Yahoo, Do You Have a Clue?
I have had a Yahoo! email address since 1998 or somewhere around there. I have always used Yahoo as my primary email address. It has always been convenient, easy to use, reliable and since it is web based, I can sign in to it anywhere. Recently Yahoo! put a link on their mail page asking you to try their new beta Yahoo! Mail. When I chose not to click on it, every time I sent an email, Yahoo would interrupt me and send me to a page asking me to try their beta service. I hate to see a multi-billion dollar company cry so I choose to try the new Yahoo! Mail Beta.As I started using it, it reminded me of how Outlook looks and works except web based. It was so similar I thought Microsoft may not be happy with Yahoo!, but I have not heard anything of that nature yet. Though as I started getting use to it and playing with it, I ran into several problems with it.
- At times it is slower than my grandmother and she has been dead for 10 years. Come on Yahoo!, sometimes I have to go and shave because I am waiting for a 4 line email from a friend of mine to load.
- Do we really need that stupid figure in front moving while the site loads? I understand why you put it there because the site is SLOW as discussed in point 1. Though my thought is if you have to put up a animated gif to keep us occupied while the page loads, this puppy ain’t ready for prime time.
- Is it just me or since I moved over to the beta, I have been getting inundated with spam? I had all my filters setup and my old email was rocking and spam free, now I am hitting that spam button 20 times a day. Did the filters not move over to the beta? Of course not.
You know Yahoo! I could deal with all this as it is still a beta product and you are working out the kinks, but there is one thing that I cannot and more importantly, will not deal with. When I bookmark my Yahoo! Mail page, the reason I do that is cause want to READ MY MAIL!! For some reason, one of the Yahoo! geniuses, I would have no doubt that at one time he worked for Microsoft decided that instead of allowing users to go right into the mail page, we now have to go to a front page that has news and sports, etc. on it. Did I ask for news or sports Yahoo!? I don’t think so.
So let’s get this straight, you are forcing every person with a Yahoo! Mail account to click one more time to go into their inbox just so you can have people view your front page? I would say that is a terrible customer experience Yahoo!. And I would suggest that you remedy this problem very quickly or I can guarantee you there will be a lot of people like myself moving over to Gmail full-time and not just part time like we are doing today.
This is a very important time for you Yahoo! You know you cannot beat Google in the search game, so you are left with the opportunity of being a true social hub for an incredible amount of people. Though forcing a user to do something they do not want to do will not deliver you the success your looking for and do much more harm than good.
Technorati Tags: Yahoo! Mail, Mail Beta
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Cord, you’re not the only one to complain about some of these issues. Let me run through them quickly.
We know some people have a problem with the speed and we’re working on it. The last release we did has some performance improvements in it. For release we’re currently working on, we’ve thrown a lot of resources into looking at performance. We’re aware of the issue and we’re working hard to address it.
As for Liam (the dancing/boxing/reindeer riding guy), no comment.
The spam system in place is exactly the same. That didn’t change at all from classic to the beta. I know Windows Live Mail makes you do some conversion when changing from Hotmail to Live Mail. Yahoo! Mail doesn’t make you do that (hence the reason you’re even able to switch back to classic if you so desire). The backend, including all of the spam detection, is the same.
As for the welcome page when you first log in, again, you’re not the only person to complain. What I can say is, Yahoo! Mail Plus users get to skip that page when they first log in. Additionally, as a plus user, you get no ads, twice the quota, better spam blocking, AddressGuard, POP access and mail forwarding. Pretty sweet little package for $20/year. I actually pay for it on both of my Yahoo! accounts (my work account and my personal account).
Ryan Kennedy
Yahoo! Mail
Ryan,
First off, thank you very much for taking the time to read my posts and comment, it is greatly appreciated. A couple of thoughts I would like to share:
1. Maybe it is me, but I don’t think it is right that Yahoo now decides that if I am not willing to pay $20 a year, I have to go through the front page. You are asking users to pay for something that I can get for free with several other online mail services. Why would I do that when you have yet to show me anything that differentiates you from Gmail which I do not have to pay a penny for? I have no issue paying $20 a year for something that I can’t get anywhere else, but I don’t see what extra value I am getting using Yahoo! Mail Plus.
2. What are your thoughts on the lack of communication and feedback Yahoo! is supplying to their users? Is there a particular reason that it seems that Yahoo! does everything bunker style without utilizing a very interested audience?
3. Does it annoy you that anytime you have to write Yahoo! you have to put an exclamation point in the middle of a sentence? I feel like I am fighting everything I learned in 6th grade English.
Thanks again Ryan for your feedback.
2.
Cord, no problem…I love reading what people have to say about us. The good and the bad. As much as I love hearing people praise something they really like about us, I also love being kicked in the butt by a user who’s not pleased with us.
1. When you say “several”, I’m assuming you mean Gmail. That’s one of the few free webmail apps I know of that doesn’t have a welcome page. As for paying $20 for what you can get free elsewhere, there are some features that Gmail doesn’t provide, such as AddressGuard. I find AddressGuard to be, if nothing else, amusing as it shows me which online retailers sell my address. But you’re right, the differentiation isn’t as great as it used to be. Gmail changed the game when they came out of the gates swinging with 1GB mailboxes and POP/forwarding for free. I think we’ve been a little slow to react to that, but we still have some tricks up our sleeves.
2. I don’t think the lack of feedback is as bad as it used to be. Certainly my appointment as evangelist for Yahoo! Mail shows that attitudes are changing. If you look at other groups like Yahoo! 360 and Yahoo! Groups, they both have a community manager now who handles interaction with users. Things are definitely changing.
3. If you think mid-sentence is bad, wait until you hit the end of a question like, “Do you Yahoo!?” Talk about fighting 6th grade English.
Ryan Kennedy
Yahoo! Mail
Everytime I go into Yahoo I have to sign in. This after I have checked the box to keep me signed in for 2 weeks. If I go from Yahoo to another web page and come back to Yahoo I have to sign in. This is very annoying. How can I fix it so it is like it used to be?