Delicious: Not Shutting Down, 'No Reason to Panic'

Samantha Murphy

Date: 17 December 2010 Time: 10:15 AM ET

The Internet was all abuzz on Thursday (Dec. 16) when rumor got around that Yahoo would be shutting down its popular social bookmarking service Delicious.

Delicious – which launched in 2003 as "del.icio.us" and was acquired by Yahoo in 2005 – allows users to tag, save and manage their bookmarks online and to share and discover booksmarks with other users.

The news left its members in an uproar and caused many to wonder if they should sit tight or immediately switch to another social bookmarking service.

But then in a plot twist today, Delicious said via a blog post that it is, in fact, not closing and is actually just up for sale.

"No, we are not shutting down Delicious," the message said. "While we have determined that there is not a strategic fit at Yahoo!, we believe there is an ideal home for Delicious outside of the company where it can be resourced to the level where it can be competitive."

The company also apologized to its members for being exposed to media stories that have little answer to what would happen to the fate of the site:

"We're genuinely sorry to have these stories appear with so little context for our loyal users. While we can't answer each of your questions individually, we wanted to address what we can at this stage and we promise to keep you posted as future plans get finalized."

The news first broke that Yahoo would be "sunsetting" – or shutting down – the site when a former Yahoo employee leaked a list of products that it planned to shutter, and Delicious was on the list.

"We can only imagine how upsetting the news coverage over the past 24 hours has been to many of you. Speaking for our team, we were very disappointed by the way that this appeared in the press."

Delicious says it is currently exploring many options to keep the site up and running.

"We're actively thinking about the future of Delicious and we believe there is a home outside the company that would make more sense for the service and our users," the site said. "We're in the process of exploring a variety of options and talking to companies right now. And we’ll share our plans with you as soon as we can."

As for users wanting to switch to alternative social bookmarking sites to play it safe, Delicious said "there's no reason to panic."

"We are maintaining Delicious and encourage you to keep using it. That said, we have export options if you so choose."