It does not mean, however, that the internet company is rolling back the entire policy of offering enhanced services. Yahoo! said it was dropping the $4.95 (£3.40) personal ad fee after complaints from customers.
The fee, paid by the advertiser, allowed users to enhance their ads with multiple photos and gave their ads priority over free ads. However, it was this priority that lead to complaints from users, who said that they did not like the fact that the same enhanced ads were at the top of the list, often for days at a time.
Yahoo! plans to drop the fee within the next two months. The $19.95 monthly fee for people who want to respond to lonely hearts ads will, however, remain. Yahoo!'s personals business has about 3.3m visitors each month.
The internet company has been introducing paid-for services over the last year as it seeks to broaden its revenue base and become less reliant on advertising income. It has introduced paid-for enhanced searches, car listings, astrological readings and certain email features.
Shares in Yahoo!, listed on Nasdaq, closed at $16.73 yesterday after falling 2.56%.
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