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Yahoo Kills AltaVista, Axis, WebPlayer, Browser Plus, Downloads & More

Late on Friday, Yahoo announced that it is shutting down 12 products over the coming months. First on the chopping block is Axis, and it was killed on June 28th. Axis was Yahoo’s attempt at a we...
Yahoo Kills AltaVista, Axis, WebPlayer, Browser Plus, Downloads & More
Written by Chris Crum
  • Late on Friday, Yahoo announced that it is shutting down 12 products over the coming months.

    First on the chopping block is Axis, and it was killed on June 28th. Axis was Yahoo’s attempt at a web browser, launched early last year ahead of the Marissa Mayer era. Axis was largely about the mobile experience, which is line with Yahoo’s greater strategy under Mayer, but Yahoo would likely rather see users just downloading the main Yahoo app and its various other offerings. We’ve heard very little about Axis since launch, so it’s not entirely surprising that it’s going away, even after such a short lifespan.

    “If you installed the browser plug-in, it will no longer work. If you downloaded the app, it will continue to work, but won’t be actively maintained,” says Yahoo EVP, Platforms, Jay Rossiter. “We encourage you to use the Yahoo! Search app for iOS and Android.”

    Yahoo Browser Plus also bit the dust on June 28th, and Yahoo now refers users to these developer offerings.

    Also gone as of June 28th, is Citizen Sports. Yahoo just wants to stick with Yahoo Sports now.

    On June 30th, Yahoo WebPlayer ceased to work. Users will continue to be able to play media files using native browser support.

    Today, FoxyTunes and Yahoo RSS Alerts go away. Yahoo instead directs users to Yahoo Music and Keyword News alerts in Yahoo Alerts (by email).

    On July 8th, Yahoo is killing Yahoo Neighbors (beta) and AltaVista (yep, that’s a big one, but when was the last time you used it?). Yahoo directs us to Yahoo Local Search and Yahoo Search respectively.

    On July 25th, you can say goodbye to Yahoo Stars india (in favor of Yahoo India OMG!) and on July 31st ,Yahoo Downloads (beta) will no longer support third-party downloads. It will, however, continue to offer downloads of Yahoo products like Yahoo Toolbar and Yahoo Messenger.

    Finally, on September 28th, the Yahoo Local API and Yahoo Term Extraction API will be no more.

    More on all of these product shut-downs here.

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