Chad Hurley and Steve Chen, who started the successful video platform YouTube, completed the purchase of Delicious, a web-based article bookmarking site whose value peaked around 2005 (when Yahoo! bought it for $30 million) but has fallen over the last few years. While there has been no official release about the dollar amount of the sale, several sources are reporting the current deal has Delicious going to Hurley and Chen for less than $2 million, giving further credence to Business Insider editor Jay Yarow's claim that Delicious had "zero monetization" but remained one of Yahoo!'s most highly-regarded products. News of the sale followed several months of rumors and speculation about the future of the bookingmarking site.

An official announcement on the Delicious blog page expresses optimism about what AVOS, the Internet company owned by Hurley and Chen, may bring to the site and its user-base, "As creators of the largest online video platform, they [Hurley and Chen] have firsthand experience enabling millions of users to share their experiences with the world. They are committed to running and improving Delicious going forward." Indeed, the new owners have expressed a great deal of interest in user feedback and have indicated they will use that feedback to improve the site with new, more innovative.

Delicious will continue in its current form until July 2011, after which it will fall completely under the auspices of AVOS. Current Delicious users will enjoy uninterrupted service if they agree to allow Yahoo! to transfer their bookmarks to AVOS and, after a transition period, those users will be subject to the AVOS terms of service and privacy policy.

Joey Hall
VP Content Marketing