The web is mourning the expected loss of beloved icons of the Internet, AltaVista, Del.icio.us, Yahoo Buzz and many other Yahoo properties.

I reported on Flickr possibly going away or being significantly cut yesterday and then later updated the story to include a slide from a Yahoo deck showing several more properties either being closed or merged with others.

The web has taken a strong stance on not letting AltaVista or Delicious die. AltaVista was one of the first real search engines. Anyone over the age of 30 remembers using it back in the late 90s. To kill it off would inhuman. It should be donated to an organization or maybe even a company that can afford to keep it up. Delicious was one of the first bookmarking sites and still has a huge, local user base. They don’t want to see it die.

There are many forums discussing this news, including WebmasterWorld, Sphinn and DigitalPoint Forums. Let me share with you a few quotes from these members of the forums.

I hope some of these properties remain to exist on some level and I hope Yahoo changes their minds.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld, Sphinn and DigitalPoint Forums.

Update: Yahoo says they are not going to kill Delicious, instead they want to sell it.