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There was a time when Yahoo was the hottest thing on the internet, dwarfing the likes of Google and Facebook. However, that's not the case anymore. While Yahoo still offers excellent products like Yahoo Finance and Fantasy Sports, it doesn't bring anything unique that sets it apart from the competition.
Although Yahoo isn't as popular as Gmail or Outlook, many still use the company's service to exchange personal and business emails. Yahoo pales compared to Gmail and Outlook's AI features, integration with company apps, and other add-ons. Many have moved away from Yahoo due to security concerns, a lack of useful features, and growing ads on the platform. If you plan to move on from Yahoo, export your important emails on the desktop.
Oh, Yahoo. How the mighty have fallen. It seems like only yesterday you ruled the internet, handling mail, search, and news for hundreds of millions of internet users across the globe. But things have changed, and while the Yahoo brand has continued to live on, it's currently being sold off by Verizon to Apollo Global Management. The future of Yahoo Mobile — a carrier you definitely remembered existed — wasn't disclosed when Verizon announced the sale last month, but unfortunately for its customers, the service is shutting down in August.
Verizon sells off its AOL and Yahoo media properties, including Engadget and TechCrunch
The company lost about four billion dollars after its media push failed
For the last few years, some of the web's most long-running tech media publications have been owned by a giant telecom company. Verizon bought AOL in 2015 and Yahoo in 2017, which meant that websites like Engadget and TechCrunch were under its new Verizon Media umbrella. Today Verizon announced that it's selling off Verizon Media to a holding company, Apollo Global Management. The new organization will go by the old Yahoo name.
Yahoo Finance is a great tool for keeping track of business news and the ups and downs of the stock market. One feature that has been inexplicably missing from the Android app is two-finger pinching when viewing a graph, despite all of its competitors and even the iOS version offering this. Thankfully, it's finally been addressed in the latest version of the app, which was released last week.
Yahoo Mobile still exists, partners with ZTE to launch $50 Android phone
Free if you trade your current phone in!
Remember when Yahoo became a carrier? Well, it still is a carrier — we have parent company Verizon to thank for that. Yahoo Mobile offers a $40/mo. unlimited plan (with caveats)and, now, it can sell you a phone to go with that Big Red cell service. That phone is the ZTE Blade A3Y.
Verizon-owned Yahoo has already made a few lightweight versions of its bloated applications, intended for Android Go devices or other phones with minimal amounts of memory/storage. The latest addition is Yahoo Lite, which is now available on the Play Store and only takes up around 1MB of space.
Yahoo Mail is one of the most popular apps under Verizon's combined AOL/Yahoo umbrella of web services, so it has naturally been loaded to the brim with bloat. The app already had dedicated tabs for online deals and shopping, neither of which have much to do with sending email, and now Yahoo is adding videos to the mix.
Yahoo to launch $40 unlimited mobile plan powered by Verizon
The company throws in free Yahoo Mail Pro and 5Mbps single-device tethering
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Compared to the earlier days of the internet, Yahoo isn't the most known or well-liked company around anymore. It's not even an independent business any longer, as it was bought by Verizon in 2017. That might be why it has decided it's time to create a mobile phone plan, which could help make it feel relevant again. The company is gearing up to launch Yahoo Mobile, a virtual network that relies on Verizon's infrastructure and gives you unlimited 4G data, texts, and calls for $40 a month. The website is currently only accessible via its URL; Google Search won't find it yet.
Yahoo was an internet heavyweight during the early years of the internet—before Google, of course. Today, Yahoo is a shell of its former self as a subsidiary of Verizon with no real search product of its own. It's trying to build one, though. The company's new One Search is available on the web and via an Android app. It's just Bing with some added features, but Yahoo promises it's really secure.
Android TV has been around for a few years at this point, and there are ample video streaming options. However, we've somehow limped along without a Yahoo app until now. Outrageous! The nightmare is finally over with the launch of Yahoo's Android TV client. Joking aside, Yahoo produces a lot of video, and you might want to watch some of it on your TV.
Yahoo Mail isn't quite as ubiquitous as it once was, but plenty of people use both the app and email service for their long-form communication needs in 2019. Today Yahoo is pushing out an entirely new version of the app, with modern focus on one-handed use with taller phones, faster access to attached files, and tools to help you save cash — plus a strange (but potentially useful) grocery coupon clipping tool that has nothing to do with email.
Yahoo's recent apps have been all over the place. The company released a group money savings platform earlier this year, followed by another generic personalized news app, then with a group chat tool that no one asked for. Yahoo's latest endeavor is 'WakingNews,' which can create alarms that play news briefings instead of alarm noises.
If there's one thing we don't have enough of in this world, it's messaging apps. Thankfully, Yahoo's latest creation is exactly that, and it's designed to simplify group communication between friends, family, and colleagues. You may have read about the invite-only Yahoo Squirrel app a few months back — well now it's out of testing and open to everyone.
Yahoo already has dedicated Android apps for all its services, including Mail, Sports, Finance, Newsroom, and Search. If you still use the company's various web products (and you're somehow not worried about being hacked), there's a new general-purpose Yahoo app on the Play Store.
One of the most prolific messaging services of all time, AOL Instant Messenger, shut down at the end of last year. Now it appears Verizon's other long-lived messaging service, Yahoo Messenger, is also shutting down. Yahoo announced today that Messenger will stop working after July 17, 2018.
Chat apps are all the rage these days. Just ask Google, it can't seem to get enough. And it looks like Yahoo is the latest to jump on the bandwagon with its new organized group chat app named "Squirrel," which mysteriously appeared on the Play Store just earlier today.
A long time ago in Android land, a new launcher appeared in the Play Store. Called Aviate, it promised features that were, at that point in time, unique and relatively unheard of. The gist was that the launcher would predict what apps you would need, based on the time of day and later your location and other factors. It was supposed to make life easier by doing the homescreen customization for you, but my experience with it proved that it was merely a disappointment and a frustration.
Download an app on your phone, link it to your bank account, contribute some money each month to a pool shared with a bunch of people you've never met before, and wait your turn to get a payout. I'm no mind reader, but you probably have one of two reactions to that proposition: "That sounds shady as all hell," or, "That sounds like something my parents did." Well, this is the general idea behind Yahoo Finance's new app called Tanda, and it probably warrants some explanation.
Back in July 2016, Verizon announced that it had agreed to purchase Yahoo, for $4.83 billion. Following the acquisition, Verizon would combine Yahoo's assets with AOL (which it bought in 2015) to form a new entity called 'Oath.' Today the purchase has concluded, with the final sale price at $4.48 billion.