What Is Yahoo This Year? A Technology Company, Some of Which It Dumps.

What Is Yahoo This Year? A Technology Company, Some of Which It Dumps.

Much ado about how Yahoo is defining itself once again â€" for what seems like the umpteenth time since its founding back in the 1990s. It’s dumped the recent and very awkward “premier digital media company” moniker, which was bestowed upon it by ousted CEO Carol Bartz, for the geekier stylings of its latest leader, Marissa Mayer. In its recently filed 10-K regulatory filing, she’s now calling the Silicon Valley Internet company a “global technology company focused on making the world’s daily habits inspiring and entertaining.”

Presumably the change is due to the longstanding difficulty that the company had defining itself over many years or even easily answering simple question of “What is Yahoo?”

Thus, people â€" Yahoo’s no longer a floor wax and a dessert topping!

That said, some of that global technology is getting the boot, with platforms head Jay Rossiter announcing on its blog today a product dump.

That includes most prominently its BlackBerry app, as well as those I (and doubtlessly many others) have never heard of, such as Avatars, Clues and Sports IQ.

“Before making these decisions, we look at a variety of factors,” wrote Rossiter. “The most critical question we ask is whether the experience is truly a daily habit that still resonates for all of you today.”

For those who don’t speak corporate, the change is roughly akin to you finally starting to open old boxes in the attic, realizing the stuff you find is not even good enough for the yard sale and tossing it into the dumpster.

For those who like to rifle through the trash, though, here’s the list of the latest detritus-to-be:

Yahoo! Avatars

Effective April 1, 2013, we will no longer support Yahoo! Avatars across our properties. If you like your existing avatar and want to keep it, please go to the Avatars download page, pick a picture size and format, and click the appropriate download button. Similarly, if you want to edit your avatar, you can download the image and then use a photo editing service of your preference. If you want to continue using your avatar with our products, go to Yahoo! Profile and upload the avatar you downloaded. For more details, please click here. Additionally effective April 1, we will no longer support the Avatars YQL table.

Yahoo! app for BlackBerry

Effective April 1, 2013, the Yahoo! app for BlackBerry will no longer be available for download. For those of you who have already downloaded the app, you can continue to use it but it will no longer be actively supported.

Yahoo! Clues (beta)

Effective April 1, 2013, Yahoo! Clues (beta) will shut down.

Yahoo! App Search

Effective April 1, 2013, Yahoo! App Search will shut down.

Yahoo! Sports IQ

Effective April 1, 2013, Yahoo! Sports IQ will shut down. Your final lifetime Sports IQ score and rank will be automatically transferred to and preserved within your Yahoo! Fantasy Profile.

Yahoo! Message Boards website

Effective April 1, 2013, the Yahoo! Message Boards website will shut down. Our message boards on individual properties (like Yahoo! Finance and Yahoo! Fantasy Sports) will remain active. We also encourage you to ask and answer questions on Yahoo! Answers, and discuss issues in the comments section on Yahoo! News.

Yahoo! Updates API

As of April 16, 2013, we will no longer support the Yahoo! Updates API.