This week we’re talking about . . . Yahoo Messenger

Before we had WhatsApp, Viber and Facebook Messenger, there was Yahoo Messenger. These days, Yahoo probably isn’t the first company you think of when you think of web services, but go back a few years and it was in a much better position.

Yahoo has been in the news quite a bit lately, most notably for the sale of its core web business to Verizon. But this week, we're talking about Messenger. Specifically, the death of part of the service. Yahoo warned a few months ago that it would be ceasing support for the desktop application, and August 5th would see the shutdown of the servers supporting it. And guess what? It's D-Day.

Is Yahoo Messenger finished?

Yes and no. A version of Yahoo Messenger – the desktop application – is the only one affected by this move. The online version of messenger, along with iOS and Android apps, are still supported.

So what’s the big deal? Isn’t progress a good thing?

Not everybody is happy. There are some industries – the oil traders, for example – who still use Yahoo’s existing Messenger app to communicate. Now they’ll be forced to look for other means of communication, even – shock, horror – the old-school phone.

Yahoo Messenger became popular in the oil trading industry in the late 1990s, because it facilitated quick communication, and it meant you didn’t have to spend 15 minutes on the phone. So it’s a step backwards in that regard.

Why can’t they just use the online version like the rest of us?

According to Reuters, the fact that you can’t save conversations locally on the online version of Yahoo Messenger means it doesn’t meet compliance standards. So now everybody is looking for an alternative.

I seem to remember something about it in the news before

You’re right. Britain’s intelligence agency, GCHQ, and the NSA were reported to have a mass surveillance programme that collected images from Yahoo webcam streams to create a facial recognition database.

Sounds creepy

Yes, it was. Especially when you consider that the GCHQ programme seemed to capture a lot of people during intimate moments on the webcams.

So what happens now?

Who knows? Traders are scattering about looking for an alternative, but it seems as if one sector will miss Yahoo Messenger on its desktops, even if the rest of us barely realise it’s gone.