This is so very yesterday of me, but sometimes I get busy (or lazy). Following the Yahoo drama as it has unfolded over the past few weeks has been somewhat depressing. I ran across a really interesting post yesterday — 18 Easy Ways to Fix Yahoo! from Sean Percival. Totally agree that one of Yahoo’s big problems is one that I think is facing so many big 1st wave companies — namely, they’ve suddenly found themselves the embodiment of that old adage: Jack of all trades, master of none. Too many services. Good services that have been left to just sit and grow old instead of being integrated usefully. Crappy properties that should have been tossed overboard long ago (Geocities? Really? I’m not sure brand rehab is a possibility there) The only one of Sean’s paragraphs that I disagreed with was the advice regarding omg! It’s not my thing and, yes, the world needs another celebrity gossip site like it needs a hole in the head, but I see more than my share of interns staring at omg! during the day. Plus, big pictures=less thinking and people don’t want to think too hard about their celebrity gossip. After all, this is a web genre wherein one of the gold standards is a blog whose author writes all over celebrity pictures with MS Paint.
I too remember discovering Yahoo back in the dark ages and how much it changed the way I looked at the web. I can almost distinctly map my discovery of Yahoo to the exact moment when I began to waste hours online as opposed to spending just a few minutes checking email. And, yes, I also have Yahoo email address that is older than my car. Frankly, it’s older than most cars on the road today and, okay, I have more than one address that fits that criteria. I do harbor a certain nostalgic connection to Yahoo. It’s definitely a moment of truth time for the company. It could either rise from the ashes or completely collapse. I’d prefer the former. Possible? I don’t know. There are some real quality services there and I think Sean has a point in saying that, to people outside of the tech sphere, there really isn’t some huge wave of dissatisfaction sweeping the general populace with regards to Yahoo. Now, I’m off to figure out exactly what I think of Shine.
