Yahoo To Shut Down 7 Products, Including Yahoo Mail And Messenger For Feature Phones
Yahoo announced today that it is shutting down a number of its products as part of its efforts to make sure its products “are still central to your daily habits”.
The company will be shutting down Yahoo Deals, Upcoming and its API, Yahoo SMS Alerts, Yahoo kids, Yahoo Mail and Messenger feature phone (J2ME) apps, and much older versions of Yahoo Mail by June 3.
“The most critical question we ask is whether the experience is truly a daily habit that still resonates for all of you today,” wrote Jay Rossiter, Yahoo’s executive vice president of Platforms.
The announcement represents Yahoo’s second group shutdown of products since Mayer, a former Google executive, became CEO of the struggling Web portal in July. So-called “spring cleaning” announcements, in which multiple products are shut down, have become a regular feature at Google in recent years.
This detailed list as reported by Bussiness Insider is as below :
Upcoming
As of April 30, 2013, Upcoming will be going away. If you have uploaded events to the site, please click here to learn how to download your information. Additionally, effective on April 30, 2013, we will no longer support the Upcoming API.
Yahoo! Deals
As of April 30, 2013, Yahoo! Deals will be going away. You can find out more details about this, including instructions on how to save your coupons prior to the Yahoo! Deals shutdown here.
Yahoo! SMS Alerts
As of April 30, 2013, Yahoo! SMS Alerts will be going away. If you’ve been receiving SMS alerts, we encourage you to stay-up-date on all the latest with our mobile apps including Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Weather, Yahoo! Sports, or Yahoo! Finance. If you’ve been receiving horoscope alerts, you can check your horoscope on yahoo.com. Alternatively, you can go to alerts.yahoo.com and select to receive your alerts via email or Yahoo! Messenger.
Yahoo! Kids
As of April 30, 2013, Yahoo! Kids (formerly known as Yahooligans) will be going away. Our youngest users still have plenty of opportunities to engage with Yahoo! content and products. For example, users who are under 13 can register for a Yahoo! ID through our Family Accounts program, connect with family and friends through Yahoo Mail and Messenger, and check out upcoming family friendly films on Yahoo! Movies.
Yahoo Mail and Messenger feature phone (J2ME) apps
As of April 30, 2013, the Yahoo Mail and Messenger apps for feature phones (J2ME) will be going away. We continue to support Yahoo Mail and Messenger via mobile web for our users with feature phones. We also offer Yahoo! Mail apps for iOS, Android and Windows 8; and Yahoo! Messenger apps for Android and iOS.
Older versions of Yahoo Mail
Beginning the week of June 3, 2013, older versions of Yahoo! Mail (including Yahoo Mail Classic) will no longer be available. Those of you using these older versions of Yahoo Mail can switch to the new Yahoo! Mail, which is fast and easier-to-use. If you’re on dial-up or an older browser, we’ll move you to an HTML only / basic version of the new Yahoo! Mail. We’ll be reaching out to each of you via email to give you more information about this and what to expect. Additionally, to learn more about the Yahoo! Mail migration, please click here.
[Bussiness Insider, Reuters]
