一个时代的终结：雅虎通即将谢幕

雅虎通（Yahoo Messenger）已时日无多。

雅虎于6月8日宣布，这个诞生于20年前的即时通讯工具将在7月17日关闭。

雅虎公司称，虽然即时通有“很多忠实粉丝”，公司仍然决定放弃，用“能够更好满足用户需求”的新通讯工具取而代之。

虽然目前还没有替代产品，但雅虎公司称正在测试新的聊天工具，比如Yahoo Squirrel。然而，Yahoo Squirrel目前尚无法广泛下载。

如果想保存在雅虎通上的聊天记录，可以访问指定网站下载，但该服务时限仅为六个月。六个月后，用户将无法访问历史档案。

雅虎通1998年首次面世时，聊天工具才刚刚兴起。但是近年来，随着Facebook Messenger、WhatsApp等新型聊天软件的流行，雅虎通已经式微。

2017年，美国在线（AOL）关停了面世20年的即时通讯软件AIM，或许是因为用户习惯变了，更热衷于谷歌、Facebook等公司提供的新聊天工具。

2015年，雅虎推出了新版即时通，公司称将于2016年停止旧版本的运营，强烈要求人们改用新版。

现在雅虎又决定要关停这个修订版，看来新版本一直表现平平，始终没能像1990年代的老版雅虎通一样大受欢迎。

去年夏天，通讯巨头威瑞森（Verizon）以45亿美元收购雅虎。作为交易的一部分，威瑞森合并了雅虎和AOL，组建了新媒体集团Oath。（财富中文网）

翻译：Agatha 

Yahoo Messenger’s days are numbered.

Yahoo said on June 8 that it would pull the plug on the 20-year-old messaging service on July 17.

The company said that while the service has “many loyal fans,” it will abandon the chat app in favor of newer messaging tools “that better fit consumer needs.”

Currently, Yahoo has no replacement for Yahoo Messenger, but it said it is testing new chat apps, like its Yahoo Squirrel. However, that app is not widely available.

People who want an archive of their Yahoo Messaging texts can visit a special website where they can download a history of their messages, but they only have six months to do so. After that, they will be unable to access the archive.

When Yahoo Messenger debuted in 1998, chatting services were just emerging. But over the years new chatting services like Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp eclipsed Yahoo Messenger in popularity.

In 2017, AOL shut down its Instant Messenger (AIM) after a 20-year run, likely due to changing consumer habits that favored newer chatting services from Google, Facebook, and others.

Yahoo built a new version of Yahoo Messenger in 2015 and urged people to switch to the new version in 2016 because it would stop supporting the older version.

Considering that Yahoo has decided kill the revamped Yahoo Messenger, it’s likely that it never caught on with like the older version did in the 1990s.

Last summer, telecommunications giant Verizon closed its $4.5 billion acquisition of Yahoo. As part of the deal, Verizon merged Yahoo with AOL to form the new media conglomerate Oath.