Yahoo announced Friday it's closing down Yahoo Directory.

The service is one of the earliest internet mainstays. Along with Yahoo Directory, Yahoo Education for education services and Qwiki, an app for making short movies from videos on a mobile device, are also shutting down.

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Yahoo Directory serves as a search tool that lists popular sites by category. It helps users easily explore the internet.

It was developed in 1994 by company co-founders Jerry Yang and David Filo. It was first called "Jerry and David's Guide to the World Wide Web."

"While we are still committed to connecting users with the information they're passionate about, our business has evolved," said Jay Rossiter, Yahoo's senior vice president of the cloud platform group.

Yahoo Directory will officially shut down December 31. Advertisers will receive details that will let them upgrade to a new service.

Yahoo's move is an attempt to streamline its product offerings.

Rossiter said they closed down more than 60 products in the last two years. These shut downs allow the company to shift resources to more important things.

Yahoo is now focusing on their core products, including search, communications, digital magazines and video for their users.

There's no comment from Yahoo about their new plans.

Tagsclosing down Yahoo Diretory, Yahoo, Yahoo Directory