Use Yahoo for search

What with Yahoo holding off Microsoft taking them over I have been choosing to use Yahoo for all my searching needs.

I don't want Microsoft taking over more of the world -- this is the least that I can do...

PS: I love Yahoo's 'Search Assist'! Try it -- it's free!

I am so glad that the Microsoft bid died. I guess now we gotta figure out "What Next?"

Indications are that Microsoft will eventually acquire Yahoo!. We'll see. Give it a couple of days and see what the execs work out. Meanwhile, part of the deal includes some pretty solid 'stay' packages for the Yahoo! staff.

MS is here to stay. Like any business they have significant economic motivations. Indeed they make mistakes... but obviously not as big as Apple - look at market share. If Apple were truly successful, THEY would have 90% of the market, would cater to developers of hardware, software, 3rd parties, foster developers as they once did, etc.

Two companies cannot own the desktop. Apple on the hip/armband and making $$ at 99c/song. MS runs business. Go figure.

I don't know how Yahoo can stay in business. Yahoo used to by my home page from where everyday started. Now everything I once used is no longer available or has been changed so much that it is useless to me. From the calendar, yahoo photos, my yahoo, tv guide listings, theater listing, most of my news modules, I have no reason to go to that home page anymore. I had so much invested in that home page.

The last useful feature is yahoo groups and Yahoo is chasing us away from there now too (two major changes in the last 30 days). They are putting limits on everything that made those groups popular. Maybe I am not the kind of customer they want....

In my opinion, the only value they have is the slight connection they still maintain to people like me so that someone (like a Microsoft) can start delivering some worth while content and user features to pull us back into the fold. I go into the discussion forums where you are asked to complain and thousands are saying the same thing: you had a great product, why did you change it? It surely can't cost more now to offer the same features you were offering before and don't you make more money attracting users rather than chasing them away to other sites for the same info?

Who really uses Yahoo for anything anymore? Have you heard of any portal lessening their content, and user features? All the successfull companies are trying to increase content and user features unless told otherwise by the law (Youtube and Napster type scenarios).

What features do you use on Yahoo? Even the Email has limits on how many people you can send to so I stopped using that. I thought the bid for Yahoo was overpriced.

Just when I complain about Yahoo, I find a neat feature: Drag and drop directions on Yahoo Maps. I alternate between map programs but until now you have to follow their directions. Yahoo allows you to drag the route line if you want to go a different direction. They don't know what a pain it is on 87 vs 101 when going to N San Jose in the morning. Also it compares the old route to the new route in mileage. Perfect for me.

I am so in agreement with what Joe talks about Yahoo's demise. In my case, I used to use Yahoo's TV listings. It was great. But then a redesign was done, incorporating so-called Web 2.0 features. What used to take 1 second to display my TV listings now took maybe 3 minutes *of my time* to scroll down page by page just to have each page loaded. Totally useless. How this redesigned ever made it all the way through QA and release is simply incredulous to me. I tried to communicate how bad it was and pleaded with them to reestablish their old functionality (of course I knew they wouldn't).

My theory was that the X- and Y-generations that were raised on video games had now made it into management. They adore bells and whistles and have absolutely no clue about utility and usability. They were using a new technology just for technology's sake. That could be understandable if the product still worked, but they had changed it into a useless piece of dung. Well, I'm back to using tv.excite.com for my TV listings.

QUOTE (Sheldon @ May 5 2008, 02:15 PM)

I am so glad that the Microsoft bid died. I guess now we gotta figure out \\"What Next?\\"

I don't think this is the end of it. As Larry Ellison proves with Oracle's myriad of acquisitions, he gets what he wants. I don't think Microsoft will be any different. At any rate, I wouldn't be surprised if Yahoo is acquired at some point, whether by MS or someone else.

I have had ongoing problems with my Yahoo email account for years but I continue to use it since I have 100s of accounts linked to it. It's such a pain to have to change my email address. I also realize that since it's a free email account, you get what you pay for. On the other hand, I also pay for SBC DSL, which is linked to Yahoo mail, so maybe they do need to fix it. I use Gmail for personal mail and Yahoo for mailing lists. I love the interface on Gmail -- it's way more user-friendly than Yahoo. For example, Yahoo will not allow you to only BCC an email. You MUST enter a recipient for everyone to see. The only thing about Gmail I don't like is that the Contacts interface isn't very intuititive. Plus with Gmail you can save drafts without having to reload the page. And I especially like that when you fwd an email, it doesn't include all those annoying characters on the left side that shows an email has been fwd'd 10 million times.

This post has been edited by mobyfan on May 11 2008, 10:34 PM