Testing, testing…a new Yahoo.com

Posted September 17th, 2008 at 9:00 pm by Tapan Bhat, Front Doors

 458 Comments / Filed in: Behind the Scenes, Trends & News

Ever since Jerry and David began categorizing the Web back in 1994, people have visited our homepage to find out what’s happening. That’s 100 million of you in the US and 314 million of you globally starting your day on a Yahoo! homepage, so we must be doing something right. But we’re not resting on our laurels…

We know your life has changed since 1994. Most of us have upgraded from big hair, flannel shirts and Nirvana, much as Yahoo.com has evolved over the years. Today we are challenged with keeping track of everything going on in our lives, in the news, with our family and friends, etc. The Web has evolved to keep us in constant communication, but this also means we are continually receiving emails, text messages, RSS feeds, tweets and IMs. Keeping up can be a struggle.

We’re working on a new homepage that will help you get more out of the Internet, make more of your precious time, and make sense of all the things going on in your world. After lots of ongoing research (i.e., focus groups, usability experiments, etc.), today we’ve begun testing an all-new, more streamlined Yahoo.com that will bring the things that matter most to you –- no matter where they “live” on the Web. Here’s a screenshot of one of the versions we’ll be testing:

Here’s how the new Yahoo.com should simplify your life:

1. One easy check-in point. We’re testing a dashboard area (off to the left) that will let you add previews of your favorite Yahoo! and non-Yahoo! services – starting with checking for new mail from multiple accounts (initially Yahoo! Mail, AOL Mail and Gmail, with more to come), weather forecasts, and local events. We plan to add plenty more preview applications in the future, so that you don’t have to spend as much time jumping from site to site just to stay plugged in.
2. Helping you stay informed. We’re always hearing how much people love the “Featured” area of the page, so we’re going to keep enhancing that with more and more fresh, timely content you’re interested in from across the Web. And of course we still have the prominent search box, with Yahoo! Search’s handy “Search Assist” feature. As we continue evolving the test versions, you’ll also notice us adding more information about what your friends are doing across Yahoo! and the Web in general.

What does all this mean to you? Since we’re testing with a fraction of homepage visitors chosen at random – starting in the US, UK, France and India – you may be one of the testers! But even if you’re not, we encourage you to share your thoughts on what you want out of your Internet starting point. Keep in mind that we plan to add lots of exciting new things over the course of these tests, since this process is all about making sure we launch the best page for our users.

We’ll keep you posted as we add new preview applications from your favorite Web sites, create more ways to easily personalize the page so that it’s focused on what matters most to you, and eventually even open it up to the Yahoo! Application Platform so that external developers and publishers can submit their own preview applications to be featured on the Yahoo! homepage.

Tapan Bhat
SVP, Front Doors, Communities and Network Services

P.S. Check out this screenshot for a sneak peek into more features we’ll be adding during the testing process.
P.P.S. Did you notice the color of the logo on our test?

Tagged: yahoo! homepage

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458 Comments Add your own

walter | September 18th, 2008 at 1:15 am

This looks good.

Does it work quickly though? I’m still using Y!Mail Classic because I didn’t like how slow the new mail ran over a wireless connection. Too much AJAX maybe.

Good times.
Go Yahoo!

saurav_rani | September 18th, 2008 at 5:20 am

i cant see this. how do i see this

GuillaumeB | September 18th, 2008 at 6:13 am

Why oh why do you guys have to retain such a big graphic ad? Seriosuly, it does not make any money at all on the long run, it just contributes to lessen the number of visitors … and potential users…
Why on earth do you still remain blind in front of this fact?

Mercy | September 18th, 2008 at 6:19 am

Looks better than the present one. Lets wait n watch the new game.
:)

Jeff | September 18th, 2008 at 7:02 am

I like it. I want it. Hurry up and roll it out please. I love the concept of the customized left side. It brings a happy medium between having to customize a full page (like the “My Yahoo”, “iGoogle”, “NetVibes” concepts) and a non-customizable page like we currently have.

I would have loved to see it offered to my account today.

Casey Andrews | September 18th, 2008 at 7:17 am

I definitely want to try this out. Is there no where to sign up for the beta ?

mani | September 18th, 2008 at 7:19 am

I like the layout but again a HUGE ad on the right :(
similar HUGE ads are being placed on yahoo mail beta too
its such a distraction at time, but still I’m kinda excited about the improvements around :)

Mike Rundle | September 18th, 2008 at 8:49 am

“Why oh why do you guys have to retain such a big graphic ad? Seriosuly, it does not make any money at all on the long run”

HAHA are you serious. You’ve got to be pulling our legs here. A big graphic ad on Yahoo!’s homepage doesn’t make any money at all in the long run??!!?! If you believe that then I’ve got a bridge to sell you up in Alaska.

New homepage looks hot, very good job. Sidebar is very nicely put together.

brent | September 18th, 2008 at 9:13 am

I agree on the ad space. Yahoo forced me to update on the last minor my yahoo update after I tried not to update. I think there is a more effective balance on ad space.

Seems like msnbc has gone a bit wider to mitigate the screen impact of their ads and provide better screen utilization.

23″ widescreen user, fwiw.

kamla bhatt | September 18th, 2008 at 10:12 am

The new homepage looks really nice. Like GuillaumeB wonderig if the ad size can be reduced and instead have more content showing?

Kamla

pepito | September 18th, 2008 at 11:28 am

yehey.com! i can’t wait to try my gmail account there! :P

Tapan Bhat | September 18th, 2008 at 1:09 pm

Thanks to all for your comments and feedback. Let me address a few questions that have come up:

@Walter – One of the things we test for is speed. We’re very focused on ensuring we can roll out a high-performance page.

@GuillaumeB – While not everyone loves advertising, we are an ad-supported network. The ad module is actually the same size as the one we have on our homepage now — it may look larger in the new layout. Also, I thought I’d add that with that same sized ad, we’ve seen our number of unique visitors increasing over the past two years and are finding that those users are spending more time on the site.

@Casey Andrews – We’re just starting our “bucket testing” phase, which means we randomly choose users to see how they respond to the site. We plan to continue this testing for the next several months, depending on the feedback we get. Once we hit beta, we’ll be sure to let Yodel Anecdotal readers know so you can all play around with it.

Jon | September 18th, 2008 at 2:31 pm

I would love to see more visibility to lesser-known Yahoo sites. I have to dig around to find Mybloglog, Upcoming, Jumpcut, Delicious and Flickr on the old homepage.

Most of my friends have never heard of these sites and/or don’t know that Yahoo owns them.

Thanks
Jon

GuillaumeB | September 18th, 2008 at 2:37 pm

Since the integration of modules would make Yahoo.com a customizable page, could you be a little more specific on how it would differ from My Yahoo! ?

My fear is that you fall into the redundant peanut butter again (bookmarks/delicious, photos/flickr,360/Mash…)

In all honesty, even though I do like Yahoo very much and have been following this company for many years, i do not understand why such a powerful network can not provide an adless homepage like small start ups like Netvibes.

I do understand that your network is ad-supported but i would trade this big ad against two small ones. For example one in the dashboard : what about a default module in the middle,here it would be placed between Stocks and Weather for example, titled something like”new car promotions” and clicking on it would Ajaxly expand a window gathering one or two ad for Audi and Lexus?) and then another small one below the Services section.

From a user point of view, I’m thinking usability not CPM…But then again, you’re asking for our advice :)

jess | September 18th, 2008 at 2:41 pm

Will Yahoo Answers be added to the homepage? I love that option. I know that real people can give me real answers.

Jen | September 18th, 2008 at 3:16 pm

omg iam so excited for the new homepage cant wait till we get it it looks amazing so fresh and clean i hope with yahoo mail we can still use the yahoo mail classic and switch back and forth anytime because i love the classic version if not thats okay

Jen | September 18th, 2008 at 3:24 pm

i would love to see you guys keep yahoo groups and yahoo movies and yahoo tv and more stationery in yahoo mail classic version

=bg= | September 18th, 2008 at 4:26 pm

Tapan, I have been in ‘the bucket’ before. Put me in this one, too. Really want to play with this.

FP Lover | September 18th, 2008 at 4:29 pm

I really really like it. Can I *please* be in these buckets?

=bg= | September 19th, 2008 at 1:43 pm

Tapan, I WANT MY NEW YAHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.

Jen | September 19th, 2008 at 3:05 pm

yes please put me in the bucket too i love it also like jess said please keep yahoo answers and yahoo food and yahoo games too

Jen | September 19th, 2008 at 3:06 pm

one more thing add color options and themes for the new yahoo homepage and users yahoo mail accounts that would be way cool

=bg= | September 20th, 2008 at 10:31 pm

PS—still no new Yahoo! front door; but my Yahoo! News sure looks different. What’s the story there?

Jen | September 20th, 2008 at 11:20 pm

please keep yahoo shine and yahoo avatars and yahoo message boards and yahoo sports thanx

Jen | September 20th, 2008 at 11:23 pm

keep decorating the yahoo logo for holidays and keep my yahoo and yahoo weather

Q | September 21st, 2008 at 3:41 am

I love it! The ad is a little huge, but other than that, I WANT IT!!!! Select me at random so I can test it out!!!

Paul | September 21st, 2008 at 9:33 am

Sounds good. When you’re reading to start testing, I’ll volunteer to try it out. Better to be asked - like here - than to have it rammed down your throat, like at one of your competitors.

Tom | September 21st, 2008 at 5:19 pm

How will this affect MyYahoo personalizations?

=bg= | September 23rd, 2008 at 2:34 pm

Tapan….you’re killin’ me here. Waiting..waiting….

sudhakar mishra | September 24th, 2008 at 9:49 pm

yahoo for everything

Jen | September 25th, 2008 at 10:46 am

please keep yahoo video and keep up the good i so want my new yahooooooooooooooo homepage im so excited cannot wait
#1 yahoo fan since 2000

dor | September 25th, 2008 at 12:20 pm

I agree with Jen

russians-girls | September 25th, 2008 at 6:31 pm

i think is good!!!Very good!!!

=bg= | September 27th, 2008 at 1:15 pm

Guess I was in a bucket (briefly) for a new Yahoo News design…but now it’s gone. Jerry and David giveth..and they taketh away………

Jen | September 27th, 2008 at 6:54 pm

also please keep yahoo buzz up i love it and addicted to it thnx yahoo you guys rock

kesavan muthuvel | September 28th, 2008 at 11:07 am

waiting for all new yahoooooooo!

8-yr-old-yahooian!

Jen | September 28th, 2008 at 6:29 pm

please add yahoo broadway i love that alot it keep me updated on all the shows and news thanx

William Baerthlein | October 1st, 2008 at 11:47 am

This page sucks!!!!!!
A little warning would have been nice!!!!
How do I get rid of it?

atu | October 1st, 2008 at 6:49 pm

Howdo I get rid of this? Seriously, I will switch back to Google if i can not load, http://www.yahoo.com. PLEASE HELP!!

James | October 2nd, 2008 at 7:42 am

THIS SUCKS…
I did not volunteer to be part of any test grope
if they really want to do something to make yahoo better make it so I don’t have to click on inbox 7 times to check my mail
can someone please tell me how to get rid of this horrible home page and get back to what works

Glen W | October 2nd, 2008 at 2:05 pm

Unlike most of the above comments, I don’t like the new home page- at all. The mail feature is okay, but where do I find the myyahoo link? Or answers? I fail to see how the new page is any improvement over the old one. But since I am already out numbered I guess I am screwed with yahoo, just like facebook :(
I suggest making yahoo better and relevant again by improving the search engine.

Walt | October 2nd, 2008 at 6:52 pm

I find :

1. I don’t appreciate being randomly included in a test of the new homepage without prior contact

2. Setting the page up the way Yahoo has causes a user to pass through additional links prior to arriving at full pages previously direct-linked (such as email or weather). This leads to greater bandwidth use (for all those, like myself, who pay for bandwidth) and greater time requirements (my time is precious, and having to wade through unwanted mid-links is not at all acceptable).

Yahoo’s goal should be facilitating rapid and user-friendly access to resources, not complicating and slowing access by inserting glitzy mid-steps.

V/r,
Walt

John M. | October 3rd, 2008 at 5:23 pm

1. I should have been asked to test this YAHOO website.
2. Murray, the YAHOO rep. misunderstood the question I asked about why this PC is being a test site while my other 5 are not.
3. I also told Murray that I did not want the test website.
4. Lee, the next YAHOO rep. misunderstood that I do not want the “www.m.yahoo.com” I prefer the ORIGINAL WWW YAHOO.COM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

John M.

Paul | October 3rd, 2008 at 7:58 pm

I want my old Yahoo! homepage back please. This new one… Stink-a-roo!
If someone can tell me how I can switch back, please I am begging you to tell us!
I don’t mind change but this is not good.

Dave | October 3rd, 2008 at 8:46 pm

Anyone know how to turn this off? I dont want to be apart of their test.
I didnt ask for it, and I dont like it.

The new homepage is really bad, and annoying. I dont care for it, and I dont like not being able to switch back. Checking your mail in a little tiny box sucks, while the ad takes up half your screen.

Micheline | October 4th, 2008 at 7:26 pm

I do NOT like this “new” front page…it takes me waaay to long to look everything up now, where I used to just hover over things to read quickly, now we have to “Click” on and wait til the page loads…
I do Not like to be “Used” to test anything without my approval first…that is just being insensitive to your clients…
If you want to upgrade something like a front page,etc…why don’t you ASK all of us what would work…THEN go from there…I mean we are the user’s after all…and then you would know what, and why, we like or don’t like something…very simple…and I’m with the other’s on her also about the BIG graphic ads…We DON’T like them taking up so much of the page…So…PLEASE give me back my Yahoo front page that I had 2 weeks ago…because I really, really do NOT like this new one at all…takes too long!!!
Thanks…

Brenda | October 4th, 2008 at 8:31 pm

I do not like the new home page. If I can’t find a way to get back to the version I had before, I will quit using yahoo. I have twice requested information on how to remove this terrible homepage, I do not appreciate being part of any test without my permission. So far I have not received any suggestions as to how I might get the old version back. The only thing offered is how to use and ENJOY (lol) the one I never want to see or use.

DKW | October 5th, 2008 at 2:31 pm

I *hate* m.www.yahoo.com. I do not want to be a part of this test group any longer (I did not sign up for it) and I would like to know how to get rid of it. It takes waaay to long to get to mail.

Selecting people at random is fine, although you should give users an option to cancel testing at any time. Let me reiterate — this new site SUCKS.

Jason | October 5th, 2008 at 7:14 pm

How about listing the files you installed for this forced beta of yours so i can del them. I could be wrong but this has got to be borderline illeagel doing stuff like this without concent.

Deng | October 6th, 2008 at 12:36 am

yo the new rocksssssssssss i llllllllllove it ya

Jill | October 6th, 2008 at 3:24 pm

I have the new page at work. Old one still at at home. No one else in my office has the new one either. Had IT crazy as they were concerned some fradulent site was coming up trying to hack into the corporate system. I do not like the new one, and agree with other posters, how can you just throw people into a test group? Especially since many people use the internet for work. Anything I can do to get the old one back? Yeah…don’t like change when I’m not asked about it or notified of it.

=bg= | October 6th, 2008 at 3:37 pm

geez, I really wanna see it, and I can’t. Nuts.

swtu_68@yahoo.com | October 6th, 2008 at 5:25 pm

I want to change back to old one, PLEASE!

steve | October 7th, 2008 at 7:18 am

I hate it… I don’t want to preview my email on a homepage… i want the old log in option without the preview….

JP | October 7th, 2008 at 10:46 am

How do I switch back to the OLD YAHOO !!!!!!!!!!!!
I hate the new TEST !!!!

Trudy | October 7th, 2008 at 1:12 pm

I want the old one back. I do not like one thing about the new one. At the very least let people choose which one they want.
The old one was so much better.
Please take me off your test site…this is just awful.

Jerry | October 7th, 2008 at 4:08 pm

This new dashboard is one of the poorest executed that I have come across. It requires more screens to get where you want to go and also it has slowed the whole machine down. It is absolutely abominal that Yahoo will not get me out of this “test” group. They also could not tell me when it would end ….if ever….
I have now gotten around using it but NOT checking yahoo mail on my work laptop. I check on my iphone and on my desktop for attachments.
Poorly done, poorly executed, and poor customer service…

Thomas | October 7th, 2008 at 4:55 pm

This new page is HORRIBLE and I refuse to check my mail, read the news, or use this page ever from my home computer. I can’t figure out how to get rid of it so I now have to check yahoo at work. The only way I can describe this is AWFUL!!

AG55 | October 7th, 2008 at 5:40 pm

Terrible! Takes too long to get to email. Extra steps….yuck. Im all for new but make it more efficient. The email peice is a real…piece.

How do we get the original back as I see really NO benefit from this.

GJ MITchell | October 7th, 2008 at 7:51 pm

Finally ! i liked this site myself and tried to make it my homepage …but it will not do. i thought it was smart, sweet ,compact and to the point a no frills type of homepage …even if there was and ad in the way.
Perhaps it could become and opition for some of us?

Peter | October 8th, 2008 at 6:31 am

PLEASE TELL US ALL HOW TO GET RID OF THIS PAGE!

You at Yahoo have been unresponsive to these many requests from angry users. At least acknowledge that you are getting and processing these requests. Every day that passes where you don’t provide relief from this forced-opt-in experiment with unwilling participants, you are turning customers off to the Yahoo brand.

Terri | October 8th, 2008 at 6:41 am

I do not like this. I did not ask for it to be changed. It scares me that you have control over my computer to change only mine in the office and no one elses.

Email sucks, you have to go through 4 screen before you can read you email.

I want the old yahoo back. You changed this, I did not, how do I change it back.

Bobby Urbanovsky | October 8th, 2008 at 7:08 am

How can I get out of this test group. I totally hate the test homepage. It takes way too long to get to my e-mail. I’ve tried everything I know to get back to the old format. Please tell me how to get rid of this mess.

dlfarley | October 8th, 2008 at 8:22 am

was confused at first i thought it might be a hijacked site just gathering information to steal you identity, but did a little research and found I was a beta tester.
I have to say i was quite surprised when navigating through, it was easy to use and fast on bringing up information.
A thumbs up to yahoo.

Lance | October 8th, 2008 at 12:52 pm

What does all this mean to you? Since we’re testing with a fraction of homepage visitors chosen at random – starting in the US, UK, France and India – you may be one of the testers

I want to be un-random.

yahoo! front page

alstrooper | October 8th, 2008 at 4:24 pm

I too was thrown into the ‘testing’ http://www.m.yahoo.com not by choice. There was no notification to inform me of this nor was it clear if yahoo really wants feedback.

I have written to the support group to find out how to get the original yahoo page back. The answer is you cannot. I am now stuck with having to click and navigate multiple times to get to my normal email screen instead of doing it in 1 click. I use to be able to hover over the weather icon to see current weather quickly; now I have to take the time to log in, navigate, and click. With all the negative feedback I have read on this board and zero response from yahoo, I can only assume they do not care and long time users will move on out of sheer frusturation.

Jason | October 8th, 2008 at 4:25 pm

This whole thing reeks of all kinds of illegal measures. I’m considering a class action lawsuit for all those affected. I did not agree to be Yahoo’s guinea pig and they have obviously altered my computer files by uploading something onto my computer without my permission for this “test” homepage to be active on my computer.

James | October 8th, 2008 at 6:27 pm

I have been thrown into this “test group” as well and feel most of the negative reactions too that are found in previous comments here.
My solution: I set my homepage to “mail.yahoo.com” and created a bookmark for news and sports.

Steve | October 8th, 2008 at 6:30 pm

I agree, the new page is crap.

To tell you the truth I was perfectly happy with the old page,…ads, logos, and all. At least give us the option to get rid of all this crap. I want the old freaking page back because the new one sux !!!

Guess it’s just about time for msn.com,….at least their homepage still looks useable….

Pissed Off | October 8th, 2008 at 6:39 pm

It’s horendous!!! What’s worst, Yahoo does not give you the option to opt out of the so called “random test subject”. No matter how you try to revert to the old version, it won’t let you!!!
I’m off to MSN then!!!!!

Becky | October 8th, 2008 at 8:57 pm

I hate this new m.www.yahoo.com page. It contains less information, requires more clicks to get where I need to go, and is slick-looking at the expense of being info-rich. I used to depend on yahoo.com for news updates etc and with this new page I don’t want to look around at all — too much graphics, too little info, and too many clicks and scrolling required to see anything useful. Takes multiple clicks to navigate to things that used to be a simple click away — like, uh, email!
Really don’t like this, and feel hijacked because the change was made with no notification, and it looks like I can’t change back, and it’s VERY frustrating to have to hunt around to just find that out. Not friendly at all. At the very least you could have announced the change was happening. With the different url I was afraid it was a real hijack of some sort.

=bg= | October 8th, 2008 at 9:10 pm

Is there a URL that points to the new page so I can use it?

Gena | October 9th, 2008 at 7:06 am

I too do not appreciate being included in a test group without your making prior contact and receiving permission from me. I was not asked if I wanted to be part of the new test homepage, and I highly resent it being arbitrarily fobbed off on me. The new site is horrendous — too much clicking and scrolling around to be able to see what used to be easily accessible. Who do you think you are to make changes to MY computer without asking?

PLEASE REMOVE ME FROM YOUR “TEST GROUP” IMMEDIATELY AND RESTORE MY ORIGINAL YAHOO. And please, don’t give me that crap about not being able to do it … we can put folks into space and take satellite pictures of our neighbors next door - I’m sure there’s a way to do it.

Sally | October 9th, 2008 at 12:41 pm

I don’t like it. I especially don’t like that I was included in this test without being asked. I’ve basically stopped using it and will set Google News as my home page.

Marcia | October 9th, 2008 at 12:49 pm

I too do not appreciate being included in a test group without my consent. What am I, a lab rat?
There is too much clicking and scrolling on this new site; the reason cities don’t tear up roads and put down new ones at slightly different angles every few years is because the road is functional. It works to get you from here to there. Check with the Romans on that one. Sorry, but I would like the option to stay with Yahoo classic.

oldyahoo | October 9th, 2008 at 1:52 pm

thanks for trying to make things better but as you can see we didn’t like it, so let us get back to http://www.yahoo.com

=bg= | October 9th, 2008 at 5:16 pm

Unreal. The post of “Who do you think you are to make changes to MY computer without asking.” Um..no one changed your PC. It’s a WEBPAGE. Your PC is unchanged. Think before you write. Bucket tests are common. Google is doing one now with iGoogle. But you knew that, I suppose.

Brenda | October 9th, 2008 at 9:37 pm

“100 million of you in the US and 314 million of you globally starting your day on a Yahoo! homepage.” Guess what? A lot less now. I do not use your website any longer.I detest the thing and totally refuse. It amazes me that you care so little about long time users that you not only ignore requests to be removed from your so called test page-but so little creedence is given to their negative comments as displayed by your lack of response to the awfull reviews the thing is getting. It would do you well to remember a cardinal rule of customer service is to know that it can take a life time to gain a customer,(user), but only a second to loose them. MSN must be estatic that you are actually chasing your users away.

Tapan Bhat | October 9th, 2008 at 11:21 pm

Thanks to everyone who has provided feedback on the new Yahoo! homepage we’re testing – keep it coming. When making changes to one of the most trafficked pages on the Web, we understand that it is important to carefully test our innovations and listen to you, our users. Not every person will like every change, but we truly value all feedback and strive to keep consumers at the heart of our product development process. In order to have the most accurate data for us to make critical decisions from, we need to be able to evaluate how repeat visitors interact with a site once they get used to it. We appreciate your patience during our testing process.

Debbie | October 10th, 2008 at 11:48 am

Finally, I figured out why the heck my page changed. We have 3 computers in the front office, and only mine did. Thought I had a virus or something..Hey Yahoo thanks for the advance notice. I don’t want to hear a thing about bucket tests. This new page can kick the bucket, it’s horrible. I want my old tried and true page back right now! I’m using MSN, and I’m really starting to like it.

Francis | October 10th, 2008 at 12:04 pm

I hate it. Please give me back my old http://www.yahoo.com I hate the m.www.yahoo.com I am just being honest guys.

Allen B. | October 11th, 2008 at 8:22 am

Here are the facts as I see them…
1. I hate your new home page.

2. I love the old home page.

3. I can’t believe you rammed this substandard new page down my throat w/o consulting me or giving me an option to switch it back!

I’ve been with YAHOO since its beginning and I feel violated and betrayed. I have already switched my homepage over to MSN on this computer.

My office computer will remain on YAHOO, because you didn’t screw with the home page on that computer.

WHAT WERE YOU THINKING FOLKS!

Allen B. | October 11th, 2008 at 8:31 am

I don’t mean to spam but I left out one valid point..

Remember the lessons learned when Coca Cola changed their formula?

Remember when Schlitz was the number 2 beer in the US before they changed their formula?

I already feel that I’ve been screwed and used with no recourse at all. Consider this one of those “now I see how you are” moments.

Caesar | October 11th, 2008 at 8:43 am

Yahoo is annoyingly manipulative. The customer is just an inconvenient obstacle to be tolerated. Hope they go down the toilet.

mike | October 11th, 2008 at 11:31 am

Too get back to yahoo’s old page I used ATF Cleaner. Save the program to desktop, open it, select all, and push the button “empty selected.” It worked for internet explore, have not tried it for firefox.

ATF cleaner is freeware (FREE)
http://www.majorgeeks.com/ATF_Cleaner_d4949.html

p.s Im not a computer expert, but I have been using ATF cleaner for a long while

Jim | October 11th, 2008 at 1:03 pm

Please give me my old yahoo home page back. I do not like the new one at ALL !!

George Hunter | October 12th, 2008 at 9:50 pm

Include me with the those who does NOT like the new Yahoo Home Page!

- Less information is being presented.
- Page loads slower!!
- So much harder to get into your e-mail….

Arghhhhh!!!!

-=> Delete your cookies to go back to the old one <=-

Joel Hershberger | October 13th, 2008 at 6:58 am

I DO NOT like the new yahoo home page.

Nathan | October 13th, 2008 at 1:49 pm

I do not like the change, far less information available from the main screen. I will not log in or use yahoo from my laptop which is being directed to the m.www.yahoo.com page. I have been life long yahoo user and will continue to use at the office and home pc but am upset that you do not allow users to opt out or decline the new version. I believe you allowed users to opt out of the new yahoo mail when that started a year or two ago. I dont know why everyone likes to google things when they can yahoo them. If you want more of the market I guess try getting your ‘old’ yahoo home page in a new popular movie. Otherwise just keep your loyal patrons happy with less changes.

Thanks

Brenda | October 13th, 2008 at 8:39 pm

Deleting the cookies does work. I now have the “old” home page back. Thanks for the advice.

allen | October 13th, 2008 at 9:19 pm

ugh…i hate this new version.
now we have to multi-click everywhere just to surf within the yahoo homepage.
trying to see what movies there are in yahoo movie page and signing in to check mails are some of the bothers created from this new thing

Steve | October 14th, 2008 at 9:34 am

I hate it sooo much. Please let me switch back.

=bg= | October 14th, 2008 at 8:54 pm

Tapan: still on the Yahoo Beta watch. Still don’t have it. Want it. Don’t care about these comments. Push it my way, OK?

Mark | October 14th, 2008 at 11:01 pm

If you are going to change the website, at least give us the option of using the old version as well. I know you are going to do it anyway, but there are a lot of people like me that can’t stand this new version. It shouldn’t take much effort to maintain the old version as a “skin”. MSN is my homepage but I go to Yahoo for email and searching because I don’t like MSN’s search. If this new Yahoo page goes into effect without a choice, then I think I will be using Google to search and possibly switch to gmail as well.

Ashanti | October 15th, 2008 at 7:30 am

I love the new test page! It’s new, fresh and more savy!

ryan | October 15th, 2008 at 9:12 am

arghhhhh. i hate the new yahoo crap..
this was the most useless version of this system yet.
my only advice,
stick to the basics,
reconnect and apoligize to your customers that you pissed off,
stop pouring your money into new ideas, just make the old ones better and faster.

jerry | October 15th, 2008 at 11:03 am

I do not like the new home page at all. The page colors looks like they’re tryning to copy MSN. The content on the new page is limited due to the new “special” apps that Yahoo! is using. Right now I have to use the new Yahoo homepage at home and the old Yahoo page at work. Might as well switch over to MSN. At least MSN does make you keep up with two versions.

wes | October 15th, 2008 at 3:12 pm

I hate it. make it the way it was.

Scott | October 16th, 2008 at 5:46 am

I can’t stand this site. I don’t like being unable to revert back to the way it was. I also don’t like the fact that I am using this at work and my traffic is tracked and this site currently requires me to make several other page jumps before I get to my mail (which is the only reason I use Yahoo!) rather than just going to mail.yahoo.com.

If it stays this way much longer I will just revert to Google or someone else!!!!!!!!

STOP the random acts of blindness!!!! Don’t hijack my page.

Jason | October 16th, 2008 at 12:35 pm

I hate the new site its seems more cumbersome to get around then the old site i’ve been a yahoo use since the mid 90’s and this is aweful.. i thought there was something wrong since my work computer has it but my home one doesnt.. what the hell. can you at least have had a pop-up saying “would you like to try the new yahoo home page ” yes or no”… and have a way to get the old one back.. what kinda of business just changes stuff on people without asking or letting them opt out.. PLEASE LET ME HAVE THE OLD PAGE BACK!!

Eric | October 16th, 2008 at 12:47 pm

i found my homepage suddenly redirected to this m.yahoo.com website. Everytime i tried to go to http://www.yahoo.com the page would redirect. In this world of computer viruses and websites that try to look like legitimate sites to obtain personal information, as a webdeveloper myself, I am shocked and angered that Yahoo would do such a redirect without at least some notification to users. I sincerely thought that my computer was infected, and made several attempts to restore my computer as a result simply because I assumed wrongly that yahoo would not do something so moronic as launch an entirely new homepage at a new URL without so much as a warning. If You sincerely want to improve your homepage, may I suggest looking back at your original website which brought yahoo success in the first place. Sometimes, you can ruin a good thing. And for the sake of basic security, ask for beta users consent prior to tossing users into a new homepage.

jason | October 16th, 2008 at 12:50 pm

Ok i was fustrated with the new page also dont like it .. but I was thinkin maybe its just a cookie they put on the machine to make it do that and sure enough when i deleted all my internet history/cookies etc in IE.. i have my old comforable Yahoo.com back YAAHOO!!!

Eric | October 16th, 2008 at 12:54 pm

For Users who do not want to continue using this crappy homepage… go to Tools/ internet options/ browsing history/ Delete…
I deleted program files, cookies and history… but I understand just deleting cookies should work.

Finally, write Yahoo and let them know that what they are doing is a serious security risk opening users up to identity theft.

Jen | October 16th, 2008 at 1:32 pm

for a starting point please keep yahoo live thanx

Jen | October 16th, 2008 at 1:33 pm

i would love to try the new homepage please yahoo keep up the great work

Will Henderson | October 16th, 2008 at 1:37 pm

what the hell were you thinking Yahoo!. you should ask people first, not do the change it while no one is looking and without permission crap. it’s morons in charge of yahoo that p*** people off like me. no wonder Mircosoft wanted to buy you out. you should had let microsoft bought you out. at least they would have given us an heads up. i guess my new homepage will be an wrestling news website. at least they are more important to me that this unwanted crap.

L | October 16th, 2008 at 2:50 pm

I hate it. It is cluttered, too much going on and the color is too distracting. Why was I not given an option to choose the new web page or stay with the original? How do I turn it off and revert to the original, cleaner and clearer http://www.yahoo.com?

nick | October 16th, 2008 at 5:40 pm

Ugh, like everyone else, I hate this new page. And the most frustrating part is that my office comp still runs the old page, and I cant get it on my home comp! i end up just typing mail.yahoo.com to go to my mailbox, but honestly, if this is how it is from now on, I’ll start using my gmail acct…

Joe R | October 16th, 2008 at 8:01 pm

I use Yahoo to check promarily to check my email…this new page forces me to take extra steps …There is nothing I like about this new page…Please keep the older version

blah | October 16th, 2008 at 9:10 pm

I just got this new homepage for the 1st time tonight. Too bad it doesn’t even work on Firefox 3 and I use Firefox exclusively. All I see is a bunch of text and images overlapping each other going down the left side of the screen. Guess I have to delete my cookies since it’s not even readable or usable on my browser.

As mentioned by others, a note should’ve be added to the new page so those effected were immediately informed of what was going on instead of thinking they had a virus/spyware that was hijacking and redirecting their homepage. That’s very poor form on yahoo’s part when it should have been basic common sense.

Charles | October 16th, 2008 at 9:23 pm

This was not only done without advance notice to the non-tech geeks among us, but it’s artistically bland. Now I know why Yahoo’s stock keeps tanking and why they can’t engage in sensible business combinations. You call this independence. When I reach the sign in point, I am welcomed to sign in to Gmail as well. You sold out, Mr. Chen, and unfortunately to the devil whose fortunes have long waned.

Good luck with this junk. I’m switching to MSN.

Bill | October 16th, 2008 at 9:30 pm

I do not like it Sam I am, I do not like this home page spam.

Knock knock, who’s there’s….Yahoo

Yahoo who? New Yahoo sucks.

What did the old Yahoo say to the new Yahoo? Yafool

wtf | October 16th, 2008 at 9:36 pm

does not work well with firefox 3. The layouts are in a mess in my firefox 3.

Anie | October 17th, 2008 at 12:19 am

I HATE this. why do you guys put all the junk above fold? I only care about news, and now i have to go all the way down to see any meaningful content.
Left side bar is total waste of space. How can I turn off?
I recommend you to keep the old version. Otherwise you will lose #2 position.

Jarrod | October 17th, 2008 at 7:35 am

Like many others here, I didn’t really like the redesign when I first saw it (was randomly chosen). But I got the hang of it really quickly and it’s beginning to grow on me.

I like that you got rid of the text ads at the bottom. I like the way the featured content and news is displayed (though, I’d recommend using “cursor: pointer” in the css code for hovering over featured/news tabs). It would also be a good idea to allow users to switch the order of the featured and news sections - some may want the news to be on top. The new mail checking feature seems really nifty (though I haven’t taken advantage yet), but it does make a part of me wonder, if this is the direction you’re moving in, why not just scrap the static homepage altogether and use my.yahoo instead? Maybe that’s too much for some? Or is this where you’re trying to eventually get to?

Oh, and many have complained that they couldn’t find Answers and other of their favorite links. They are right there on the top right but people’s eyes were accustomed to going left. Actually, looking at the page the only *significant* difference from the old design. Add some of the purple to that area and people’s eyes may naturally follow (and consider adding Yahoo’s purchased properties like Delicious, Flickr, etc to that default list.) And make it work in FF3.

Anyway, it certainly isn’t as terrible as some are making it out to be (imo). But it does need a few tweaks.

jeremy | October 19th, 2008 at 9:36 am

its too slow all the way around. i like the old one better, but i cant seem to return my homepage to the classic.
maybe you have a few more bugs to work out. if i cant get my homepage to change then im gonna have to go to google.

VAMtns41 | October 19th, 2008 at 12:21 pm

1. I do not appreciate being included in test without my permission!
2. I do not like the new Yahoo Homepage, looks, functioning, etc. I use 3 Yahoo e-mail accounts for differing purposes. Use to be easy to quickly check all 3 with no clicks. Now takes 3 clicks just to sign in for each e-mail; which adds up to 9 extra clicks.
3. Your Tech services said I could not get back to the old Yahoo Homepage. Not being a techie, I almost said the heck with it! But I was angry & determined 66 year-old. So Yahoo Technical Support: I am a better Techie than you! Ha! I got back! Bet you wish you knew how I did it! But I am not going to tell you. If a non-techie 66 year-old can figure it out, you young hot-shot Techies should be able to figure it out yourselves! HAND! :-)

Jon | October 19th, 2008 at 5:15 pm

There is absolutely nothing to like about m.www.yahoo.com. I’ve tried to switch my homepage back to the original yahoo.com now for a few weeks thinking someone using my computer reset my homepage, but now I see that I’m one of the unlucky ones that this is being tested on. I want out. I don’t need flashy colors and cool looking icons, I just want the old yahoo homepage back. Hopefully this page will be scrapped, as it looks to be something of interest to children rather than the mass public (the various colors and big option buttons). If this isn’t switched soon I will definately be using another site for both my mail and news. Also, those affected by this switch should have been notified, as I have been frustrated for weeks trying to get rid of this new yahoo page. Thanks for nothing yahoo.

radha | October 19th, 2008 at 7:25 pm

I HATE IT. I HATE IT. I HATE IT.

NEW YAHOO SUCKS.

cathy | October 19th, 2008 at 10:31 pm

IF YOU HATE THIS NEW YAHOO M AND WANT THE OLD YAHOO BACK JUST DELETE COOKIES. TO DO THIS CLICK ON TOOLS THEN INTERNET OPTIONS DELETE COOKIES.AND YES IT WORKS.
Deleting the cookies does work. I now have the “old” home page back. Thanks for the advice.

Chuck | October 20th, 2008 at 3:43 am

I have “classic” Yahoo at the office and the new Yahoo at home. After using the new version for several days I can’t definitely say I much prefer classic Yahoo over the new one. The new one is definitely inferior.

Eric | October 20th, 2008 at 5:51 am

hate the new homepage, if the look remains like it is now I’ll remove Yahoo as my homepage and search engine and visit rarely to collect emails..and yeah, the ad space is outta hand.

Noelle | October 20th, 2008 at 7:20 am

I too hate this new web page. I thought that I had a virus and was running my anit-virus software almost every day until I realized I had been “randomly” selected to test this new page. I now only check my mail awork, where I have the old browser.

When I get home tonight I will be taking the advise of others and deleting my cookies, hoepfully this will help to restore the old yahoo homepage.

How can you test a site without first informing the public? With identity theft and malicious viruses running rampant on the web, was it really a good idea to do this without first informing us? Shame on Yahoo.

robert chris | October 20th, 2008 at 1:29 pm

I have been “randomly” selected to have this intrusion placed upon my home page, I do not like it and they tell me I cannot get my old style back. I am not happy and just get a corporate runaround as to why I cannot get get the old style back. If they “giveth” they should be able to “taketh” also.

wallydog | October 20th, 2008 at 1:52 pm

Please add me to the beta…I would like to test the new home page please.

Mheater | October 20th, 2008 at 2:20 pm

Please tell me how to revert back to the prior version of the Yahoo home page.

I don’t want the new version.

Terry | October 20th, 2008 at 6:50 pm

I have used it for a week now, and really don’t like it at all. Important things that used to take one click — like getting my mail — now takes multiple clicks. A small annoyance, but an annoyance nonetheless. Also, it has less total information on the screen and, again, I have to click around to see the same things I could see on the old homepage.

SO, I switched back. It is easy (just delete your cookies and internet saved files). Ahhh…. Sorry, people, the new site is pretty, but not good for me. PLEASE let us keep our old homepage as an option. Thanks!

Le Anne | October 20th, 2008 at 8:12 pm

Congratulations; you have upset the A-TYPE personalities. Good for you…….oddly enough, had you done your homework, you would have known that you should have FIRST sent a request for participation. People with B-TYPE [like my husband] love change and willingly participate in the latest/greatest. B-TYPES are carefree and less likely to fire an employee or switch services, unlike A-TYPES who are known to revolt when messed with. Curiously, my husband [Mr. B] was not included in your “random act of testing” my patience. FORTUNATELY FOR YAHOO, my husband endured my “Yahoo is so stupid” venting session and restored the original homepage.
On a positive note: I didn’t know I had browser options until reading through the mass of complaints. I visited the MSN.COM webpage and I am think I’ll give them a try now. As I said before, we A-TYPE creatures don’t like change [Translation: loyalty].

Carl | October 21st, 2008 at 4:22 am

I like the look and feel of the new site. It feels uncluttered. I can only seem to get it on my work computer though. I would like to have it stay with me in any browser on all of my computers.

Jim | October 21st, 2008 at 10:07 am

THE NEW PAGE SUCKS!!

Thank you for giving me a good reason to switch to Google. I just switched, and I love it already.

william goldman | October 21st, 2008 at 12:25 pm

WHO IN THE WORLD DECIDED TO MESS AROUND WITH YAHOO PROFILES? YOU’VE TOTALLY DESTROYED WHAT SOME OF US HAVE BEEN USE TO SINCE 2000 OR BEFORE.
I FINALLY FIGURED OUT HOW TO UPDATE MY PROFILE, BUT I STILL CAN’T SEE ANYTHING ABOUT MY FRIEND’S PROFILES.
YOU’VE DONE A TERRIBLE THING,YAHOO, AND YOUR REDUCED SPONSORSHIP WILL SHOW THIS.
WITH ALL YOUR INTERNET GURES, SURELY YOU CAN FIX WHAT YOU HAVE DESTROYED

Sam1046 | October 21st, 2008 at 3:15 pm

Yahoo!, What have you done with my homepage!?!? I don’t think picking me randomly without a headsup was very nice, especially because I am a paying customer! Yahoo is one of the easiest, user-friendly engines out there. People are familar with it and that makes people like it more than “the other guys”. Change isn’t always a good thing, especially when you do it without saying you are doing it. At least give us the option to go back to Classic as you do in Yahoo Mail.
BTW, If it matters, I actually liked the “crowded” look because it gave me a huge selection of goodies to click on. Well, guess I’ll go to a link in my “Favorites” now. :(

Chris | October 21st, 2008 at 4:09 pm

The new homepage that I “volunteered” to test is a piece of crap.

This experience has been like catching some disease.

To all you other displaced users — I’m looking for recommendations for a new homepage. AOL, MSN, iGoogle, ???

Actually, I just looked at iGoogle, and I believe that is where I’m going.

Voice of Reason | October 21st, 2008 at 4:12 pm

DELETE YOUR COOKIES

deena | October 21st, 2008 at 8:10 pm

the “new” yahoo really scared me today - thankfully i could get back to the original page (clearing cookies)

it looks like the old Web TV if anyone remembers that - or the lame web services provided by hotels - it’s silly.

if they switch to this perm, thank goodness there are other options - at least we were able to use Yahoo! as our starting point for the past 14 years - if they force this change on everyone they will surely go under - maybe their following has been diminished and this is a last ditch effort - either way , what a pitty…

david salz | October 22nd, 2008 at 3:04 am

I want the old yahoo format back please can you give it to me this one is terrible. The new one

Ciotee | October 22nd, 2008 at 5:56 am

Dear Yahoo,

Please fire Tapan Bhat for screwing us by making us use this stupid new homepage that everyone hates.

Thank you.
Ciotee

cathy | October 22nd, 2008 at 8:40 am

WANT THE OLD YAHOO BACK JUST DELETE COOKIES.
DELETE COOKIES
DELETE COOKIES
DELETE COOKIES
DELETE COOKIES
I POSTED ON 10/19 HOW TO GET OLD YAHOO BACK JUST DELETE COOKIES.DON’T ANYONE READ COMMENTS ANYMORE????????

Kevin | October 22nd, 2008 at 9:12 am

It’s all been said…

There are far too many clicks needed to get to my e-mail and other features. In a world that has conditioned us for fast food, even one extra click is like watching water in a pot till it boils!

OUT WITH THE NEW AND IN WITH THE OLD!!!

Yahoo!, listen to us customers before we flee to the competition (by the way, they’re reading these comments). How much more testing do you need? Act now; act fast before we do!

Trevor Powell | October 22nd, 2008 at 4:56 pm

Make the favicon purple too!!

Peter Torrey | October 22nd, 2008 at 5:05 pm

Hate this. We want back to the old Yahoo page. No help anywhere on how to get out of test group.

Will probably move to Google.

d_b | October 22nd, 2008 at 6:10 pm

The new page is terrible and I do not like being a guinea pig for yahoo or anyone else.

Clearing cookies alone does not work. Do as mike suggested on Oct. 11 and download ATF Cleaner from majorgeeks.com

Tarak | October 22nd, 2008 at 6:36 pm

The yahoo site switched on me 2 days ago and it is miserable. I am using firefox as my regular browser and I have even switched to IE just to view the old yahoo page (which shows up under IE and I understand now that this is due to cookies)

Sorry to say this, but the new page is terrible (let’s use decent words only!)

Too much empty space (what a waste of space). Updates are less frequent, layout needs to be customizable, cannot access common information like mails, market indices, sports scores etc. without having to click (Could be drop down).

The old page is compact, neat, very well thought out and organized to the point that I never even bothered to use ‘my yahoo’.

And please, at the least, you should have provided the option to go back to the original page by providing some easy link on the new page.

scott | October 23rd, 2008 at 5:30 am

Well, frankly, I could write an hour long response, but I will make it short.

First, I deleted my cookies, and I no longer suffered m.www.yahoo. Why would yahoo not mention this?

Second, do you have any idea how many hours it took out of my day to fix the problem? Yes, m.www is a PROBLEM.

Third, you provided no warning to your users about this nonsense.

Fourth, the m.www page is atrocious.

Fifth, before I was able to fix the problem, I actually re-set my homepage from Yahoo to CNN. I imagine many other users changed their home page after being redirected WITHOUT PERMISSION to m.www.

Sixth, does your company not know why yahoo.com is the most favored homepage? m.www looks like a celebrity worship magazine cover wanna be.

Seventh, if indeed m.www becomes the new layout, I will no longer use yahoo.

Eighth, the designer of m.www should be pink slip number 1501. What on Earth was that person thinking?

The idea was horrible and then even worse in its execution. A bad idea, imposed without warning or permission, costing your customers time and money to fix, and alienating your customers so much that they would choose a new homepage. Also, the redirection WITHOUT PERMISSION AND WITHOUT WARNING to m.www was a horrible way to treat customers.

Jade | October 23rd, 2008 at 6:46 am

Just like facebook yahoo are gonna force us to an almost 100 perecent crappy new site(although not as crappy lookin as the new facebook so i’ll give yahoo a half pt in favor). Rather we like it or not. Seems places like yahoo are now like a few well known others trying to be the next myspace and facebook. It’s really sad you have to mess stuff up. Who got a bonus for thinking of this new layout at the board meeting. Come on yahoo! I’m disappointed I been a fan of yahoo and user since 95 but now I think I might have to find a new fav. I think it be nice if you just had the option permanently to use whichever version we like. The new or old. Also I see you mentioned something about being to see what our friends are doing on yahoo and across the web. Sounds like invasion of our privacy… another wannabe facebook moment I see. Also no email or post on the yahoo.com or myyahoo mentioning of the new look letting us know ahead of time and giving us a link to check out the new one not just forcing it upon us and making us think maybe someone phished our pages and more. BOOO YAHOO BOOO!!! No soup for you! :P (sorry had to vent.)

brsds | October 23rd, 2008 at 12:43 pm

the new yahoo front page sucks
i liked being able to view mail and my messenger contacts from the front page now i cant

i emailed and they said they wont/cant go back to older page,

thanks alot yahoo, at least give us some $ if you are going to use us as lab rats

good bye yahoo@!

Jessica | October 23rd, 2008 at 2:03 pm

Yes it looks nice and flashy but I have had this a week and really do not like it. I really like how the new used to be and now I go elsewhere for my news plus you have to go through way to many clicks to get into the email.

Flashy Yes
Functional No

You will see soon when you are forced with this new improved homepage

C los | October 23rd, 2008 at 2:17 pm

Last week Yahoo went blank, all I got was a white page no explanation what so ever. Then on the news I hear Yahoo is going to be beta testing a new version. So WHY did no one ASK ME if I wanted to be part of this?

Well it took me a WEEK to figure how to get Yahoo back. THANKS for telling me you were going to FORCE me to use the NEW version. That really made my WEEK!

So now I am searching for a new site, I see that my experience and needs don’t matter to you.

b.l.j | October 23rd, 2008 at 2:57 pm

I really, really hate the new yahoo. Please put the old yahoo.com back up. I realize some people are opposed to change but that is not my problem. The inconvience of having to take additional steps to get to my e-mail, my weather not up at a glance, just to mention two problems, has quickly made m.www.yahoo.com my least favorite place to visit.

Jack Smith | October 23rd, 2008 at 10:38 pm

Wow, all these horrifying bad comments about the new beta site and all any yahoo employee has to say is “thanks for the feedback :)” Duh. There’s not brain cell in the building apparently. Any idiot would have put a restore or opt out button on such a buggy and sluggish release. C’mon.

MartinB | October 24th, 2008 at 9:07 am

I too have been randomly selected to try out the m.www.yahoo site without being notified or asked. Of course the first thing I thought was that my laptop had been hacked and I ended up wasting a lot of time trying to figure out what had happened that I could have been doing other things. After finally figuring out that it was yahoo’s legitimate site, I tried living with it for a while but after repeat visits, I still hate it! I want my regular yahoo back! I did try deleting my cookies, but still have m.www.yahoo hounding me. I have always had yahoo as my home page, but after this, I really am thinking about going elsewhere. Just to check my mail, I have to click four or five different links. Not worth my time! The best thing I USED to like about yahoo was that it was simple, not FRUSTRATING!

Walid Negm | October 24th, 2008 at 4:27 pm

Constructive Feedback:
- I am dismayed at the lack of communication that I was part of a test group for your new page. I can understand involuntarily being lumped into a pool of guinea pigs - but at least tell me about it. Notify me.

- As a loyal, paying Yahoo! Mail user - it takes me more time to get to my mail.

- There does not seem to be any value add to the new layout. On the contrary it is disorienting. Facebook changed its UI with users going up in arms. That was a different story. They had significant functionality and privacy controls that needed to be deployed. Here, what are we doing exactly? Change for the sake of change?

- Each of the so-called “Application” is displayed as mashups of part of the final destination - but to get any meaningful data - i end up going to the final destination. It seems I am always one click away.

Greg | October 24th, 2008 at 8:03 pm

I FRIGGIN HATE IT!! SO DO HUNDREDS OF OTHER YAHOO USERS THAT WOULD AT LEAST LIKE THE OPTION OF REVERTING BACK TO THE OLD LOOK. CHECK OUT YAHOO ANSWERS TO SEE JUST HOW MANY PEOPLE ARE P.O.’ED!! (MYSELF INCLUDED) REMEMBER THE OLD SAYING; IF IT AIN’T BROKE, DON’T FIX IT? THAT’S WHAT’S GREAT ABOUT AMERICA. FOR THE MOST PART,…WE HAVE CHOICES. YOU CAN BET YOUR BOTTOM DOLLAR THAT IF I DON’T HAVE ONE WITH YAHOO, I’LL SIMPLY MOVE ON. A LOYAL USER FOR 12+ YEARS, I MUST ADMIT, I HATE THE NEW LOOK OF YAHOO!

HappyHauler | October 24th, 2008 at 10:01 pm

Thank you for randomly screwing up my ease of computing by adding that itty bitty “m” to your URL. Oh yeah and the extra strokes required to see what’s new in my mail box.

Why oh why do people think that “change” is progress?

I really believe if we aren’t told how to get rid of this new, experimental and un-solicited piece of crap there may be grounds for a class action law suit.

As far as I’m concerned it’s SPAM!

Tell us how to go back to what _we_ want, not what you _think_ we should have.

Ken | October 24th, 2008 at 10:04 pm

This M.yahoo pirated my firefox and I hate it. i can’t get the regular yahoo main page back. yahoo sucks.

Valerie | October 24th, 2008 at 10:28 pm

I hate what you did to my Yahoo homepage. I used Yahoo in the past because it was straight-forward and superior to Aol. Now it’s just another site that hijacks me and tries to herd me where they want me to go.

If anyone has some suggestions about another site to switch to - let me know. I don’t have any loyalty to Yahoo anymore.

Chelsea | October 25th, 2008 at 12:26 am

Agreed, EXTREMELY frustrating. I’m using Firefox 3.0.3, and this page is completely unusable when using the Adblock Plus extension. Considering it’s an extremely popular extension with apparently over 300,000 weekly downloads (according to the Firefox web site), that’s a bit of a problem. With Adblock Plus enabled, Everything is completely left-aligned, none of those table-like DIVs like there are supposed to be. What I assume is supposed to be that pretty teal-ish sidebar is several teal and gold stripes of various thickness stretching completely across the page, and none of the text that is apparently supposed to be in it is actually in it. What is there is black, which makes it completely impossible to read anyway. Under Featured Services, there is text on top of picture icons, and in some places, text on top of text. That’s just the worst of it that I can pick out. I assure you, it’s bad.

Just thought I’d let you know.

WW | October 25th, 2008 at 2:09 am

I am not a person who complains a lot online I hate typing but I loved the old page it grew on me I was used to it. I hate this new page its like you kidnapped my pet gave hime a mohawk, died his hair, pierced his ear, then wrote the word Xtreme on his collar. I hate that you have forced me to use it. I hate that there was no information given on how to revert it back to normal. I hate that we were not given any choice. And I hate that you didnt even offer even a link to an explanation. I had to spend hours just finding this page yeah nice of you to hjide the reason my hompage has changed I thought for a while I was accidently getting the mobile version of the hompage or somtething. Shame on you for changing things without a readily accesable explanation. just in case you only scan for key words I leave you with the following to ensure you will read this. Angry bad horrible wrong stupid no compicated hard Do not want.

Jonathan Langdale | October 25th, 2008 at 7:30 am

While it might appear to be an improvement, with such a great brand as Yahoo, it’s a shame that the Yahoo.com web UI designers cannot do better. Yahoo could and should be more aesthetically on par with something like Apple.com and CNN.com. The purple marketing campaign is a great idea, but it appears to be poorly executed. There is no cross-brand uniformity. It looks like you have several designers working separately. This is confusing but not necessarily surprising considering the size of the company.

Going web 2.0 for the sake of it comes off weak and AOLish. I would be looking towards web 3.0.

Simplify, simplify, simplify.

KRF | October 25th, 2008 at 4:01 pm

I get thrown to this crappy website when I want to go to straight yahoo.com. Why the hell can’t I visit Yahoo.com anymore?!!!

Jose | October 25th, 2008 at 4:36 pm

I want my old home page back! How do I stop being redirected?

Valerie | October 25th, 2008 at 5:49 pm

Many thx to Jason and Eric and others. I went to internet options on my control panel and deleted cookies and got my old trusted Yahoo homepage back. At least for now. It was really easy. This reminds me of when “Aboutblank” which is kind of a viral site used to hijack my homepage. Nice going Yahoo. Now I don’t trust you either.

Good luck all.

David | October 25th, 2008 at 7:11 pm

This new Home Page sucks. I’m giving up Yahoo if this is your idea of a good Idea. It sucks, really Yahoo go back.

Timothy | October 25th, 2008 at 11:35 pm

horrible…first my work pc is showing this…now my home pc is…I absolutely HATE the new layout…less information and harder to get to things. I literally read the front page of Yahoo (news especially) 20 + times a day…but no more if this is what i have to endure :(

samii | October 26th, 2008 at 10:26 am

users of Firefox with Adblock Plus and Easylist look here
http://forums.lanik.us/viewtopic.php?f=64&t=2572

Jamie | October 26th, 2008 at 7:03 pm

This is a pointless change. It makes things take longer, requires extra clicks to get around, and decreases visibility (you handily left out the part about the mail tab requiring a click to open, then having to load while completely covering the featured section). I’m frankly upset with the Yahoo team for forcing this upon users without the option of going back. It’s like a mother trying to force-feed broccoli to her kid, except this isn’t better than the alternative, and I’m not a kid. This issue will decrease the likelihood that I will continue to use yahoo.com.

Mary | October 26th, 2008 at 9:08 pm

I have used Yahoo for a very long time, but no more. I hate the new page, for all the reasons other posters have mentioned. I have deleted cookies several times, but the horrible new page comes back after a short while. I have changed my homepage to another site. I have book marked the mail page as others have suggested so that I can by-pass as much of Yahoo as possible. Unless the old page comes back, I will soon begin the process of switching over my email accounts to gmail. What exactly is Yahoo testing? How many long-time satisfied users they can drive away? By that measure it must be a very successful test.

brad | October 27th, 2008 at 12:07 pm

i don’t like it. I want to go back to the original page layout. how can i do that? i don’t care to be a “Tester”

Rick | October 27th, 2008 at 1:39 pm

This sucks, and yahoo obviously isn’t listening. I will have to go to msn for my news now, never really liked their site either but it’s better than this new yahoo crap. Don’t they realize that people like to have a choice and not have something forced on them. Can you hear that, what’s that sound, oh it’s the sound of yahoo stock falling even further.

Matthew | October 28th, 2008 at 11:01 am

Hate it, hate it, hate it.

It takes so many clicks to get into my email account.
Why are you forcing me to stay on the homepage longer rather than letting me dive into my complete inbox? Gaah!

Howie | October 28th, 2008 at 11:19 am

Maybe the search button should start wearing purple as well??

A golden border around it can have a similar effect you are trying to accomplish to help it stand out while also retaining/regaining brand consistency.

Love the design overall - keep up the good work ya yahoos!

:)

ArunaR | October 28th, 2008 at 11:57 am

I hate to say it but I hate the new yahoo page. I like the format and the way information is presented on the regular page.

Lee | October 28th, 2008 at 4:23 pm

I hate it! Please give me the old site back–at least an option to chose whether to use the m site or not. Forcing the public to switch as a consensus test is ethically wrong.

Sandy | October 28th, 2008 at 5:38 pm

I’m glad to see I’m not the only one disturbed. I did delete my cookies so I could return to the old yahoo. I also e-mailed yahoo and got the run-around. They certainly didn’t tell me about deleting my cookies - my 13 year-old son had to do that!

Natalia | October 28th, 2008 at 6:40 pm

The new Yahoo is very inconvenient. But worst of all, it doesn’t explain how to get back to the old Yahoo page and mail.
If you roll anything new out and testing it on random users without their permission (like me), at least have the courtesy of letting them opt out of this test if they choose.
This is the most unprofessional way of testing the new product.

lucie | October 28th, 2008 at 9:28 pm

I HATE THE NEW WEB PAGE I WAS SOO USED TO THE OLD ONE THAT I CAN’T FIND ANYTHING ON THE NEW ONE AND I HATE HOW YAHOO MAIL WON’T OPEN UNLESS YOU CLICK ON THIS ONE LITTLE BUTTON AND OMG ITS JUST SOOO ANNOYING!! IS THERE ANYWAY I CAN USE THE NORMAL 2007 VERSION??/

Carla | October 29th, 2008 at 5:06 am

I hate it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I want the old way back.

Dmitry | October 29th, 2008 at 12:38 pm

This is the very bad attempt to redo the home page by Yahoo. The Web 2.0 concept just doesn’t work.
If you guys think that will help you to bring the revenue up that is big mistake.
In fact you going to loose people.
Very bad move.

P.S I think you over paying you Web Development team the concept is simply sucks.

Cheers, DS

jean-pierre | October 29th, 2008 at 6:53 pm

goodbye yahoo. Please ask me before you make me a guinea pig and not giving me the possibility of opting out of your experiment.

.... | October 29th, 2008 at 9:42 pm

I hate this one I want it to go back to the old one. it looked much better and im use to it now. CHANGE IT BACK PLLLLLLLLLLLLZZZZZZZZZZZZ

doris | October 30th, 2008 at 3:01 am

I hate this web site,just leave yahoo alone and go back to the old yahoo web site…please

John G Teetsel | October 30th, 2008 at 9:03 am

I want to know how to remove m.yahoo.com from my pc.

Philip Edward Schumacher | October 30th, 2008 at 9:53 am

I do appreciate improvement efforts. But if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it (folk saying). Improvements can be made a little at a time. The former long-standing Yahoo! front page is a testament to something that works well.
If Yahoo! sent an invitation first, I’d probably be happy to test their new format. I remember switching back and forth from the new Yahoo! Mail and Mail Classic only to decide on the new version. I do understand the merits of having randomly chosen people to test. Forget it though, if I must accustom myself to something new then I’d be as well choosing a new home page altogether.

T | October 30th, 2008 at 10:18 am

I will now be switching back to MSN for my home page. I do not like the change and do not appreciate not being advised or given the choice to not participate in the experiment. Although it may be slightly tedious to notify all of my contacts to use my new address, I will definitely be doing so. It is too bad, since I have been using Yahoo for so long that it has to come to this.

Dave Gunderson | October 30th, 2008 at 12:53 pm

I’ve had YAHOO as my homepage since I bought my PC in 2002. If I don’t get the old version back I will find another home page.

What possessed the yahoos at YAHOO to force this on us? You finally get used to something and they want to fix what ain’t broke!!!!!

Former Yahoo User | October 30th, 2008 at 3:59 pm

The new home page sucks. I’m switching my start page to MSN or Google.

doris | October 30th, 2008 at 5:04 pm

I want my old yahoo homepage back.

mmoshe | October 30th, 2008 at 5:05 pm

i cleared cookies and it workes, iam back to the old yahoo. yaaaaaaaaaay!!

David Meinhart | October 30th, 2008 at 5:31 pm

I too, would like to at the very least, have the choice to use the M site, and the old site. I found that the old version suited me much better. It everything I wanted to use, right at my fingertips. The poll news, world news, my email, etc etc.

We need to let the engineers know that we want a choice, people. Otherwise this is just going to keep on happening.

Yahoo M is a terrible looking front page. Just terrible.

Tom Gott | October 30th, 2008 at 6:09 pm

Please change it back, I have 2 press 100 links to get to my mail I will never come back if you dont PLZZ

Art | October 31st, 2008 at 7:21 am

I hate it! Just give me old homepage back and let me get on with my business!

Bill | October 31st, 2008 at 8:13 am

Because of the new Yahoo home page that you are “testing” (”test page” on my home computer, wife’s computer and office have original page) I am no longer using Yahoo because it’s a pain. Keep making changes like this and Google’s stock will keep going up while yours keeps plummeting.

ray | October 31st, 2008 at 9:34 am

I hate this new layout and I want it off my computer, but I can’t seem to get rid of it. I’m going to change my homepage away from Yahoo!. Unfortunatly I’m in the middle of a yahoo fantasy football league with friends or I would just abandon this site entirely.

ben | October 31st, 2008 at 6:59 pm

I wasted an hour of my life trying to figure out how to get rid of it. Feels a LOT like AOL back in the day. Really bad. Let people choose the ‘beta’ like you did with mail instead of forcing it. Don’t forget how you got here — It doesn’t take much to lose customers, and you are shedding a boatload. I just signed up for gmail today after 15 YEARS with yahoo.

Whitneymuse | October 31st, 2008 at 10:41 pm

It’s apalling how you would just spring this on someone; a home page, is an important gateway; and it’s very upsetting to awaken and find nothing is where it should be, and then have to take a good hour (that you don’t have) to navigate around something that should never have happened in the first place, with NO switch to get back to the original unadulterated verion; I was despicable what you did to me after using your homepage for 10 years and then have that rude surprise foisted upon me out of the clear, last week.

That was a Shitty thing to do.

kaitlin | November 1st, 2008 at 7:03 am

ok you guys seriously this is twice you have tried to run this crap on my computer with no warning no consent no ANYTHING! enough’s enough…cut the crap and add some warning. (delete your cookies and it will go away for those of you who were lucky enough to be in this test program)

Kyle Anderson | November 1st, 2008 at 12:47 pm

I am just curious as to how it looks and I don’t have this new page everyone else say they have. How can I see it?

wilson | November 1st, 2008 at 5:15 pm

I prefer old yahoo home page. This new layout make screen looks smaller. the left hand side panel is kind of waste of page space, the bigger fancy icons are not necessary. maybe it’s only me. I hate to say that but I don’t want this new layout to be my homepage. sorry.

Gary | November 1st, 2008 at 9:49 pm

i dont like it and how do i get the old one back

Carla | November 2nd, 2008 at 5:46 am

Wow I wake up one day and my homepage has changed..
After spending a bunch of time trying to figure out how it got changed and how to change it back, I found that Yahoo was testing a new homepage.
Something’s are best left alone. There is a saying if it ain’t broke don’t fix it.
Yahoo original isn’t broke.
I understand that you need to improve things, but really…….
So I will give you my opinion of the home page.
Don’t like it. Looks like AOL use to look. It looks like you have set mail to add accounts. That’s a nice feature but do it under the regular home page.
Anyways I finally figured out how to go back and I did. But thanks for selecting me as one of your guinea pigs. Not.

Dave | November 2nd, 2008 at 7:04 am

I also don’t like it. It is not user friendly. I can’t get access to “my Yahoo” from it. I’ve sent several email to the help desk and they keep telling me that there is no way to go back. The only thing I hear back is how great this is supposed to be and that I better like it. WRONG. I can quit using Yahoo. Why was I mandated to be a test subject for this?

Reading some of the nortes above, I will try to clear the cookines.

Why wouldn’t the help desk tell me that?

Excellent way to take care of loyal users……….

sherine | November 2nd, 2008 at 1:26 pm

i absolutely hate it and want the old homepage back!!!

i did not ask to be changed, somebody tell me how to get the old homepage back please :(

shannon | November 2nd, 2008 at 6:18 pm

I highly dislike the new yahoo website. I also am very unhappy that I was chosen to be a guinea pig for the test run. Do not choose me again or I will stop using my yahoo account. It is too dark and I prefer to view my account on the right side of the screen not the left. When I emailed the help center and asked to be switched back to the old version, I was told no. Thanks for the emphasis on customer satisfaction.

Mike | November 2nd, 2008 at 9:37 pm

Please tell me know to go back to the old homepage.

Jon-Jacob | November 2nd, 2008 at 9:48 pm

There’s nothing I can say that hasn’t been said, but add another “the new homepage sucks” comment to the already-substantial pile.

Sometimes less is more, but in this case, less is less. The feng shui might be better, but the functionality has suffered.

1. Form follows function.
2. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

Joe | November 3rd, 2008 at 9:56 am

Why are you all griping about the new page? To me it makes it more user friendly, and about the ad, i have a simple solution. 1>get firefox 2> it’s called ADBLOCK & it’s simple to use. If anything you ppl that are complaining should feel grateful that you are the lucky few who get to use the new page. Technically what is the main problem? I see none. Just wish I could have the page myself.

Seacoast | November 3rd, 2008 at 12:05 pm

I Do not care for the new home page. I did find a way by deleting my cookies;tempory internt files and uninstalling and reinstally my Yahoo toolbar. I got my “Classic Yahoo” main page back.

Yahoo, can certainly do what they want and push the new look page but give the users the “option” of keeping the classic main page if they so desire. As a Yahoo shareholder I am not very happy with the lack of leadership and lack of directin the company is heading in, failing to meet the demands of Google and MSN and the failed MS bid- wake up and smell the coffee and listen. Today there are lots of choices and some or many might go to Google or MSN if you do not please the user “customer “. So take the cotton out of your ears Yahoo and put the cotton in your mouth for a change.

Lee | November 3rd, 2008 at 4:22 pm

to get rid of the “new” yahoo homepage. download and run ccleaner. It’s free and will get rid of a lot of other stuff.

eknirb | November 3rd, 2008 at 7:32 pm

I think it looks GREAT. Curiously; it shows up on IE7..and not FF3.03.

??

aznxxnugget | November 4th, 2008 at 10:44 am

im one of the people who were chosen at random… and i just wanna say that i dont like it… but for the people who do, why not give us the option of choosing?

David Wisniewski | November 4th, 2008 at 3:08 pm

I am one of the “random testers,” and have decided that, for the duration of this “process” - and I use the term loosely, since most processes have a predetermined result or goal, as well as an estimated time to completion - I will be changing my homepage to msn. They at least let us CHOOSE whether we want our entire homepage flipped around from the way it was to a new, redundant, evil twin version.
I will be surprised if I am the only user Yahoo! loses during this test.
Can’t get a mail preview by resting the mouse over the mail icon, can’t move the mouse without activating some ad that intrudes on my page, can’t get straight to my mail by simply clicking on the mail icon (one of the more ridiculous changes), and can’t go back to the way things were.
It wasn’t broke. You shouldn’t try to fix it.

eknirb | November 4th, 2008 at 3:53 pm

well..it’s disappeared, old page back. uh…OK. I am the one person who LIKES it- can we have another go?