Yahoo shuts down BlackBerry app, other products

12 years ago

Yahoo is closing the door on its BlackBerry app and six other unpopular products in order to stream line its offering, according to the Internet search engine.

“Ultimately, we are making these changes in an effort to sharper our focus,” said Jay Rossiter, executive VP for platforms at Yahoo is a recent blog post. “By continuing to hone in on our core products and experiences, we’ll be able to make our existing products the very best they can be.”

He said Yahoo took into consideration several factors before deciding to axe the products.

“The most critical question we ask is whether the experience is truly a daily habit that still resonates for all of you today,” said Rossiter.

The products that will no longer be supported by Yahoo come April 1, 2013 are:

-Yahoo Avatar – This service allowed users to create personalized character images which are displayed on Yahoo Messenger and Yahoo Answers. If you want to keep your existing Yahoo avatar you can go to the Avatars download page, pick a picture size and format and click the appropriate download button. Users can also keep using their avatar with other Yahoo products by uploading it to their Yahoo profile.

-Yahoo app for BlackBerry – This app enabled users to access their email, instant messages, social networks, finance and sports news updates and more on the BlackBerry phones. Yahoo app for BlackBerry will no longer be available for download effective April 1. Those who have already downloaded the app can continue to use it but it will no longer be actively supported

-Yahoo Clue – This app basically provided users insights on what types of people are searching for specific keyword phrases. It provides keyword popularity over a period of time.

-Yahoo App Search – This is a tool that helped users browse for apps across the Internet and app marketplaces

-Yahoo Sports IQ – This is a sports prediction game that added points to a user’s sports IQ when he or she correctly picks the winners for a collection of games each day.

-Yahoo Message Boards Web site – This is a service that provided message boards for a number of online topic discussions. Message boards on individual properties such as yahoo Finance and Yahoo Fantasy Sports will remain active.

-Yahoo Updates API- This product allowed a user to syndicate user-generated action on his or her web site.