5 ms·

I have hated yahoo because of their poor products, bad user experience, ridiculous design sense, and what appears to be just brand marketing for a brand's sake.

by joshuak 13y ago

I have hated yahoo because of their poor products, bad user experience, ridiculous design sense, and what appears to be just brand marketing for a brand's sake. However, I have to say this news gives me a strong reason to reevaluate yahoo. And my own feelings about this makes it clear to me there is a market in customers who are interested in having their rights respected. I'm looking forward to the new wave of strong security, and corporate user rights policies as a feature.

yuhong 13y ago
I think Marissa has recently did a lot of changes to improve Yahoo.
- norswap 13y ago
  Such as?
  - yuhong 13y ago
    Improving the work environment, as only one example.
  - JonFish85 13y ago
    Probably the biggest improvement: getting the point across to a huge organization that they're not content just sitting back with things as usual. Yahoo had become the behemoth that plodded along, one step after another. Someone needed to come in and whip the company into shape, from the Veeps on down. If nothing else, she's woken the company up. And that right there is something big.
  - NamTaf 13y ago
    For what it's worth, their iOS weather app is absolutely fantastic and I believe is now being aped or outright used by Apple in iOS7. Small things, but it is a very nice user experience if what you're after is the weather.
    - mirkules 13y ago
      Sportacular for iOS is also great. Provides no-nonsense scores and news for almost every sport (I mainly follow basketball, tennis and soccer, though). It is a much better interface than what Yahoo's own web equivalent (sports.yahoo.com) has become.
- product50 13y ago
  This was 6 years back. When probably Terry Semel or Jerry Yang were at Yahoo!
  - igravious 13y ago
    Makes you wonder about some of Microsoft's undisclosed intentions when Yahoo! was a suitor[1] given what happened when/after Skype[2] entered Microsoft's fold. Though the credible timeline[3] given suggests that Yahoo! may have already been forced to capitulate. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Yahoo!#Acquisition_attempt_by_Microsoft http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Yahoo!#Acquisition_a... [2] http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jul/11/microsoft-nsa-collaboration-user-data http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jul/11/microsoft-nsa-co... [3] http://thenextweb.com/insider/2013/06/07/microsoft-has-fed-prism-data-for-2095-days-yahoo-1912/ http://thenextweb.com/insider/2013/06/07/microsoft-has-fed-p...
    - socillion 13y ago
      If you're going to bash Microsoft, at least find an accurate point to build your case on. Skype was added to the PRISM program 8 months before being acquired by Microsoft in 2011, and was looking into how to cooperate with wiretaps since 2008 under Project Chess.
- finnw 13y ago
  She seems to be good at getting nerds talking about Yahoo. I don't think I was ever in the target market for any of their products, and I almost forgot the company existed, until the recent controversy about the ban on remote working.
  - deadreturns2 13y ago
    Uh what do you have against remote working that you're switching to Yahoo just cause they banned it?
    - angli 13y ago
      I understood that to mean he'd forgotten about the company until the remote-working ban controversy brought it back into the spotlight, not that he's boycotting Yahoo on the basis of its remote-working policy
      - frogpelt 13y ago
        Actually he thought the opposite, that said user was switching to Yahoo! because they banned remote-working on the basis that said user does not approve of remote-working. But it is confusing.
      - finnw 13y ago
        Correct. (I have no strong opinion for/against remote working.)
  - qq66 13y ago
    Even if you don't like their products, almost everyone is in the target market for one of their products. Mail, News, Groups, etc...
  - eliasmacpherson 13y ago
    I use yahoo for groups (nearly every item of old hardware has a yahoo group[0]) and for auctions on japanese electronics, as ebay never really caught on in japan. I get good use out of yahoo finance aswell. [0] hyperbole
alan_cx 13y ago
Dunno what your criticisms are about. I've used yahoo, specifically the email for something like 15 years. In all that time, I have had less trouble than any other site. For example, using gmail as an evaluation has caused me more grief in a short space of time than yahoo mail over it's life time. Like much of this sort of thing, I think its brand hating for the hates's sake. I have never "liked" yahoo or been a "fan", but I know I use it, I know it works, and I know it has been grief free. It just works.
- joshuak 13y ago
  I'm not hating brand in the abstract. I've had specific technical, aesthetic and business issues with Yahoo throughout it's entire existence. Technically I've had a lot of trouble with Yahoo mail, and those types of problems have been typical for me with every service of theirs I've ever tried in the past. For example, I often have trouble emailing people who have yahoo accounts due to bizarre spam filtering policies, some of which have no resolution path. I also have a Yahoo email account, and my mail client complains almost daily that it can't connect or my password is wrong. It's just my personal taste but aesthetically, I can't tolerate their interface design. I'd be willing to bet Godaddy recruited their web designers from Yahoo. I started noticing them as a 'brand only' company when I was in Japan in 2003. A local telecom was marketing a Yahoo branded DSL services. I suppose they where trying an AOL play (at least they had a focused business goal, and they've updated their design sense this century), but the combination of all this product noise (i.e. unrelated service offerings), combined with bad UX make the Yahoo brand ephemeral to me. Other then an email service, for the life of me, I can't put my finger on what they do. Crawl around the web and put a yahoo sticker on anything they think is cool? Now however, maybe their brand can start to represent something I care about, but they'll have to actually do some useful things too. And then there's this: http://theoatmeal.com/comics/email_address http://theoatmeal.com/comics/email_address

by joshuak 13y ago

yuhong 13y ago

I think Marissa has recently did a lot of changes to improve Yahoo.

norswap 13y ago
Such as?
- yuhong 13y ago
  Improving the work environment, as only one example.
- JonFish85 13y ago
  Probably the biggest improvement: getting the point across to a huge organization that they're not content just sitting back with things as usual. Yahoo had become the behemoth that plodded along, one step after another. Someone needed to come in and whip the company into shape, from the Veeps on down. If nothing else, she's woken the company up. And that right there is something big.
- NamTaf 13y ago
  For what it's worth, their iOS weather app is absolutely fantastic and I believe is now being aped or outright used by Apple in iOS7. Small things, but it is a very nice user experience if what you're after is the weather.
  - mirkules 13y ago
    Sportacular for iOS is also great. Provides no-nonsense scores and news for almost every sport (I mainly follow basketball, tennis and soccer, though). It is a much better interface than what Yahoo's own web equivalent (sports.yahoo.com) has become.
product50 13y ago
This was 6 years back. When probably Terry Semel or Jerry Yang were at Yahoo!
- igravious 13y ago
  Makes you wonder about some of Microsoft's undisclosed intentions when Yahoo! was a suitor[1] given what happened when/after Skype[2] entered Microsoft's fold. Though the credible timeline[3] given suggests that Yahoo! may have already been forced to capitulate. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Yahoo!#Acquisition_attempt_by_Microsoft http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Yahoo!#Acquisition_a... [2] http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jul/11/microsoft-nsa-collaboration-user-data http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jul/11/microsoft-nsa-co... [3] http://thenextweb.com/insider/2013/06/07/microsoft-has-fed-prism-data-for-2095-days-yahoo-1912/ http://thenextweb.com/insider/2013/06/07/microsoft-has-fed-p...
  - socillion 13y ago
    If you're going to bash Microsoft, at least find an accurate point to build your case on. Skype was added to the PRISM program 8 months before being acquired by Microsoft in 2011, and was looking into how to cooperate with wiretaps since 2008 under Project Chess.
finnw 13y ago
She seems to be good at getting nerds talking about Yahoo. I don't think I was ever in the target market for any of their products, and I almost forgot the company existed, until the recent controversy about the ban on remote working.
- deadreturns2 13y ago
  Uh what do you have against remote working that you're switching to Yahoo just cause they banned it?
  - angli 13y ago
    I understood that to mean he'd forgotten about the company until the remote-working ban controversy brought it back into the spotlight, not that he's boycotting Yahoo on the basis of its remote-working policy
    - frogpelt 13y ago
      Actually he thought the opposite, that said user was switching to Yahoo! because they banned remote-working on the basis that said user does not approve of remote-working. But it is confusing.
    - finnw 13y ago
      Correct. (I have no strong opinion for/against remote working.)
- qq66 13y ago
  Even if you don't like their products, almost everyone is in the target market for one of their products. Mail, News, Groups, etc...
- eliasmacpherson 13y ago
  I use yahoo for groups (nearly every item of old hardware has a yahoo group[0]) and for auctions on japanese electronics, as ebay never really caught on in japan. I get good use out of yahoo finance aswell. [0] hyperbole

alan_cx 13y ago

Dunno what your criticisms are about. I've used yahoo, specifically the email for something like 15 years. In all that time, I have had less trouble than any other site. For example, using gmail as an evaluation has caused me more grief in a short space of time than yahoo mail over it's life time. Like much of this sort of thing, I think its brand hating for the hates's sake. I have never "liked" yahoo or been a "fan", but I know I use it, I know it works, and I know it has been grief free. It just works.

joshuak 13y ago
I'm not hating brand in the abstract. I've had specific technical, aesthetic and business issues with Yahoo throughout it's entire existence. Technically I've had a lot of trouble with Yahoo mail, and those types of problems have been typical for me with every service of theirs I've ever tried in the past. For example, I often have trouble emailing people who have yahoo accounts due to bizarre spam filtering policies, some of which have no resolution path. I also have a Yahoo email account, and my mail client complains almost daily that it can't connect or my password is wrong. It's just my personal taste but aesthetically, I can't tolerate their interface design. I'd be willing to bet Godaddy recruited their web designers from Yahoo. I started noticing them as a 'brand only' company when I was in Japan in 2003. A local telecom was marketing a Yahoo branded DSL services. I suppose they where trying an AOL play (at least they had a focused business goal, and they've updated their design sense this century), but the combination of all this product noise (i.e. unrelated service offerings), combined with bad UX make the Yahoo brand ephemeral to me. Other then an email service, for the life of me, I can't put my finger on what they do. Crawl around the web and put a yahoo sticker on anything they think is cool? Now however, maybe their brand can start to represent something I care about, but they'll have to actually do some useful things too. And then there's this: http://theoatmeal.com/comics/email_address http://theoatmeal.com/comics/email_address