BlackBerry users lose out as Yahoo makes big spring cleaning cuts

BlackBerry users lose out as Yahoo makes big spring cleaning cuts
Marissa Mayer is trimming the fat at Yahoo

Yahoo's week of fat-trimming continued into the weekend with CEO Marissa Meyer axing seven of the online company's products.

Yahoo's BlackBerry app is the highest profile casualty and will no longer be available for download from April 1, while the Yahoo Message Boards website will also shut down in a month's time.

Beyond that, the other spring cleaning closures announced on the company blog Yahoo Avatars, Yahoo App Search, Yahoo Sports IQ, Yahoo Clues, and the Yahoo Updates API.

The blog post explained: "After much thought and deliberation, we decide to shut down some products. Before making these decisions, we look at a variety of factors. The most critical question we ask is whether the experience is truly a daily habit that still resonates for all of you today."

Streamlining

Friday's blog post also talked up how the streamlining of services has also resulted in improvements for some of the company's core offerings, while less critical products have fallen by the wayside.

Jay Rossetter EVP of Platforms wrote: "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. In some cases, it means updating our products like we've done recently with our new welcome to Yahoo!, Flickr for iPhone and iPod Touch and Yahoo! Mail."

The cutbacks follow an interesting week at the online company with recently-appointed CEO Marissa Mayer also banning its employees from remote working in a bid for enhanced productivity.

Via Guardian

Chris Smith

A technology journalist, writer and videographer of many magazines and websites including T3, Gadget Magazine and TechRadar.com. He specializes in applications for smartphones, tablets and handheld devices, with bylines also at The Guardian, WIRED, Trusted Reviews and Wareable. Chris is also the podcast host for The Liverpool Way. As well as tech and football, Chris is a pop-punk fan and enjoys the art of wrasslin'.