TECHPULSE The word is out that social networking website MyBlogLog could be heading into the twilight zone as bloggers ring in the New Year.

At the earliest, January could well be the fateful month for MyBlogLog to have its life support taken off by Yahoo, the Sunnyvale, California, company best known for its web portal, search engine, email and other Internet services.

Has MyBlogLog gone pass it sell-by date? Or is Yahoo planning to ditch the social networking site because it could not compete with those new kids on the block -- Facebook and Twitter?

MyBlogLog, which was launched in 2006, became the darling of the blogging community with some exciting features and was seen as a rising star back then.

Yahoo, then under co-founder Jerry Yang, bought it for slightly more than US$10 million in January 2007 when it had more than 45,000 blog subscribers and it grew to over 275,000 registered members.

Thousands of bloggers signed up for free accounts on MyBlogLog as the community site was seen as an innovative social network where a widget allowed members to see the avatar of their visitors and also certain basic information about the number of visitors, what links they clicked and where they come from. Members could also view more extensive information about traffic to their site for a monthly fee.

It was one of the hottest community sites then, and MyBlogLog saw more and more bloggers join its blogging community.

Growing internal problems

MyBlogLog had great potential but, strangely, Yahoo did not seem to put much efforts into taking the site to the next level after the acquisition from its original developer Cloudspace, an Orlando, Florida web applications development company.

However, Yahoo seemed to be bogged down soon after with growing internal problems which festered and led to changes in the top management.

Yahoo named Silicon Valley veteran Carol Bartz as its new chief executive, effectively replacing Yang, on January, 2009. Yang regained his former position as Chief Yahoo and remains on Yahoo's board of directors. Under Bartz, Yahoo tried to change its direction, such as joining forces with Microsoft in search and a makeover of its web portal.

However, some experts believe Yahoo was like a ship drifting in stormy seas. When asked to comment on the prospect of MyBlogLog's demise, co-founder Eric Marcoullier responded by saying that there was "no executive champion" to promote MyBlogLog inside the organization.

As rumours swirled, head of Yahoo Developer Network, Chris Yeh, tried to clear the air by posting a response on its official blog:

"Frankly, it's no secret within Yahoo! that we're actively discussing the future of MyBlogLog. However, it's also true that we have not made any final decisions at this point. Is a shutdown on the table? Sure, that's an option. But there are other options as well."

Whether a MyBlogLog shutdown is on the table or not, web watchers look at it as "downright tragic" and a "crying shame" for this social network, which had everything going for it, to be facing the axe - just like Yahoo's recent shutdown of GeoCities which offers free web sites to members.

Without any doubt, many bloggers who have been members since its inception will be feeling a kind of loss if MyBlogLog were to be given the last rite.

Many had hopes that the social networking site would have a great future when Yahoo took over. It was like a deal made in heaven with the backing of Yahoo's resources but now it seems everything has morphed into atrophy for the site.

Spam a hot issue

Yahoo did make some changes to MyBlogLog's features but this tinkering did not go down well with many MyBlogLog members.

Spam became one of the hot issues when MyBlogLog made an attempt to allow one blogger to label another a spammer by calling such a person a "schmoe." Whatever that is, it just raised the temperature among bloggers and many switched camp to join rival site BlogCatalog.

One may ask why did Yahoo spent 10 million bucks to acquire MyBlogLog and then left it to dry with hardly any worthwhile innovation and internal support?

Web watchers are lamenting a missed opportunity for Yahoo, considering the astounding success of Facebook. Yes, Yahoo could have built on the potential of MyBlogLog but now it could be a case of too little, too late. The dreaded chop may become a reality.

* MARK KHOO writes about the blogging experience and keeps up-to-date with the currents on the World Wide Web. He blogs at TheNextPost.com