter.com/artlung/status/1400102685697744897
- https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2021/06/the-internet-is-a-collective-hallucination/619320/
- 2021-11-15 Threader, a thread related app/service, has announced that it is joining Twitter and will be shutting down on 2021-12-15. They've created an export feature so you can save your bookmarks. Make sure to also download your PDF archives if you’d like to keep them. Much of their functionality wil
- 2022 March pluspora(.)com is expected to go offline due to loss of its IT admin: https://pluspora.com/people/83271a909b5c0136457b005056268def
- ^ looks like Internet Archive has been unable to archive the content due to the js;dr nature of pluspora's CMS (a version of Diaspora) https://web.archive.org/web/20220223222619/https://pluspora.com/people/83271a909b5c0136457b005056268def
- https://notebook.wesleyac.com/how-websites-die/
- 2022-03-28 Chowhound shutdown. Founded ~1997. ???? user profiles & reviews links dead.
- #deadweb hashtag being used to chronicle past site-deaths https://twitter.com/webarchiv_cz/status/1319298370880507904
- "4 🙁 4
Check our new IG account, where we present the most interesting czech dead websites >>>>https://instagram.com/mrtveweby/
#webarchive #webarchiving #deadweb #linkrot" @webarchiv_cz October 22, 2020
- "4 🙁 4
- #deadweb example: https://twitter.com/GBoddington/status/1225282921013153794 and exhibit permalink still up: https://www.ludwigmuseum.hu/en/news/dead-web-end
- ""The Dead Web: The End" is a highly topical exhibition which contradicts todays data dominated life, as it envisioning a world after the collapse of the internet - a much needed reflection for us all. Until April 26th in Budapest @ludwigmuseum #deadweb https://www.ludwigmuseum.hu/en/exhibitions" @GBoddington February 6, 2020
- ^ https://www.ludwigmuseum.hu/en/programme/exhibition-opening-dead-web-end
- https://twitter.com/hashtag/deadweb
- https://twitter.com/webarchiv_cz/status/1311348333043216385
- "THE CZECH DEAD WEB SERIES
http://milada.org - website of one of the most famous illegal Prague squat. Online 2009-2011. #deadweb #linkrot #webarcheology #webarchive #webarchiving" @webarchiv_cz September 30, 2020
- "THE CZECH DEAD WEB SERIES
- “These creatures can be quite powerful but require immense amounts of energy to continue to exist and _very much should not exist at all._ Their owners always claim their existence is necessary and justify said existence in a damnable and irresponsible way.” https://ez.substack.com/p/the-liches-of-silicon-valley
- All Things Digital: https://twitter.com/karaswisher/status/1570138323632664578
- "This is a thread on the ephemeral nature of content, who owns your work & why creators need to own their IP, which just hit home when I was doing research for my memoir on covering the rise of Silicon Valley. Why? Because most the work we did at All Things Digital has gone poof." @karaswisher September 14, 2022
- 2023-05 Mastodon.lol is being shutdown apparently https://mastodon.lol/@jeanburgess/109837309981257160
- "So my rough summary of what has gone on at mastodon.lol:
1. The instance dates back to 'early Mastodon', started by a guy known only as Nathan to create an inclusive space for queer and trans folks away from the Twitter cesspit
2. it has always been a one-man band, with very hardline mod & #fediblock rules against Nazis, TERFs, sexual exploitation, etc., but permissive in terms of (CWed) NSFW content, is now quite popular with all kinds of geeky queers, trans & stans. And generally lovely! [1/n]" @jeanburgess February 9, 2023
- "So my rough summary of what has gone on at mastodon.lol:
- ^ https://mastodon.lol/@jeanburgess/109837342330283433 (from that thread)
- "5. and @nathan announced the instance will be closing in May - and no way is it being handed over to new "owners" (citing privacy concerns wrt the database of users)." @jeanburgess February 9, 2023
- 2022-10-31 ProgrammableWeb(.com) shut down after 17 years. Announced 2022-10-10 ProgrammableWeb is Being Retired, and http://programmableweb.com domain unresponsive since at least 2023-07-05 (likely before too).
- 2019: Vine archive of brief video posts (similar to today’s reel posts) officially discontinued in 2019 April per https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vine_(service)
- Shutdown expected 2024-04-12: http://queer.af: https://queer.af/@postmaster/111733741786950083
- https://www.theverge.com/2024/1/12/24036539/artifact-shutting-down-kevin-systrom
- The Quiet Death of Ello’s Big Dreams
- Vice.com
- Soon: 2024-06-26 ICQ is shutting down per 2024-05-25 The Verge: ICQ is shutting down after almost 28 years
- 2024-07-22 Songwhip(.com) "services will cease" per https://web.archive.org/web/20240530165251/https://songwhip.com/faq/sunset — unknown number of accounts, unknown number of user created / shared links
- MTVNews .com https://variety.com/2024/digital/news/mtv-news-website-archives-pulled-offline-1236047163/
- http://ComedyCentral.com https://latenighter.com/news/paramount-axes-comedy-central-website-show-clips-library/
- 2025-08-25 goo .gl links all breaking: https://www.theverge.com/2024/7/19/24201734/google-url-link-shortening-service-shut-down-support
- Goo. gl shutdown comment early / thread : https://queer.party/@ticky/112809928477768537
- 2024 cohost
- https://mozilla.social/@mozilla/113153943609185249
- https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/mozilla-social-faq