The four panels from today’s strip are basically how I have perceived the meteoric rise and subsequent free-fall of Yahoo! over the past 15 years or so. Outside of Flickr, which Yahoo! bought some time back, I really don’t use Yahoo! for anything. The company, to some, feels like a Google-wanna-be. In my mind, I think one of the biggest problems the company currently faces is how to position itself.
Let me roll with this. Fill in the blank with a word:
Google is known for search. Yahoo! is known for ___________.
Still trying to think of an appropriate word to use in the blank, without being snarky?
Yeah, me too.
And that’s the problem Yahoo! faces. Why should we care? What does Yahoo! do uniquely that makes itself stand out against the pack? Maybe someone can shed some light on this for me. (And, please, don’t bring up the abomination known as Yahoo! Mail.)
How do you feel about the Big Y? Do you still use their services? What features do you like best about them? Where, in your opinion, have they missed the mark? Let’s get some healthy discussion going. I’m genuinely curious. Thanks for sharing your thoughts in the comments below.
Like today’s comic? Why not share it with a friend (or a Yahoo! coworker)? Or better yet, Tweet it or share it on your favorite social network. Cause that would rock :)
-Krishna
I haven’t used Yahoo for search since Google came out. I switched quick, too. I share your opinion of Yahoo Mail.
I used to use Yahoo Groups quite a bit. Meetup is better, and easier to use.
Right now the only thing I use on Yahoo Groups is Freecycle, and not much of that.
I think their problem is they bought up too much stuff without knowing how they were going to use it.
Yahoo! was known for being the biggest and best webdirectory out there. Humans decided if a link was valuable and not machines. Google, Altavista and Excite changed that game.
It is ironic that Yahoo! had to by Delicious.com to get something that they probably should have thought of in the first place…
I still use Yahoo Groups, quite heavily. IMHO they’re MUCH better than Google Groups, at least as a user. (I haven’t moderated a GG, but mod many YGs.) I also use Yahoo Pipes, a little-known and very advanced feature. It’s GREAT for filtering huge RSS feeds down to a manageable level, like when jobhunting. The UI is slow and clumsy, but the concept rocks, and I haven’t stumbled across the same thing elsewhere (at least not for free and without tons of additional work).
I also use it for mail for my Toastmasters club’s contact address. Yes it’s horrible, but it was much better (and the competition worse) back when we started using it. I started another club and chose Hotmail for that one — not because its mail was any better, but a horribly stupid security oversight, allowing you to send reminders to any address at all, allows us to send reminders to our email list. :-)
I’ve abandoned Yahoo mail and calendar for my own use, transferring that all over to Google.
The only time I use Yahoo is when I’m playing their card games. What irks me about Yahoo is their stupid tool bar! I can’t get away from it when I’m downloading a new version of Firefox.
That’s funny – Yahoo still hosts my email, and I really like Yahoo New LOL! I just don’t like the way Gmail looks… althought it is faster.
I only use Yahoo for Messenger. Used them a lot for other things including search and email, but no longer. I still use their IM but that is all.
I still use my old yahoo email address sometimes. I’d say what yahoo is best known for is yahoo answers. Also, I use my “MyYahoo” page as a homepage.
In my opinion, Yahoo is a guilty party in the ruination of my childhood by the abominable Inspector Gadget movie. Damn you, dirty apes!
Google was (briefly) perceived as a Yahoo WannaBe.
I feel a little sad about Yahoo. They had (and have) great idea’s about search but Google’s idea and execution is beyond great and into AMAZING.
I only use 2 Yahoo services on a regular basis….Their Yahoo Groups and Yahoo Email for a spam filter when I need to put in an email address on sites I am not sure of…
Other than that I can’t think of any Yahoo service that I use any more…I use Google to search and map service (when I need it…MS Streets and Trips is better than the Online Map Services)….
I just can not think of any service where Yahoo stands out from the crowd and that is where they are hurting now.
Flickr was much better before Yahoo bought them. I was part of their beta before the acquisition… they used to have some awesome features that got axed around the time of the acquisition. Their most awesome feature was a chat room / IM feature that you could use to meet people and chat, and you could upload new photos or share previously uploaded photos with the entire room or with individuals in the room with just some awesome drag-and-drop action. It was entirely flash based too I believe, so there was nothing to install. It was genius. I made so many friends there and it was so much fun… ah, the good ol’ days…