Once there was time, when Yahoo was king of Internet. All its services like Yahoo Search, Mail were at the top in their respected categories. But the time has passed now and Yahoo is facing tough competition from other services. If the Yahoo Search is overtaken by the Google, then Yahoo Messenger is also not that much popular, as it was in its initial period. The time has passed when people were addicted to Yahoo Messenger Video Chatting and were using it to chit chat with their friends online. Skype and Gtalk have lessened the popularity of Yahoo Messenger, but still, there are many people who use it.
If you are also one out of such people, then here is a bad news for you. Yahoo Messenger is to remove some feature on December 14th, which is not so far. When Yahoo announced about this upcoming change, everyone was just surprised. Well, the surprise expressions on this update news are obvious, as it’s hard to understand that why this update is going to happen? It seems that, Marissa Mayer, the new CEO of this former Internet King has got her own strategies to take Yahoo back to the spot, where it was once.
Yahoo announced in its blog post that from 14th December onwards, the public chat rooms will be closed. This is news of sadness for those, who often go to the public chat rooms to spend their free time.
Another feature that will close down on 14th December is the support of Yahoo Messenger with third party tools like Pingbox. Pingbox will no longer be available and if you have installed it on your blog or social network, then better to uninstall it now.
Talking about the other features that are going to become past from 14th December, the biggest one is its interoperability with Windows Live. Your Windows Live Contacts will still appear on your Yahoo Messenger but you will not be able to contact them and if you will try to send any message to them, the message will not be delivered by Yahoo Messenger. Yahoo wrote about this major feature removal, in its blog post.
Here are the words:
Yahoo! Messenger will no longer be inter-operable with Microsoft Windows Live Messenger as of December 14, 2012. Microsoft buddies will still appear on your Messenger contact list, but they will be grayed out, and if you try to send instant messages to them, the messages will not be delivered.
Do you use Yahoo Messenger to make calls for PC to any Phone Number? Yahoo! Voice is the service I am talking about. This update will last till 30 January 2013. As of now, a user can’t add funds to his/her account. Those users, who have got funds left in their accounts, will receive the email instructions to learn the refund process. This service is considered as competitor of Skype, but Alas! It’s going to be end.
Yahoo’s words on this:
Effective January 30, 2013, we will no longer offer Yahoo! Voice Phone In and Phone Out capabilities, our co-branded landline and mobile phone service from Jajah. As of today, users can no longer add new funds to their accounts, and active users who currently have a balance in their accounts will receive emailed instructions in December from Jajah on how to request a refund. You can find more information on how to ask for a refund here, and you can contact Jajah with any questions at yahoovoice@jajah.com. Free Messenger-to-Messenger calls will still be offered through Yahoo! Messenger.
So what’s your reaction over it? Spread the world about your views, via the comment section below.
This is a contribution by Olukunle Moses, he is a freelancer and tech blogger at TechAtLast.com, he is quite freaky about technology and loves geeking out.