Yahoo Kills Off BlackBerry Mobile App, Six Other Projects - The UpStream

Yahoo Kills Off BlackBerry Mobile App, Six Other Projects

posted Sunday Mar 10, 2013 by Nicholas DiMeo

Yahoo Kills Off BlackBerry Mobile App, Six Other Projects

Ever since former Google exec Marissa Mayer took over Yahoo in October, the entire company has been turned upside down. From refusing to let employees work from home, to making new partnerships with her old stomping grounds, it looks like Yahoo might be on the track to relevancy again. This week, more changes are on the horizon as Mayer took another page out of Google's playbook and shut down any unnecessary and unprofitable projects. Sounds a lot like Zynga, right?

Executive VP of Platforms, Jay Rossiter, announced the closures in a blog post this week, saying that,

At Yahoo!, we're focused on making your daily habits more inspiring and entertaining. This means that we're constantly reviewing and iterating on our products and experiences...after much thought and deliberation, we decide to shut down some products... The most critical question we ask is whether the experience is truly a daily habit that still resonates for all of you today.

So, what's shutting down? On the docket, we have,

Yahoo! Avatars

Effective April 1, 2013, we will no longer support Yahoo! Avatars across our properties. If you like your existing avatar and want to keep it, please go to the Avatars download page, pick a picture size and format, and click the appropriate download button. Similarly, if you want to edit your avatar, you can download the image and then use a photo editing service of your preference. Additionally effective April 1, we will no longer support the Avatars YQL table.

Yahoo! app for BlackBerry

Effective April 1, 2013, the Yahoo! app for BlackBerry will no longer be available for download. For those of you who have already downloaded the app, you can continue to use it but it will no longer be actively supported.

Yahoo! Clues (beta)

Effective April 1, 2013, Yahoo! Clues (beta) will shut down.

Yahoo! App Search

Effective April 1, 2013, Yahoo! App Search will shut down.

Yahoo! Sports IQ

Effective April 1, 2013, Yahoo! Sports IQ will shut down. Your final lifetime Sports IQ score and rank will be automatically transferred to and preserved within your Yahoo! Fantasy Profile.

Yahoo! Message Boards website

Effective April 1, 2013, the Yahoo! Message Boards website will shut down. Our message boards on individual properties (like Yahoo! Finance and Yahoo! Fantasy Sports) will remain active. We also encourage you to ask and answer questions on Yahoo! Answers, and discuss issues in the comments section on Yahoo! News.

Yahoo! Updates API

As of April 16, 2013, we will no longer support the Yahoo! Updates API.

Oddly enough, none of this is an April Fool's joke. It's surprising that their message boards are shutting down, but who is going onto Yahoo specifically to talk about whatever topic could be found on a more popular forum? In the end though, did anyone really use these services anyway? I had no clue some of them even (still) existed. If Mayer is able to trim the fat, and decides to stop ignoring the rules of the web, perhaps Yahoo will be able to stick around a bit longer.

Are you saddened by any of these closures? Do you think Yahoo still has a chance to be relevant? Do you like the new, revamped Yahoo homepage? Let it all go in the comments section below.

Advertisement

Login to CommentWhat You're Saying

Be the first to comment!

We're live now - Join us!
PLUGHITZ Keyz

Email

Password

Forgot password? Recover here.
Not a member? Register now.
Blog Meets Brand Stats