6 ms·

Yahoo: Kicking off 30 days of change

88 points by daegloe 13y ago

falk 13y ago
Drop the exclamation point. It's cleaner.
- praisewhitey 13y ago
  Presumably it's because they want to keep the Y! abbreviation.
- bluthru 13y ago
  The exclamation point is iconic. What other brand gets away with an exclamation point in their name? And is "yahoo!" ever written without the exclamation point except for using it sarcastically? It's nearly integral to the spelling.
  - mysterywhiteboy 13y ago
    Wham! [1] [1]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wham http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wham!
    - justincormack 13y ago
      And two places, Westward Ho! [1] and St Louis-du-Ha! Ha! [2] [1] http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westward_Ho http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westward_Ho! [2] http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint-Louis-du-Ha!_Ha http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint-Louis-du-Ha!_Ha!
    - parley 13y ago
      Never thought I'd be recommending the excellent band "Godspeed You! Black Emperor" in such a context. ;) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godspeed_You!_Black_Emperor http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godspeed_You!_Black_Emperor
- grinich 13y ago
  Or just shorten it to only the exclamation point.
tymekpavel 13y ago
Smart way to perform a branding experiment without commitment.
deleted 13y ago
[deleted]
gkoberger 13y ago
Interesting approach. I wonder if having a new logo every day will dilute the impact of their "big reveal"? After all, by day 30, people are going to be used to different versions of the logo. Also, 99% of people who visit yahoo.com probably won't know what's going on. There's a new logo on the main page, with absolutely no explanation anywhere.
- dodolab 13y ago
  If you click on the new logo, you actually get explanations and interesting video. http://www.yahoo.com/dailylogo http://www.yahoo.com/dailylogo
  - gkoberger 13y ago
    This is new; it didn't do it when I had originally posted.
deleted 13y ago
[deleted]
junto 13y ago
I have to say that I really like day one's new logo. I also really like what is happening at Yahoo at the moment. I'd like to see them balance out Google's dominance.
shravan 13y ago
This appears to be a way to gauge public reactions to different logo iterations, without actually committing to one. Smart.
______ 13y ago
I believe Marissa used to lead the front page Doodle stuff at Google -- interesting to bring a similar branding concept over to Yahoo!
rgovind 13y ago
Marissa mayer wants people who wouldn't otherwise visit yahoo webpages to come and see what they are upto. I think this one and the announcement that they would delete old unused yahoo email accounts, all fall into this category.
dmourati 13y ago
Day 1: Drop Yahoo mail and start over. Then maybe I'd come back to see what you have for day 2. Worst. Email. Evar. OK, wait, I just went to Yahoo mail and it wasn't the horrible pile of stink I remembered. So, someone got the memo and you really did start over. It looks strangely gmail-esque but kudos for ditching the old design.
- kevining 13y ago
  Due to the latest gmail redesigns I've gone back to Y! mail full time and am having fairly good experience with it. It hasn't had major updates recently, but it does just seems to work. I find the keyboard bindings I use more similar to outlook, which is what I have experience with unfortunately.
aristus 13y ago
The designs are less important than the fact they can change every day for a month. I remember having to wait 6+ weeks to get some things changed. The intl properties don't seem to be joining in on the fun, eg http://uk.yahoo.com/ http://uk.yahoo.com/ http://mx.yahoo.com/ http://mx.yahoo.com/
- Gustomaximus 13y ago
  At a guess these 30 logos and the agreement to change them daily took much longer than 6+ weeks to prepare. But that's marketing everywhere. And this a cute way to relaunch a brand. It creates a game rather than simply saying here is our new brand. I like it.
  - mathattack 13y ago
    It is a cute branding exercise even if I hate the Day 1 logo. Maybe they get better over time, with the best one appearing on Day 30?
mheiler 13y ago
Focus on logos.
dmazin 13y ago
Oh, I thought there were going be 30 days of actual change at Yahoo.
- DigitalSea 13y ago
  Exactly what I was thinking as well. Would have been cool to see one new change to Yahoo! over a 30 day period, oh well.
  - chcleaves 13y ago
    agreed - obviously everyone thinks some sort of a different "change" needs to occur
- gcb0 13y ago
  but that will totally prove that they have a direction and a purpose.
Goopplesoft 13y ago
Mayer is known for her 41 shades of blue while at google: http://www.fastcompany.com/1403230/googles-marissa-mayer-assaults-designers-data http://www.fastcompany.com/1403230/googles-marissa-mayer-ass... I suspect this is her way of A/B testing logos at Yahoo.
- apike 13y ago
  This is an interesting idea, but I'm not sure how you could gather enough metrics from using the logo for one day to evaluate its suitability. My guess is that the daily effect of the logo on the site's metrics would be low.
  - pionar 13y ago
    I suspect they've already chosen the new logo, but are showing off the "also-rans" first.
sheri 13y ago
I like the idea. Apart from the excitement of actually changing the iconic logo, it will get Yahoo a lot of eyeballs in these 30 days and create some buzz around the site.
ville 13y ago
In addition to a cool marketing trick and testing opportunities, this is also a nice way for them to spot the copies of the old logo still used across their many websites and automate the update before the "official" roll out :)
sjtgraham 13y ago
Yahoo as a brand has become pretty corny to me over the years, and I associate their logo with this sentiment. Reading the article I thought maybe Yahoo is changing its logo so many times in quick succession to break the association of the Yahoo brand with whatever negative connotations it has with people. Kind of like forcing people to forget what they thought of Yahoo up until now by overwhelming them with change. I'm not sure how well I explained this, but hey I just woke up!
znowi 13y ago
This is the right move. When I look at the Yahoo logo, all I see is the 90s, irrelevance and desolation. It will have more impact than a dozen more startup acquisitions.
meerita 13y ago
The logo I'm seeing right now is, terrible. Gap Logogate comes to my mind right now...
tehwalrus 13y ago
I wonder if this is the right way to rebrand. will it really make the new design stick in peoples' heads, or will it just make us all forget which is the new logo? (not that I object to getting rid of the old one, time has not been kind to that font!)
Terretta 13y ago
Yahoo's gone and slapped a hideous Yahoo nav bar across the top of Meyer's new fanfared Flickr design. If she can't even keep her own flagship redesign fixed, she can't change their culture of asphyxiating products people actually loved.
- RexRollman 13y ago
  I noticed this the other day. It's really ugly looking and a waste of horizontal pixels.
  - panacea 13y ago
    It's no more egregious than Google trying to show G+ down our throats. They've become the masters of persistent headers. Yahoo! is trying to the same.
    - RexRollman 13y ago
      I dislike that too.
  - spiek 13y ago
    You can configure adblock to block it. It does leave a weird gap between the flickr nav and your bookmarks bar, but that weird gap is better than the god awful yahoo nav. On any flickr page with the nav open adblock and select "block an ad on this page". Follow the steps and adjust the slider until the ad is gone. No more ugly ass bar.
- hrnnnnnn 13y ago
  Fortunately there was a browser plugin available almost immediately to remove it.
- rsobers 13y ago
  Excellent point. Have they not learned any lessons from Microsoft about how forced cross-pollination destroys products?
- 13y ago
teh_klev 13y ago
Maybe their re-brand should include a change of name rather than just the logo. For me Yahoo! equates to damaged goods and bad history.
velodrome 13y ago
Change is good. Until recent history, Yahoo would take forever to roll out new changes. The fact is they are trying new things and to the public, iterating faster. It is clear that Meyer has had some impact to Yahoo. Whether users will like the new changes is another story but at least they have the ability to iterate out of the problem.
gadders 13y ago
I was reading this post the other day [1] from the Fake Steve Jobs blog about Lotus and IBM. Basically you could pretty much swap IBM or Lotus for Yahoo and the tone of the article would still make sense. Who is that excited about the logo of a company on its last legs? [1] http://www.fakesteve.net/2008/01/oxymoron-of-week.html http://www.fakesteve.net/2008/01/oxymoron-of-week.html
samweinberg 13y ago
Looks like they forgot to update Yahoo Notepad. http://notepad.yahoo.com/ http://notepad.yahoo.com/
rsobers 13y ago
So wait - in the spirit of innovation Yahoo! is going to rotate the logo on their homepage every day? Hmm, I can't think of any company (cough Google cough) that does that.
zimpenfish 13y ago
That, right there, sums up everything you need to know about Yahoo! in one nice simple "WTF".
alanmeaney 13y ago
Yahoo: Kicking off 30 days of rejected logos
aidenn0 13y ago
I have yet to run in to anyone who actually likes the new version of yahoo sports. It's pretty, but impossible to find a lot of basic info that was prevusly easy.

88 points by daegloe 13y ago

falk 13y ago

Drop the exclamation point. It's cleaner.

praisewhitey 13y ago
Presumably it's because they want to keep the Y! abbreviation.
bluthru 13y ago
The exclamation point is iconic. What other brand gets away with an exclamation point in their name? And is "yahoo!" ever written without the exclamation point except for using it sarcastically? It's nearly integral to the spelling.
- mysterywhiteboy 13y ago
  Wham! [1] [1]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wham http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wham!
  - justincormack 13y ago
    And two places, Westward Ho! [1] and St Louis-du-Ha! Ha! [2] [1] http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westward_Ho http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westward_Ho! [2] http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint-Louis-du-Ha!_Ha http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint-Louis-du-Ha!_Ha!
  - parley 13y ago
    Never thought I'd be recommending the excellent band "Godspeed You! Black Emperor" in such a context. ;) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godspeed_You!_Black_Emperor http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godspeed_You!_Black_Emperor
grinich 13y ago
Or just shorten it to only the exclamation point.

tymekpavel 13y ago

Smart way to perform a branding experiment without commitment.

deleted 13y ago

[deleted]

gkoberger 13y ago

Interesting approach. I wonder if having a new logo every day will dilute the impact of their "big reveal"? After all, by day 30, people are going to be used to different versions of the logo. Also, 99% of people who visit yahoo.com probably won't know what's going on. There's a new logo on the main page, with absolutely no explanation anywhere.

dodolab 13y ago
If you click on the new logo, you actually get explanations and interesting video. http://www.yahoo.com/dailylogo http://www.yahoo.com/dailylogo
- gkoberger 13y ago
  This is new; it didn't do it when I had originally posted.

deleted 13y ago

[deleted]

junto 13y ago

I have to say that I really like day one's new logo. I also really like what is happening at Yahoo at the moment. I'd like to see them balance out Google's dominance.

shravan 13y ago

This appears to be a way to gauge public reactions to different logo iterations, without actually committing to one. Smart.

______ 13y ago

I believe Marissa used to lead the front page Doodle stuff at Google -- interesting to bring a similar branding concept over to Yahoo!

rgovind 13y ago

Marissa mayer wants people who wouldn't otherwise visit yahoo webpages to come and see what they are upto. I think this one and the announcement that they would delete old unused yahoo email accounts, all fall into this category.

dmourati 13y ago

Day 1: Drop Yahoo mail and start over. Then maybe I'd come back to see what you have for day 2. Worst. Email. Evar. OK, wait, I just went to Yahoo mail and it wasn't the horrible pile of stink I remembered. So, someone got the memo and you really did start over. It looks strangely gmail-esque but kudos for ditching the old design.

kevining 13y ago
Due to the latest gmail redesigns I've gone back to Y! mail full time and am having fairly good experience with it. It hasn't had major updates recently, but it does just seems to work. I find the keyboard bindings I use more similar to outlook, which is what I have experience with unfortunately.

aristus 13y ago

The designs are less important than the fact they can change every day for a month. I remember having to wait 6+ weeks to get some things changed. The intl properties don't seem to be joining in on the fun, eg http://uk.yahoo.com/ http://uk.yahoo.com/ http://mx.yahoo.com/ http://mx.yahoo.com/

Gustomaximus 13y ago
At a guess these 30 logos and the agreement to change them daily took much longer than 6+ weeks to prepare. But that's marketing everywhere. And this a cute way to relaunch a brand. It creates a game rather than simply saying here is our new brand. I like it.
- mathattack 13y ago
  It is a cute branding exercise even if I hate the Day 1 logo. Maybe they get better over time, with the best one appearing on Day 30?

mheiler 13y ago

Focus on logos.

dmazin 13y ago

Oh, I thought there were going be 30 days of actual change at Yahoo.

DigitalSea 13y ago
Exactly what I was thinking as well. Would have been cool to see one new change to Yahoo! over a 30 day period, oh well.
- chcleaves 13y ago
  agreed - obviously everyone thinks some sort of a different "change" needs to occur
gcb0 13y ago
but that will totally prove that they have a direction and a purpose.

Goopplesoft 13y ago

Mayer is known for her 41 shades of blue while at google: http://www.fastcompany.com/1403230/googles-marissa-mayer-assaults-designers-data http://www.fastcompany.com/1403230/googles-marissa-mayer-ass... I suspect this is her way of A/B testing logos at Yahoo.

apike 13y ago
This is an interesting idea, but I'm not sure how you could gather enough metrics from using the logo for one day to evaluate its suitability. My guess is that the daily effect of the logo on the site's metrics would be low.
- pionar 13y ago
  I suspect they've already chosen the new logo, but are showing off the "also-rans" first.

sheri 13y ago

I like the idea. Apart from the excitement of actually changing the iconic logo, it will get Yahoo a lot of eyeballs in these 30 days and create some buzz around the site.

ville 13y ago

In addition to a cool marketing trick and testing opportunities, this is also a nice way for them to spot the copies of the old logo still used across their many websites and automate the update before the "official" roll out :)

sjtgraham 13y ago

Yahoo as a brand has become pretty corny to me over the years, and I associate their logo with this sentiment. Reading the article I thought maybe Yahoo is changing its logo so many times in quick succession to break the association of the Yahoo brand with whatever negative connotations it has with people. Kind of like forcing people to forget what they thought of Yahoo up until now by overwhelming them with change. I'm not sure how well I explained this, but hey I just woke up!

znowi 13y ago

This is the right move. When I look at the Yahoo logo, all I see is the 90s, irrelevance and desolation. It will have more impact than a dozen more startup acquisitions.

meerita 13y ago

The logo I'm seeing right now is, terrible. Gap Logogate comes to my mind right now...

tehwalrus 13y ago

I wonder if this is the right way to rebrand. will it really make the new design stick in peoples' heads, or will it just make us all forget which is the new logo? (not that I object to getting rid of the old one, time has not been kind to that font!)

Terretta 13y ago

Yahoo's gone and slapped a hideous Yahoo nav bar across the top of Meyer's new fanfared Flickr design. If she can't even keep her own flagship redesign fixed, she can't change their culture of asphyxiating products people actually loved.

RexRollman 13y ago
I noticed this the other day. It's really ugly looking and a waste of horizontal pixels.
- panacea 13y ago
  It's no more egregious than Google trying to show G+ down our throats. They've become the masters of persistent headers. Yahoo! is trying to the same.
  - RexRollman 13y ago
    I dislike that too.
- spiek 13y ago
  You can configure adblock to block it. It does leave a weird gap between the flickr nav and your bookmarks bar, but that weird gap is better than the god awful yahoo nav. On any flickr page with the nav open adblock and select "block an ad on this page". Follow the steps and adjust the slider until the ad is gone. No more ugly ass bar.
hrnnnnnn 13y ago
Fortunately there was a browser plugin available almost immediately to remove it.
rsobers 13y ago
Excellent point. Have they not learned any lessons from Microsoft about how forced cross-pollination destroys products?
13y ago

teh_klev 13y ago

Maybe their re-brand should include a change of name rather than just the logo. For me Yahoo! equates to damaged goods and bad history.

velodrome 13y ago

Change is good. Until recent history, Yahoo would take forever to roll out new changes. The fact is they are trying new things and to the public, iterating faster. It is clear that Meyer has had some impact to Yahoo. Whether users will like the new changes is another story but at least they have the ability to iterate out of the problem.

gadders 13y ago

I was reading this post the other day [1] from the Fake Steve Jobs blog about Lotus and IBM. Basically you could pretty much swap IBM or Lotus for Yahoo and the tone of the article would still make sense. Who is that excited about the logo of a company on its last legs? [1] http://www.fakesteve.net/2008/01/oxymoron-of-week.html http://www.fakesteve.net/2008/01/oxymoron-of-week.html

samweinberg 13y ago

Looks like they forgot to update Yahoo Notepad. http://notepad.yahoo.com/ http://notepad.yahoo.com/

rsobers 13y ago

So wait - in the spirit of innovation Yahoo! is going to rotate the logo on their homepage every day? Hmm, I can't think of any company (cough Google cough) that does that.

zimpenfish 13y ago

That, right there, sums up everything you need to know about Yahoo! in one nice simple "WTF".

alanmeaney 13y ago

Yahoo: Kicking off 30 days of rejected logos

aidenn0 13y ago

I have yet to run in to anyone who actually likes the new version of yahoo sports. It's pretty, but impossible to find a lot of basic info that was prevusly easy.