Yahoo has announced plans to close its Mash social networking site.

The struggling service will close on 29 September, according to an email sent to users.

Yahoo is advising all users to save any data they want to keep for the future.

Following the takedown, any links to Mash pages will redirect to Yahoo's web site.

The takedown will come almost exactly one year after the beta service was first launched.

Mash added a twist to the social networking concept by allowing users to edit each others' profile pages and manually move different elements of the profile page.

Although it initially earned positive reviews, Mash was never able fully to catch on with users and compete with the larger networks.

The company said that other Yahoo 360 services will not be affected by the Mash takedown.