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I'm one of those people with a yahoo email account, mainly because I'm on the old side now and got it way back when yahoo email was, well, kind of like hotmail

by geebee 12y ago

I'm one of those people with a yahoo email account, mainly because I'm on the old side now and got it way back when yahoo email was, well, kind of like hotmail for people even older than me. The article refers to people like me as loyalists, but I'm really not. I honestly don't like my yahoo email account. It's not technology, it's the the nature of the company itself. I know all websites want to keep you around, but the difference between using gmail and yahoo mail is remarkable. I just went to mail.google.com, and I see my email. Now I'm going to yahoo mail… there's a big ad for life insurance next to my messages. Above them is a slightly larger link, intended to look like an email messages, for "rich dad, poor dad." Actually, something interesting has happened lately… the link expands in size about 3 seconds after the page has loaded. I'm starting to wonder if yahoo has noticed that if they do this, they will expand the ad just at the moment that the users wanting to check their email click on the first, top message, leading them instead to click on an ad, increasing "click through". I'll admit, I'm leaning toward the tinfoil hat side of suspicious with that last one, but there's a reason I've started to think this way. Go to yahoo's front page, and it's click bait city. It seems like yahoo will do everything in its power to make sure I don't do what it is I came to the site to do, run a web search, or check my email. In short, it appears to me that yahoo is still a media company, following the portal model, trying to get people to stay on the site for reasons that had nothing to do with why they came to the site. And by click bait, I mean titles like "the one medical test you shouldn't skip!", or "the 5 signs that he's manipulating you". In short, I'm starting to wonder if having a yahoo email account is actually a risk to my ability to concentrate. Maybe yahoo is becoming more of an engineering/technology company, maybe not. If Mayer can make this happen, that'd be quite an accomplishment. There's definitely a huge legacy of specifically intending go not be an engineering company.

NegativeK 12y ago
Back when I used to QA emails, I'd check Google, Hotmail, Yahoo!, and Aol. in the various browsers. I listed them in that order for a reason -- Gmail was the cleanest and the most usable, while the Aol. web client was half ads and irrelevant columns, requiring you to click on the inbox to even read email, and displaying some of the most ridiculous bottom-of-the-barrel flashy ads that you can get before you end up seeing Adult Friend Finder or penis extension animations. If ad quality is directly related to how much the host website needs the revenue and/or how valuable the clicks are, it's clear which company is doing the best online.
nitrogen 12y ago
Actually, something interesting has happened lately… the link expands in size about 3 seconds after the page has loaded. I'm starting to wonder if yahoo has noticed that if they do this, they will expand the ad just at the moment that the users wanting to check their email click on the first, top message, leading them instead to click on an ad, increasing "click through". This happens all the time when I read Ars Technica on my phone. That effective clickjacking, combined with the GE puff pieces of late, have notably reduced the frequency with which I visit Ars.
- CamperBob2 12y ago
  You have to wonder just how stupid the advertisers are. They, and not the site's users, are the ones who are really being played for suckers.
mholmes680 12y ago
Have to agree completely here, and their mobile news app has started to fail completely for me on a galaxy s3. I dont think i'm too far off the new-every-two mobile cycle that the app should be crashing this much. I've spent this month reassigning most of the email i care about to gmail. After that, I'll figure out a way to migrate off of Fantasy Sports, which is the last app I'll have from them. After that, maybe I'll boomerang back as a customer. But, we'll have to see how much more changes.

by geebee 12y ago

NegativeK 12y ago

Back when I used to QA emails, I'd check Google, Hotmail, Yahoo!, and Aol. in the various browsers. I listed them in that order for a reason -- Gmail was the cleanest and the most usable, while the Aol. web client was half ads and irrelevant columns, requiring you to click on the inbox to even read email, and displaying some of the most ridiculous bottom-of-the-barrel flashy ads that you can get before you end up seeing Adult Friend Finder or penis extension animations. If ad quality is directly related to how much the host website needs the revenue and/or how valuable the clicks are, it's clear which company is doing the best online.

nitrogen 12y ago

Actually, something interesting has happened lately… the link expands in size about 3 seconds after the page has loaded. I'm starting to wonder if yahoo has noticed that if they do this, they will expand the ad just at the moment that the users wanting to check their email click on the first, top message, leading them instead to click on an ad, increasing "click through". This happens all the time when I read Ars Technica on my phone. That effective clickjacking, combined with the GE puff pieces of late, have notably reduced the frequency with which I visit Ars.

CamperBob2 12y ago
You have to wonder just how stupid the advertisers are. They, and not the site's users, are the ones who are really being played for suckers.

mholmes680 12y ago

Have to agree completely here, and their mobile news app has started to fail completely for me on a galaxy s3. I dont think i'm too far off the new-every-two mobile cycle that the app should be crashing this much. I've spent this month reassigning most of the email i care about to gmail. After that, I'll figure out a way to migrate off of Fantasy Sports, which is the last app I'll have from them. After that, maybe I'll boomerang back as a customer. But, we'll have to see how much more changes.