Yahoo! Closes Travel Bargains Site FareChase

Yahoo!(YHOO Quote) is closing its FareChase service that helped users find travel bargains, a report says, as the company tightens its focus and cuts costs.

Yahoo! will shut down the service Wednesday, sending users to its main travel site instead, spokeswoman Bahareh Ramin said in an e-mail, Bloomberg reports. Yahoo in 2004 bought FareChase, a service that lets customers search for prices on flights, hotels and cars.

The Internet company's new CEO, Carol Bartz, has said she is looking to cut costs. Bartz, the former chairwoman of Autodesk(ADSK Quote), was brought in by Yahoo!'s board to oversee a complete overhaul of the company, including shaking up management.

"Discontinuing FareChase will let us focus our efforts on strategic products and features on Yahoo Travel," spokeswoman Ramin said, according to Bloomberg.

Yahoo! fans hope the company can build on its heavily trafficked sites and take advertising revenue away from rival Google (GOOG Quote) by increasing use of its search engine and placing more display ads.

Yahoo! also plans to shut down storage service Briefcase by March 30. In 2007, the company closed its Yahoo Photos service, directing users to the faster-growing Flickr site.