Yahoo will scrap its travel-metasearch engine, FareChase, on March 25, Travel Weekly has learned.

The decision to retire the product, which enabled consumers to do comparative searches for flights, hotels, cars, vacations and cruises, came as other companies, including TripAdvisor and Travelzoo, have recently entered the metasearch arena.

It also coincides with two other developments. Carol Bartz replaced Jerry Yang as Yahoo CEO in January, and in late February Yahoo signed a new agreement that has Travelocity continuing its role as the primary booking engine for Yahoo Travel. In the past, Travelocity sparred with Yahoo over the prominent role that Yahoo gave FareChase on Yahoo Travel.

Yahoo spokesperson Bahareh Ramin said the company opted to discontinue FareChase, acquired in 2004, "as part of Yahoo's efforts to align resources to focus on core strategic priorities and deliver superior user experiences. Discontinuing FareChase will let us focus our efforts on strategic products such as Yahoo Travel Guides and Yahoo Trip Planner."