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No one seems to remember Windows Live Messenger (aka MSN Messenger), which was discontinued in 2014.

Of the original popular messengers, ICQ seems to be the only one still alive.
Well...
ICQ is now the last man standing among the original “big four” of AIM, Yahoo, ICQ, and MSN.

It was all about MSN and AOL back in my day though.

Yahoo! Messenger. I spent many years on there. Though most of my friends in hs preferred AIM and MSN Messenger so I didn't get to use it much ... but Yahoo! was a powerhouse back then.

I don't know anybody who still uses Yahoo Messenger. I know tons of people who use MSN Messenger and Microsoft was smart in migrating them all to Skype.
 
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Their active users probably just jumped 50% due to all the people downloading it to see what it is.
 
And the slow death of Yahoo continues.
I still use Yahoo mail for my secondary email needs (forums, some online shopping sites, etc.) and it might be time to start creating a list of sites (that I still care about/use) where I’ll have to change to one of my Gmail addresses, possibly necessitating the creation of a new email address.
 
And then there was one.

ICQ is now the last man standing among the original “big four” of AIM, Yahoo, ICQ, and MSN.

These days, I’m a Telegram user; it does a great job with a limited, very useful, platform-independent set of functionality instead of bombarding the user with advertising.

Well... I learned today that ICQ still exists. How about that. Used to use that in the 90s. Til AIM stole everyone I knew away.
 
Yup. And that one has always been Google Talk. Dependable and reliable Jabber service.

Google Talk quit working for me when I updated to OS X High Sierra, and I waited until there'd been several updates over a few months before I moved up from Sierra. Seems to be fine for my wife and kids.
[doublepost=1528526151][/doublepost]
Indeed, it was a great app! I still use it, though the only service I have hooked up through Adium now is ICQ. With the demise of most of the large legacy IM services, it's now a bit less useful (but it does support a bunch of other messaging protocols).

I launched Adium for the first time in ages just now, and it still has google talk and ICQ logged in, but my AIM, and Apple ID wont connect. Yahoo messenger and MSN messenger accounts appear to have been removed (but I didn't do it).
 



Yahoo today announced that its Yahoo Messenger service will no longer be supported after July 17, 2018, encompassing the closure of apps for iOS and Android and any web browser clients (via TechCrunch). The service will function normally until then, and after that date users will no longer be able to access their chats and the Messenger service as a whole will be shut down.

yahoo-messenger.jpg

The company promised that the discontinuation of Yahoo Messenger will not impact a user's Yahoo ID, so it will continue to work for products like Yahoo Mail and Yahoo Fantasy. As for a reason, Yahoo said that it is focusing on "building and introducing new, exciting communications tools" that will be a "better fit" for its customers.
"There currently isn't a replacement" for Yahoo Messenger, however, so the company pointed users toward the invite-only group messaging app Yahoo Squirrel. Squirrel is still in the testing phase and allows groups to organize private chats with friends and family members in a style similar to Slack and Discord.

Yahoo originally debuted its Yahoo Messenger app on the iOS App Store [Direct Link] in April 2009, giving users the ability to instant message their contacts when away from their computer. In the years since, messaging apps like Apple's iMessage, Facebook Messenger, and others have surged in popularity and caused users to leave Yahoo's platform for ones more popular among their own friend groups. Today, Yahoo Messenger is #167 on the App Store's most-downloaded Social Networking app list.

Prior to its appearance on the App Store, Yahoo Messenger originally debuted in 1998 (dubbed "Yahoo Pager") as an instant messaging client that users could download for free to chat with friends. In 2018, Yahoo said that users will be able to download their chat history to a computer or other device for the next six months, and more information can be found in the FAQ section of the announcement page.

Yahoo Messenger's closure in 2018 follows the sunsetting of AOL Instant Messenger in December 2017, both of which are owned by parent company Oath and lasted for around 20 years online.

Article Link: Yahoo Messenger Will Be Discontinued on July 17, 2018 After 20 Years of Service
[doublepost=1528531170][/doublepost]Omg I am sooooooooooooo sad
 
Mainly for the sake of my parents, AOL was the main entry to the internet being in the house, so even after I stopped using it per se very often. So AIM was always a way to connect with people i knew or even just had an AOL email account, which is basically what I mostly used AOL for. Same with Yahoo in a way. Although the family never used it much, I kept it around too for people with Yahoo email accounts as a quick way to catch up about people I knew casually and infrequently.

But anyway, the result is, all those people are sorta gone now like in one fell swoop. Sure I could seek them out individually, but part of the beauty of a Messenger is you just happen to see them online and catchup periodically, not like every day. That is now kinda gone for good.
 
This is what happens when you give VERIZON more toys. They break them. The next step will be either they monetize your email or they dump that too.

Same thing happened when the Feds gave Verizon wireless bands based on them agreeing to build out FIOS.
FIOS is great, but nobody can get it because VERIZON immediately broke that promise and stopped building FIOS.

My AOL passwords are periodically rejected in the MAIL program and sometimes even on webmail. The same thing will happen soon with Yahoo mail. :mad:
 
Yahoo and AOL were kings of IM back in the day. They both became comfortable with what they had and refused to move forward. They really had an opportunity to take over the world and become the standard for messaging but didn’t evolve. Yahoo and AOL are going down like Sears and JC Penney of retail. A little sad to see them go but evolve or disappear.
 
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I remember when I cross-trained into IT in the US Marine Corps, I had to go around to our government PC's and do whatever work was required. It could have been to do a work order or to update/upgrade something and if I saw Yahoo on a PC I had to remove it. Marines were installing it on every PC and using it when it came out back then.
 
And then there was one.

ICQ is now the last man standing among the original “big four” of AIM, Yahoo, ICQ, and MSN.

These days, I’m a Telegram user; it does a great job with a thoughtfully limited, very useful, platform-independent set of functionality instead of bombarding the user with advertising.
ICQ still works? Does it still have the mode where you can see what the other person is typing in real-time in a split window? Freaking loved that feature back in the days before voice chat. Pretty sure that - and a similar function in dialup BBS’ taught me how to touch type!

I’m a bit sad at yahoo IM’s passing. It was my favourite for a long time.
 
... but Yahoo! was a powerhouse back then. Yahoo! Games were amazing - hearts, chess, and many others - all java based. Those chat rooms were horrific for a kid back in the day but nothing really compared. Yahoo! Search was amazing - same for Yahoo! Mail - I remember it was one of the few services that offered 5MB of storage. Yahoo! Briefcase was absolutely amazing and way ahead of its time... ...Sadly, it has been dying for a long time.

Man I could have written that post myself. I'll bet a lot of us could have. I have one friend who still uses a yahoo email address to this day as his only personal account, and he's a Network engineer. He even opted to pay for it. Voluntarily! It boggles the mind. Every time I see an email from him come in, I think here's the last IT guy on earth with a Yahoo address, still clinging on for dear life, holding out hope for heaven only knows what. At this point I can't even imagine what other IT people think of his competency when he emails them and they see that.
 
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Man I could have written that post myself. I'll bet a lot of us could have. I have one friend who still uses a yahoo email address to this day as his only personal account, and he's a Network engineer. He even opted to pay for it. Voluntarily! It boggles the mind. Every time I see an email from him come in, I here's the last IT guy on earth with a Yahoo address, still clinging on for dear life, holding out hope for heaven only knows what. At this point I can't even imagine what other IT people think of his competency when he emails them and they see that.

Hahaha! I have a long time friend who does IT who... loves his Yahoo email address and uses it as his primary even today - and pays for it to remove the ads. :) lol. How awesome and freaky.
 
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I use different emails for different things, but I never got rid of my really old ones as I added new ones, other than CompuServe and EarthLink.

I used my old AOL for my old medical practice that I shut down due to illness in 1999, so patients could still reach me and request records. It was my first email address when I was a beta tester for AOL in the late 80's!
 
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