Yahoo has announced that it will discontinue its Yahoo Briefcase service, which allowed users to upload and store files online. It was launched over 10 years ago and was one of the only solutions to access files remotely or to backup files. It provided 30MB of storage to free users. Reason for discontinuation? The company said, “usage has been significantly declining over the years, as users outgrew the need for Yahoo Briefcase and turned to offerings with much more storage and enhanced sharing capabilities,”.
Well, its true, no one needs 30 MB of storage and only web access to their files. Specially when solutions like Dropbox offers 2 GB of free stroage with web interface and sync software. Besides Dropbox, there are still tons of better alternatives out there. From ZumoDrive to SkyDrive to OpenDrive. However, if Yahoo could have upgraded its Briefcase to offer at least 1 GB of storage and a software update like Dropbox, then it would have still stayed in the competition.
Anyway, now the Yahoo Briefcase period is over and I would like to remind you to backup your files before March 30, 2009 to avoid loss of your data. Also, Yahoo is not allowing users to download the entire Briefcase in a zipped form or letting users use FTP to fetch their data, so you will need some time to get your stuff back!