Yahoo blocks Facebook, Google for user access to fantasy sports, other services

(PHOTO: Ecumenical News)The Yahoo Tourney Pick'em 2014 website is seen in a screenshot on March 7, 2014.

Yahoo will no longer allow users to access its fantasy sports service and photo sharing site Flickr through Google and Facebooks accounts.

These services will be unavailable to users without logging in with the company's Yahoo ID account, the company said this week, according to CNN Money.

The company said this decision will offer the best experience to its users. There is no time frame provided but the restriction will first take effect with the NCAA basketball tournament in Yahoo Sports Tourney Pick'Em platform.

CNN Money says the change is another step in Yahoo's effort to reinvigorate itself, under the leadership of CEO Marissa Mayer. Yahoo was at one time the advertising leader on the Internet, but has fallen behind competitors like Facebook and Google.

The decision will give Yahoo the chance to just collect more user data to fuel its targeted ads while making the data unavailable to its competitors. According to Mayer, user data is one of the things gives value to ads on Yahoo properties.

"Yahoo has some of the best data on the internet," she told CNN Money. "What consumers like to read, what they like to do."

She has previously said the company plans provide a number of offerings this year such as new apps, product improvements, acquisitions and news sites.

While the company's traffic surged in 2013, the firm could not convert it to a rise in ad revenue, CNN Money noted. Sales of video and banner ads fell six percent in the last quarter, while search ad sales fell four percent.

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