we’ve redesigned so you can get to the good stuff first

Thanks Yahoo!

Thanks for the great redesign, which allows me to get to the “good stuff” first.

Yes, thanks.

yahoo

I use Yahoo Mail still, for all of my ‘transactional’ emails – when signing up for sites like Twitter, or buying items on sites like B&H Photo.  I don’t want my other email address to get polluted with spam so often associated with publishing your email on the web.

And I still use MyYahoo, though sparingly.  Really, I just use it as a quick means to access my email and stock information with some other content thrown in there in case I miss it in my other browsing.

The problem I have is this: I access my Yahoo Mail through the Mail widget on the MyYahoo page.  That takes me to my inbox, you’d assume.  Well, it doesn’t.  It takes me to this useless page that shows news items (Today’s top stories) as well as a bunch of other crap I couldn’t care less about.  From this page, I then have to click Inbox to see my actual mail.

WHY?

Isn’t this news stuff already being delivered to MyYahoo?  And look at all of the redundant links to the inbox – why?  Maybe because people want to see their freakin INBOX when they access their mail, and not your “top stories’ or ‘good stuff.’

Who designs this stuff?  At least make it an option for me to control – most users won’t set the option and you’ll still have the opportunity to put your crap in front of them.  But for those of us who will, we’ll be forever appreciative, and maybe even give you some good words.

4 Replies to “we’ve redesigned so you can get to the good stuff first”

  1. Why? It's all about the money. Yahoo! Mail displays an LRECT ad on that “What's New” page, which generates a significant amount of the ad revenue for the product. You can think of it as simply an interstitial ad page with some additional content thrown on it to mask the fact that they're really just pushing an ad on you. The same goes for the “Yahoo Insider” window that comes up on sign in of Yahoo Messenger.</cynical>

    As for who designs it, it's Greg Rosenberg. Go easy on the guy. He gets his marching orders from the top. The dude fought pretty hard against the quantity-over-quality ad folks at Yahoo. He's a good one. http://unraveled.com/archives/2009/04/design-in

  2. OK, I'll admit – when I say “who designs this stuff?” I don't really mean the designer – I mean who's responsible for these decisions? So no intentional slams on the designers. I know – my bad. I should choose my words more wisely.

    What bothers me is the useless page – I don't buy the Advertisement argument. They serve ads alongside my emails – and it's can't be about pageviews either because each email I read just refreshes the view rather than reloading the page. I'd almost prefer a reloaded page to boost page views over a useless interstitial page. At the very least they could reload the ads with each email to boost the numbers.

    What I'm complaining about is this: On MyYahoo I can see a preview of my email – where I can see a snippet of the FROM and the SUBJECT. I then have to click through to a page where I can't even see that – only to click to another page to then see the full FROMs and SUBJECTS. An additional click to choose one of the emails finally gets me to my content. That's just not a great experience.

    I wouldn't know about the messenger client – I refuse to use those (yahoo, aim, etc.,) because of their annoying ads – granted AOL was MUCH worse than Yahoo.

  3. Why? It's all about the money. Yahoo! Mail displays an LRECT ad on that “What's New” page, which generates a significant amount of the ad revenue for the product. You can think of it as simply an interstitial ad page with some additional content thrown on it to mask the fact that they're really just pushing an ad on you. The same goes for the “Yahoo Insider” window that comes up on sign in of Yahoo Messenger.</cynical>

    As for who designs it, it's Greg Rosenberg. Go easy on the guy. He gets his marching orders from the top. The dude fought pretty hard against the quantity-over-quality ad folks at Yahoo. He's a good one. http://unraveled.com/archives/2009/04/design-in

  4. OK, I'll admit – when I say “who designs this stuff?” I don't really mean the designer – I mean who's responsible for these decisions? So no intentional slams on the designers. I know – my bad. I should choose my words more wisely.

    What bothers me is the useless page – I don't buy the Advertisement argument. They serve ads alongside my emails – and it's can't be about pageviews either because each email I read just refreshes the view rather than reloading the page. I'd almost prefer a reloaded page to boost page views over a useless interstitial page. At the very least they could reload the ads with each email to boost the numbers.

    What I'm complaining about is this: On MyYahoo I can see a preview of my email – where I can see a snippet of the FROM and the SUBJECT. I then have to click through to a page where I can't even see that – only to click to another page to then see the full FROMs and SUBJECTS. An additional click to choose one of the emails finally gets me to my content. That's just not a great experience.

    I wouldn't know about the messenger client – I refuse to use those (yahoo, aim, etc.,) because of their annoying ads – granted AOL was MUCH worse than Yahoo.

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