Replies: 9 comments
I'm an eager yahoo-fan as well, and MyYahoo has proved itself to be a tool to me almost as natural as breathing, but today I was struck by the horrific add as well. I totally agree, in advertising as well as other aspects of life, sometimes less is more. In many of the danish portals these adds has shown there ugly faces as well, for instance at www.ni.dk, which recently have begun using 'pop-ups' and at www.jubii.dk the animated gif similar to the above.
Well, thank's for webword's simplicity. As a working usability consultant I check in almost every day to keep up with the latest news. Much appreciated.
Posted by Svend Svenstrup @ 11/04/2001 06:56 AM EST
PLEASE! Yahoo ran itself into the ground long ago when it decided it was appropriate to place hundreds of links on the front page. I count 238 today!
Three years ago all of my coworkers and friends used Yahoo. Today they all use Google. I would like to see a profile of the type of people who use customized "my" portal features. I just don't know anyone who does.
Posted by JS @ 11/04/2001 11:34 AM EST
Don't just complain on WebWord ... let Yahoo! know what you think (the Ad Feedback link just below the add). If you look at the page, you'll notice that they've at least got some intuition that sound would annoy users.
I too use My Yahoo! I've gone to the page many times, and the ad only expanded once on me (out of about 15 visits). I really don't like the expansion (or the sound) ... but I much prefer the large size to any popup/under.
Posted by Filipe Fortes @ 11/04/2001 01:21 PM EST
I also have a My Yahoo account, but I rarely use it anymore. Soon I will download my remaining files and info from the service, then close out my account. Why? Because they've gone overboard with the size and frequency of ads in the past several months.
I also don't visit (for example)ABCnews.com anymore, because of the annoying pop-under ads. My web surfing habits have actually changed in the past year, due to pop-unders on all the "big-name" sites.
I do have a subscription to Salon.com (which is ad-free) and now I'm getting most of my news from there...
Posted by Andy M. @ 11/05/2001 09:57 AM EST
I was thinking the exact same thing about being bombarded by Yahoo lately.
But, I started to think, like Andy M, what alternatives are out there for the services Yahoo provides? For example, I rarely look at tech news on Yahoo because I love Tomalak's, and I just recently started checking Salon and Slate regularly for news and editorial.
I'm wondering what USABLE, high-quality resources people use for:
a) Stock Quotes
b) Sports Scores, where you can select teams
c) General Headline News - is there a good "Tomalak's" equivalent for headline news that people rely on?
Posted by Mark Palmer @ 11/05/2001 11:08 AM EST
Check out NewsHub.com and bookmark one of their news channels. It's an automated aggregate of several news sites. It's annoying because the same news story will appear multiple times (one from each source), but you do see a variety of news articles you would otherwise miss at CNN or MSNBC.
Posted by JS @ 11/05/2001 12:28 PM EST
The funny thing is, I just wrote to Yahoo! about the same sort of thing. I am so sick and tired of their pop-up ads everywhere, flash this and flash that, etc.
Yeah, they gotta make money but they don't have to do it that way.
It took me 1/2 an hour to find a feedback e-mail (would that I had the handy link above!) and I got a reply the next day that was 90% canned response text. Understandable, and I do have to give credit for getting back so quickly, but really.
I use Google now, too, unless I'm checking Yahoo! e-mail.
Posted by Sandra @ 11/05/2001 02:31 PM EST
I saw the same invaded-type of ad on Voila.fr homepage today, a popular french search engine (operated by France Telecom).
It is an ad of eBay.fr. The sequence is 15-20 seconds long.
Maybe you can see it in action online at
http://www.voila.fr/
as it seems to display at each internet session I open today.
You can also see 2 screen shots at:
http://www.MondeNature.com/ebay.htm
Blurp !
Didier
Posted by Didier Faucher @ 11/05/2001 06:42 PM EST
For tech news, check out http://www.10.am
Unfortunately, if you customise it and select more than a few categories or sources, the resulting page will drive you crazy with the mass of links. You have been warned.
Posted by Madhu Menon @ 11/06/2001 11:34 PM EST
