All About Microsoft
Mary-Jo FoleyMicrosoft to shut down its Popfly mashup tool
Summary
Microsoft is shutting down its Popfly mashup tool, company officials are confirming. Microsoft fielded a beta of Popfly back in 2007, at the height of the Web 2.0 mashup craze.
Topics
Blogger Info
Mary-Jo Foley
Biography
Mary-Jo Foley
Mary Jo Foley has covered the tech industry for 20 years for a variety of publications, including ZDNet, eWeek and Baseline. She has kept close tabs on Microsoft strategy, products and technologies for the past 10 years. In the late 1990s, she penned the award-winning "At The Evil Empire" column for ZDNet, and more recently the Microsoft Watch blog for Ziff Davis.
Got a tip? Send her an email with your rants, rumors, tips and tattles. Confidentiality guaranteed.
Microsoft is shutting down its Popfly mashup tool, company officials are confirming.
Microsoft fielded a beta of Popfly back in 2007, at the height of the Web 2.0 mashup craze. Popfly was designed to allow non-professional programmers and hobbyists to build mash-ups, gadgets, Web sites and applications using pre-built “blocks.” There were tens of these Web-programming blocks from which Popfly users could choose, including Flickr, Windows Live Spaces, Virtual Earth and news service blocks.
A note on the Popfly beta site confirms the service will be shut down next month:
“Thanks for stopping by. Unfortunately, on August 24th, 2009, the Popfly service will be discontinued, all resources will be taken down, and access to your Popfly account, including games and mashups, will cease.”
In a July 16 note from the Popfly team on its blog, Microsoft officials are advising those who still interested in “express(ing) your creativity and pursuing a path to software development” to check out other Microsoft tools and products, like Microsoft XNA, Microsoft Kodu and Microsoft’s Web Platform Installer.
Microsoft isn’t providing (publicly, at least) any reason for the Popfly shutdown. I’d guess it’s a victim of budget cuts. If I hear more, I’ll update this post. Todd Bishop is confirming Popfly’s demise is due to economic concerns.
(Thanks to “Vasudevg” for the Popfly pointer via his tweet.)
Mary Jo has covered the tech industry for more than 25 years for a variety of publications and Web sites, and is a frequent guest on radio, TV and podcasts, speaking about all things Microsoft-related. She is the author of Microsoft 2.0: How Microsoft plans to stay relevant in the post-Gates era (John Wiley & Sons, 2008).
Disclosure
Mary-Jo Foley
Freelance journalist/blogger Mary Jo Foley has nothing to disclose. WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get). I do not own Microsoft stock or stock in any of its partners or competitors. I have no business ventures that are sponsored by/funded by Microsoft or any of its partners or competitors. I have not accepted any consulting funds from Microsoft, any of its partners or its competitors for any studies/projects.
Biography
Mary-Jo Foley
Mary Jo Foley has covered the tech industry for 20 years for a variety of publications, including ZDNet, eWeek and Baseline. She has kept close tabs on Microsoft strategy, products and technologies for the past 10 years. In the late 1990s, she penned the award-winning "At The Evil Empire" column for ZDNet, and more recently the Microsoft Watch blog for Ziff Davis.
Got a tip? Send her an email with your rants, rumors, tips and tattles. Confidentiality guaranteed.
More from “All About Microsoft”
Related Discussions on TechRepublic
Did you know you can take part in these discussions with your ZDNet membership?Talkback Most Recent of 17 Talkback(s)
-
Should never have been to begin with
This is yet another example of something that should not have been done to begin with (I am not blaming Microsoft specifically though).
alokgovil07/16/2009 11:34 AM -
Agreed
Completely irrelevant product.
LBiege07/16/2009 12:12 PM -
I disagree. Taking chances and seeing what sticks is a good thing
If nobody takes a chance on new ideas than we will forever be stuck in the past. Yes, Popfly didn't take off, but it might as well have.
Maybe Twitter should not have been persued either. They had no real way to know whether it would "stick" or not.
Qbt07/16/2009 01:28 PM -
Have to agree with you
It is a good thing to take risks, as long as they
are not OUTLANDISH risks.
Lerianis1007/17/2009 01:50 AM -
Of course it should have been, but now it is ...
... just yet another example of Microsoft failure.
fr0thy207/18/2009 07:53 PM -
Whistling Past The Graveyard
A nice thing about having locally installed products is that if the vendor decides that the product is no longer part of their "refocused strategy" you at least have the current install.
As a business owner do I really want to bet the farm on Azure or Web Office when the vendor has a history of discontinuing products and leaving their customers hanging?
Now PopFly may be smalltime stuff but there have been times where major products are just written off.
curph07/16/2009 12:31 PM -
Examples?
Do you have examples of "major" products that businesses used that was EOLed without MS providing an alternative?
You make these claims that you can't rely on Azure yet I believe you won't be able to come up with one actual example of what you claim.Qbt(Edited: 07/16/2009 01:44 PM) -
Examples
Microsoft Money,
Microsoft Cordless Phone System (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Cordless_Phone_System)
Right, these are consumer products, not business...but does that make their orphaning any less of a problem?
CarlS07/16/2009 07:07 PM -
No, "business" apps...
"Right, these are consumer products, not business...but does that make their orphaning any less of a problem?
Yes, it is not a problem for businesses, which is what the OP is talking about.
So, if the OP can't list any business apps then the original point ends up being nothing but the usual knee-jerk anti-MS response without actual substance.
People keep talking about the "evil" that MS does, but then has no problem turning around and making up misinformation as they go along. Weird.Qbt07/17/2009 01:14 AM -
Off the top of my head
Microsoft Accounting
Visual Basic
Managed DirectXcurph07/17/2009 06:53 AM -
aaahh.. the benefits of the Open Source model....
I doubt MS has the n*ts to release these via their open source model......
deaf_e_kate07/17/2009 06:57 AM -
Also
I would als include Microsoft WorkFlow. While not completely discontinued, the lastest version is forcing a complete re-write of existing applications.curph07/17/2009 06:57 AM -
jaybo_nomad07/16/2009 08:31 PM -
Should have died since long...
There were so many mash-up tools including that of Yahoo! which also is dead now (don't remember the name).
I have always been critical of what these mash-up sites were trying to achieve.
Arun (sreearun)(Edited: 07/17/2009 12:58 AM) -
Super Biker07/17/2009 03:31 AM
Talkback - Tell Us What You Think
Get it the way you want it
ZDNet Newsletters
Get the best of ZDNet delivered straight to your inbox
Vendor Showcase
Blog Roll
- All About Microsoft
- The Apple Core
- Between the Lines
- BriefingsDirect
- Collaboration 2.0
- Dev Connection
- A Developer's View
- Digital Cameras & Camcorders
- Ed Bott's Microsoft Report
- Emerging Tech
- Enterprise Web 2.0
- Five Nines: The Next Gen Datacenter
- Forrester Research
- Googling Google
- GreenTech Pastures
- Hardware 2.0
- Home Theater
- iGeneration
- India IT
- Irregular Enterprise
- IT Project Failures
- Laptops & Desktops
- Lawgarithms
- Linux and Open Source
- Managing L'unix
- The Mobile Gadgeteer
- On Sustainability
- The Semantic Web
- Service Oriented
- Smartphones and Cell Phones
- Social Business
- Social CRM: The Conversation
- Software & Services Safari
- Software as Services
- Storage Bits
- Team Think
- Tech Broiler
- Tom Foremski: IMHO
- The ToyBox
- Virtually Speaking
- The Web Life
- ZDNet Education
- ZDNet Government
- ZDNet Healthcare
- Zero Day
Blog Archive
White Papers, Webcasts, & Resources
- 77 Features for Windows 7 that Every IT Professional Should Know AboutWindows 7 builds on Windows Vista's positives and eliminates many of the ... (Global Knowledge) Download Now
- The 10 Most Dangerous Risks to Microsoft SecuritySecurity is an important part of any IT infrastructure, but as technology ... (Global Knowledge) Download Now
- WPA2 Security: Choosing the Right WLAN Authentication Method for Homes and EnterprisesAsk a hundred CIOs what three things about WLANs (wireless LANs) strike ... (Global Knowledge) Download Now
