As of October 11, 2010, Microsoft is discontinuing its emergency notification and communication tool Vine. This is what the Vine team has announced in an e-mail sent to all beta testers.
Originally launched as beta by invitation in April 2009, the social network was planned to become a kind of Twitter for emergencies. Just one day before 11 September, Microsoft has announced its closing — a traumatic date not only for U.S. Americans. Vine was designed for extreme situations, like terror attacks, as communication platform in case of emergency.
On the official Vine website, there are no further information available anymore, except for the close-down note. In the shutdown announcement, Microsoft stated:
Despite positive feedback from customers like you over the course of Vine’s private beta, Microsoft has made the decision to discontinue Microsoft Vine effective October 11, 2010. […] The decision to discontinue future development of Microsoft Vine was not easily made. Multiple options were thoroughly explored and evaluated with rigor and in the end it was determined that Microsoft Vine is not sustainable as a standalone offering.