Actually, I have no idea whether it sucks or not, because even though I signed up for the beta program months ago, I’ve yet to hear word one from Yahoo, not even a “thanks for your interest, we’ll get back to you”.
In many ways, this is the inverse of what Joel Spolsky wrote about a few weeks ago, namely holding your cards too close to the vest.
Now, I understand why Yahoo is being extraordinarily deliberate about rolling out such a radical UI change to the general population (after all, Yahoo Mail is used by millions of “ordinary” people), but I’m technically savvy, an early adopter, and willing to endure spotty service from time to time to get early access, not to mention that I want to give my feedback on how things can be improved for all those ordinary people. Why on earth doesn’t Yahoo want to take advantage of my offer of free labor?!
So, while I have no idea whether Yahoo Mail Beta sucks or not, the very fact that I don’t sucks in itself.
Ah well. I’m no longer interested in being a Yahoo customer anyway, since they’re apparently the phone company now.
Speaking of not hearing word one, I haven’t heard a peep from Yahoo about that earlier post either, not even from Yahoo’s voice in the blogosphere (who also didn’t respond to email on the subject), and not even after getting a link from Doc, which no doubt got my sob story in front of many more eyeballs than would otherwise have seen it. So, it would appear my friend is SOL. I’m sure all those people who are emailing him at Yahoo will understand why he’s ignoring them. And I’m sure the years worth of data he’s accumulated at Yahoo can be easily recreated.
Technorati Tags: softwareasaservice, web20, yahoo
Geez, so bitchy.
You click on a link to get the beta. At least in my account (and I pay 20 a year)…I have switched to and switched back twice over the past few months…
And it’s annoying to be bitchy and then link to some random article and be like “Oh well, they stink anyway, nyah!”
So 4th grade. Grow some nuggets.
I just clicked through the signup page again, thinking perhaps I had overlooked something and fully prepared to say “mea culpa”, and got this:
Not sure where that link is.
Oh, and that’s hardly some random article (did you actually read it?). I wrote it, and I’d argue my loss of faith in Yahoo as a company is quite material here.
-ian
The point was that I have PAID to use Yahoo. So, I guess their loyalty is to their paying customers, no? Doesn’t that make some sort of sense?
Here’s the link in mine:
“New! – Yahoo! Mail Beta. Try it now.”
When I click on it, it changes my entire interface to an almost-nice, Kmail style preview pane with lots of widgets. I almost liked it, but didn’t stick with it mostly because Webmail Compose (a firefox extension) didn’t work with the beta.
I’m a paying customer too (or was), just not one that pays directly. In other words, by virtue of the fact that I am (or was) using Yahoo’s sites, they were able to sell my attention to their advertiser network. Google has my attention now. -ian
Well, if you aren’t forking over dollars, then they owe you nothing, because they don’t know about you. Don’t be an idiot. “I pay them…but I’m silly, because I meant it metaphysically!”
Grow some nuggets.
I have been a paying customer of yahoo for several years…Yahoo Mail Plus. I pay $20 a year, as well. My experience has been the same as Ian’s…100% on the waiting list.
I also had a run-in with them lately attempting to renew my service this year. I had changed banks and needed to update my CC info. Since it had been so many years, I had forgotten my “Security ID”. I filled out their online form 5 times and never received a new ID. I contacted their “customer support” 4 times and 3 days later I received 4 canned responses. 5 days later I received temporary security keys from my original attempts (which were supposed to be sent to my email immediately). To say I felt slighted is an understatement…I followed the thread about “Joe” who lost his “free” gmail account, but I have been paying yahoo for the service. All I can say is it is B.S., and indicative of what you get when you deal with any “big” corporation in this country anymore.
I will keep the service only because Yahoo Mail Plus will let me forward to another account. I have had the address now for so long that I would lose correspondence from many personal and professional contacts that I only hear from annually. If it weren’t for that, I’d tell yahoo to screw themselves. It is easier to deal with the phone company than yahoo.
BTW: Ian, I am eternally grateful for your contributions to the community that I am proud to be a part of. Thank you for letting me post on your site. Peace.
I think it’s a glitch on thier part or they just don’t like you. ;-)
I signed up myself (after the beta began) and within a few weeks I had it.
It’s a nice interface that resembles your typical GUI-based desktop MUA, but I’m not all that excited about it. I still prefer Gmail when it comes to webmail.
On the other hand, I’m old-fashioned in that I still prefer ordinary desktop software to web based. Web based mail still doesn’t compare to Thunderbird, Kmail, Evolution, Apple Mail, Outlook and so on. It’s nice to have it though, especially when you need email access and aren’t on your own computer.