Jerry Yang Resigns From Yahoo

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Jerry Yang Resigns From Yahoo

Posted by Unknown on Wednesday January 18, 2012 @11:30AM from the yahooligans-take-over-board dept.

PattonPending writes "It seems that the long tenure of Jerry Yang at Yahoo has ended. Yahoo's board released a letter that Yang wrote announcing his retirement, saying, in part: 'My time at Yahoo!, from its founding to the present, has encompassed some of the most exciting and rewarding experiences of my life. However, the time has come for me to pursue other interests outside of Yahoo! As I leave the company I co-founded nearly 17 years ago, I am enthusiastic about the appointment of Scott Thompson as Chief Executive Officer and his ability, along with the entire Yahoo! leadership team, to guide Yahoo! into an exciting and successful future.'"

123 comments

Min score:

Reason:

Sort:

Kind of a bummer by bonch · 2012-01-18 11:30 · Score: 5, Insightful

I really have to wonder if Yahoo should have accepted Microsoft's $45 billion bid, which Yang was roundly criticized for rejecting. It's not like Yahoo has much else going for it besides a few services like Finance, and I don't even know how well that's doing. In my own experience, the only people I see using Yahoo are computer illiterate users with old email accounts there who refuse to switch to Gmail (the kind of people who type URLs into the Yahoo's search field to visit a website). I never used Yahoo other than a vague memory of trying their "internet directory" a few times way back when, but it's a little sad to see them on an apparent decline since they've been such a staple of the web for so long.
As John Gruber put it: "I remember an Internet without Jerry Yang at Yahoo, but I don’t remember a World Wide Web without Jerry Yang at Yahoo."
1. Re:Kind of a bummer by Synerg1y · 2012-01-18 11:37 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  Well... when was the last time yahoo launched... anything major?
2. Re:Kind of a bummer by ThunderBird89 · 2012-01-18 11:42 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  I have all my mail on my yahoo account, despite having a Google account as well. It's just that I created the Yahoo! one way back, around 1996-7, and have been using it ever since, and at this point, migrating over to Gmail would be too much of a hassle, and quite frankly, I like Yahoo!'s UI much more than Gmail's (folders, for example, easy-to-use hotkeys, etc).
  I've seen the storage expansions, from 20 MB to 100, then 500, then 1GB, and finally infinite, the new UI and the "All-New Yahoo! Mail"-campaign, hell, I even have access to the Premium features like disposable addresses (something else Gmail lacks), without paying anything (though I don't know why, possibly as a reward for long-standing use?).
  Regarding searches, I've long since switched over to Google, but for me, mail will always be on Yahoo!, even though I don't use anything else from the company any more.
  
  --
  Hyperbole: I use it liberally!
3. Re:Kind of a bummer by mrmeval · 2012-01-18 11:44 · Score: 0
  
  to convert Yahoo! into an execrable and depressing mutagenic toxin.
  
  FTFY
  
  --
  I'd go on a Vegan diet but the delivery time from Vega is too long. --brownkitty
4. Re:Kind of a bummer by jhoegl · 2012-01-18 11:50 · Score: 0
  
  When gas still cost a dollar/gallon and George Cluney was still playing doctor.
5. Re:Kind of a bummer by jhoegl · 2012-01-18 11:51 · Score: 0
  
  BOOM! Crotch shot!
6. Re:Kind of a bummer by hondo77 · 2012-01-18 11:53 · Score: 1
  
  I really have to wonder if Yahoo should have accepted Microsoft's $45 billion bid, which Yang was roundly criticized for rejecting.
  Really? You wonder whether Y! should have accepted $45B with their current market cap less than half that? Really?
  
  --
  I live ze unknown. I love ze unknown. I am ze unknown.
7. Re:Kind of a bummer by hedwards · 2012-01-18 11:58 · Score: 1
  
  Eh, bonch is a troll.
  But, as far as corporate governance goes, it was a mistake at the time and everybody except for the board at Yahoo knew that. I was personally astonished that MS was willing to offer that much for the firm.
  For the people at large, it probably would have been the best thing other than forcibly breaking up Google.
8. Re:Kind of a bummer by interval1066 · 2012-01-18 12:03 · Score: 1
  
  I see using Yahoo are computer illiterate users with old email accounts there who refuse to switch to Gmail (the kind of people who type URLs into the Yahoo's search field to visit a website).
  
  I can testify. One of my oldest friends, who, btw, was dragged kicking and screaming into the information age, only now uses his gmail account occasionally. I remember his comments when I help him set up his gmail account some 7 or so years ago; "I like yahoo mail better." He never did explicately say WHAT was better about yahoo mail.
  
  --
  Python: 'And then suddenly you have a language which says "we're all stuck with whatever the whiniest coder wants".'
9. Re:Kind of a bummer by hairyfeet · 2012-01-18 12:19 · Score: 3, Interesting
  
  Actually if you look at the numbers yahoo is number one or number two in worldwide webmail, and I can tell you from my little shop that the vast majority of home users that come through my door have their homepage set to yahoo.com. That is one thing Yahoo has done right, while you or I might think its a cluttered POS talking to ordinary folks Yahoo has taken the place of the morning paper, they fire up Yahoo and check the local and national headlines, check the weather and their horoscope, all the things folks did with their morning paper they now do with Yahoo.
  As for the MSFT deal it shows me TWO things: One Yang is an arrogant ass since he turned down an offer that was more than twice the highest yahoo stock has EVER traded at, and two it shows me Steve Ballmer is right up there with the Pepsi guy at Apple for being the biggest dipshit CEO. offering $33 for Yahoo, what are you nuts? He probably could have bought the only two bits worth anything to MSFT, the webmail and the searches, for less than a quarter of that and let yang have the portal. Instead Ballmer gets a case of the stupids and offers insane money, which yang being just as dumbshit turned down. If I was a Yahoo shareholder i'd have wanted yang's head for that dumbshit move, just look at the stock now, what's it trading at, $13? And MSFT offered $33? Stupid.
  
  --
  ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
10. Re:Kind of a bummer by Macrat · 2012-01-18 12:21 · Score: 1
  
  I have all my mail on my yahoo account, despite having a Google account as well. It's just that I created the Yahoo! one way back, around 1996-7, and have been using it ever since, and at this point, migrating over to Gmail would be too much of a hassle,.
  I'm sure it will be less of a hassle when Yahoo gets sold and Yahoo Mail is shut down.
11. Re:Kind of a bummer by Macrat · 2012-01-18 12:24 · Score: 3, Funny
  
  He never did explicately say WHAT was better about yahoo mail.
  Better than AOL I guess.
12. Re:Kind of a bummer by Anonymous Coward · 2012-01-18 12:30 · Score: 0
  
  I'm sure it will be less of a hassle when Yahoo gets sold and Yahoo Mail is shut down.
  Why would anyone purchase Yahoo! just to shut down one of the most visited properties that generates a huge number of ad impressions?
13. Re:Kind of a bummer by Anonymous Coward · 2012-01-18 12:38 · Score: 0
  
  I have all my mail on my yahoo account, despite having a Google account as well. It's just that I created the Yahoo! one way back, around 1996-7, and have been using it ever since, and at this point, migrating over to Gmail would be too much of a hassle,.
  I'm sure it will be less of a hassle when Yahoo gets sold and Yahoo Mail is shut down.
  And we call ourselves geeks (Face to palm).
  Doesn't everyone here own run a few email and asterisk servers, own a few domains, manage their own DNS or have all those people crawled back into their bunker (parents basement) to wait out the apocalypse.
14. Re:Kind of a bummer by marcosdumay · 2012-01-18 12:54 · Score: 1
  
  From the MS point of view, they just backstabed a company without even making a partneship with it. That must be a new record for them, they just needed Yahoo to say "I agree".
  
  --
  Rethinking email
15. Re:Kind of a bummer by marcosdumay · 2012-01-18 12:59 · Score: 1
  
  Most of the people that are on the Internet since the 90's aren't computer iliterated. Also, you don't know what you are missing by not looking into it, Yahoo's UI is way better than Google's.
  I've been moving my email from Yahoo since the failed partneship with Microsoft, but there is no way I'll put anything important on Gmail.
  
  --
  Rethinking email
16. Re:Kind of a bummer by GreatBunzinni · 2012-01-18 13:28 · Score: 2, Informative
  
  The bonch user account is a shill account which is used, along with other user accounts such as SharkLaser and Overly Critical Guy, to astroturf slashdot in order to manipulate slashdot users with pro-Microsoft, anti-Google PR.
  See how these accounts paste PR crap from the same corporate script in this post and this post, and in this post check how these accounts are employed together in the same discussion to karmawhore and to steer the discussion into a more corporate PR position.
  
  --
  Slashdot, fix your code or at least hire someone who is competent at it to do it for you.
17. Re:Kind of a bummer by Anonymous Coward · 2012-01-18 13:33 · Score: 4, Informative
  
  Yahoo's stock was over $100 during the dot com boom, so no, Yang did not turn down a deal that was twice the highest Yahoo stock has ever traded at. It has split since, but has still hit over $40 after all the splits.
  Now, Yang may still be a fool for turning down $33 / share since the stock has done nothing but slide since (and the writing did appear to be on the wall to at least everyone else), but other people can make that judgement.
18. Re:Kind of a bummer by Anonymous Coward · 2012-01-18 13:52 · Score: 0
  
  Why should we switch to Gmail when Yahoo mail is better? Gmail just recently got a preview pane (which is still considered "a lab") which now makes it barely acceptable, and it Gmail uses a bold font which looks like the Microsoft System font from the early 90's. Gmail also still has ads. At least on yahoo premium you can get rid of them and use the whole screen. There's no amount you can pay to get rid of the Gmail ads. I'll admit the Gmail threaded conversations are cool, and it seems the spammers haven't yet found my Gmail account.
19. Re:Kind of a bummer by Anonymous Coward · 2012-01-18 14:10 · Score: 0
  
  You can disable ads if you use Google Apps for Business. It's more expensive though, at $50/user/year compared to $20 for Y!Mail Plus.
20. Re:Kind of a bummer by larry+bagina · 2012-01-18 14:27 · Score: 2
  
  Back in the day, yahoo chat was a great way to get laid on a Tuesday night without much work on your part (even easier if you didn't care if it was with a chick). They didn't seem to care when the 'bots took over, though.
  Other than yahoo finance and an occasional flickr link, I wouldn't notice if they disappeared.
  
  --
  Do you even lift?
  These aren't the 'roids you're looking for.
21. Re:Kind of a bummer by DogDude · 2012-01-18 14:44 · Score: 2
  
  I have yet to read any factual statements telling why Gmail is any better than Yahoo, either. What's your point?
  
  --
  I don't respond to AC's.
22. Re:Kind of a bummer by Anonymous Coward · 2012-01-18 15:06 · Score: 0
  
  Nope. Your the dorkiest geek alive.
23. Re:Kind of a bummer by 19thNervousBreakdown · 2012-01-18 15:10 · Score: 2
  
  Still kickin it old school with qmail, bind, dovecot, apache, vsftp, roundcube, and few (hundred) custom scripts.
  Still feverishly waiting for the Raspberry Pi so I can set up my MPD control/playback node with nas/esound/jack/pulseaudio/whichever ends up working well on that platform.
  Gstreamer would be niiiice, but, alas...
  
  --
  <xml><I><am><so><damn>Web 2.0</damn></so></am></I></xml>
24. Re:Kind of a bummer by fortfive · 2012-01-18 15:10 · Score: 1
  
  I have yet to read any factual statements telling why Gmail is any better than Yahoo. . .
  Free imap?
25. Re:Kind of a bummer by Anonymous Coward · 2012-01-18 16:18 · Score: 0
  
  When you trust your mail to a third party, for free, you deserve everything you get. I hope Yahoo sells me the nudes of your ugly girlfriend, and gives me your moms social security number.
26. Re:Kind of a bummer by Altus · 2012-01-18 17:18 · Score: 1
  
  I remember when their "internet directory" was the only fucking way to find anything at all.
  Still, its been a long time since they were particularly useful.
  
  --
  "In America, first you get the sugar, then you get the power, then you get the women..." -H. Simpson
27. Re:Kind of a bummer by gregrah · 2012-01-18 17:41 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  Slashdot needs a -1 "TMI" mod option.
28. Re:Kind of a bummer by Anonymous Coward · 2012-01-18 19:24 · Score: 0
  
  jesus man get a fucking life already. this isn't a troll, honestly. step back for a few days, go to the countryside leaving all your technology at home, and get a fresh sense of perspective.
29. Re:Kind of a bummer by sapphire+wyvern · 2012-01-18 20:45 · Score: 1
  
  No graphical banner ads.
30. Re:Kind of a bummer by underqualified · 2012-01-18 22:19 · Score: 1
  
  Last time I did that, I thought to myself: "God. I can't wait to talk about this on Twitter."
  Kidding.
31. Re:Kind of a bummer by jonamous++ · 2012-01-19 01:18 · Score: 1
  
  Are you dense? You must be trolling. If you are even moderately skilled, doing all of this doesn't take up all of your time. I have a nice custom mail setup, I program for fun, and I tinker with software and hardware (a lot). Even doing that, I still manage a few non-tech hobbies that take up quite a few hours per week, plus I manage a family life and a job.
32. Re:Kind of a bummer by tehcyder · 2012-01-19 01:20 · Score: 1
  
  When you trust your mail to a third party, for free, you deserve everything you get. I hope Yahoo sells me the nudes of your ugly girlfriend, and gives me your moms social security number.
  Most of us don't send sensitive information by email anyway. And if we do we use encruption.
  
  --
  To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
33. Re:Kind of a bummer by tehcyder · 2012-01-19 01:28 · Score: 1
  
  The bonch user account is a shill account which is used, along with other user accounts such as SharkLaser [slashdot.org] and Overly Critical Guy [slashdot.org], to astroturf slashdot in order to manipulate slashdot users with pro-Microsoft, anti-Google PR.
  I thought bonch was anti-Google and apro-Apple or am I thinking of someone else? In any case, trying to astroturf with pro-Microsoft postings on slashdot is about as sensible as spamming bacon sandwiches on an Islamic website.
  
  --
  To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
34. Re:Kind of a bummer by tehcyder · 2012-01-19 01:30 · Score: 1
  
  Back in the day, yahoo chat was a great way to get laid on a Tuesday night without much work on your part (even easier if you didn't care if it was with a chick).
  And easier still if you were prepared to pay.
  
  Oops.
  
  --
  To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
35. Re:Kind of a bummer by rtb61 · 2012-01-19 02:00 · Score: 1
  
  Of course Yahoo is a complete portal unlike Google which lacks many features so not really in that running. Yahoo might do well to run up it's 'hit count' by the simple act of making all menu selections simultaneously routing via the web while it provides the internal link. Of course MSN and AOL , the other major portal sites, could also do that. It would be a realistic measure of their stickiness and their true measure end user desirability versus say, google search, bing search, or even social web sites like facebook or stumbleupon.
  There are also the custom home page portal features. Even if AOL recently dropped theirs, MSN is still running theirs. For the majority market those customised portal pages are still desirable.
  
  --
  Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
36. Re:Kind of a bummer by sglewis100 · 2012-01-19 02:26 · Score: 1
  
  I see no evidence that George Cluney ever played a doctor. Perhaps you meant stormtrooper? Or did you mean to cite George Clooney?
37. Re:Kind of a bummer by sglewis100 · 2012-01-19 02:29 · Score: 1
  
  When you trust your mail to a third party, for free, you deserve everything you get. I hope Yahoo sells me the nudes of your ugly girlfriend, and gives me your moms social security number.
  Most of us don't send sensitive information by email anyway. And if we do we use encruption.
  Not me. I've been known to use encryption however.
38. Re:Kind of a bummer by roman_mir · 2012-01-19 03:04 · Score: 1
  
  Rogers Canada (a telecom) switched all of the users to yahoo mail, so people are paying Rogers for the Internet connection, but their email is handled by Yahoo.
  
  --
  You can't handle the truth.
39. Re:Kind of a bummer by 19thNervousBreakdown · 2012-01-19 03:11 · Score: 1
  
  Actually, last time I went to the countryside, I had a strong enough signal to play my MPD playlist from home over my iPhone using MPoD. Of course, only the 128-kbps stream could keep up, so it was totally roughing it.
  
  --
  <xml><I><am><so><damn>Web 2.0</damn></so></am></I></xml>
40. Re:Kind of a bummer by trolman · 2012-01-19 03:27 · Score: 1
  
  Are they still running Qmail?
41. Re:Kind of a bummer by Ol+Olsoc · 2012-01-19 03:28 · Score: 1
  
  Better than AOL I guess.
  Dunno if you've ever tried Yahoo's email, but their web mail is strikingly like a normal (real) mail reader, and not at all like most web based readers. I use Apple Mail for reading my account at home, but it's not at all an issue when I'm on the road and have to use their interface. I get no ads when using mail, just email like my other pop accounts.
  Gmail on the other hand, has a web interface that is clumsy, and slow. I use my account mainly to read netnews.
  Anyhow I know it's fashionable to dismiss Yahoo here on /., but they got the mail thing right.
  
  --
  The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
42. Re:Kind of a bummer by DarthVain · 2012-01-19 03:51 · Score: 1
  
  I am the same. Mine was intentional however. I use my Yahoo account for everything online. I fwd all of my yahoo stuff to my gmail account. I never check my yahoo account. The idea was if/when the amount of spam I got in my yahoo account ever became too much the idea was I could cut the strings to my yahoo account, and use my gmail, maybe fwd that to another, rinse repeat. Once you have had an account for as long as I have (it was probably 1996-97 also) and use it for everything online, pretty much everyone has it got for whatever they want to use it for. My gmail isn't immune of course as I send emails from it. However every time you sign up for something, or register, etc... you are put on a data mining list that is sold and re-sold to everyone.
  Anyway that's my excuse for my yahoo account. Friends and family get my gmail. Oh and nothing pisses me off more than friends using my email address in order to register to get something free at the expense of my email address (which has happened a few times with my gmail). But it really is unavoidable.
43. Re:Kind of a bummer by mcgrew · 2012-01-19 03:57 · Score: 1
  
  I'm surprised Yahoo is even still in business. Their sites are the worst on the internet. Hell, on the old computer at work, three tabs with Yahoo news stories use 100% of the CPU. Five tabs lock the PC up. Where did they find the idiots who make their sites? Awful. Simply awful.
  
  --
  Free Martian Whores!
44. Re:Kind of a bummer by elrous0 · 2012-01-19 04:05 · Score: 1
  
  I really have to wonder if Yahoo should have accepted Microsoft's $45 billion bid
  Gee, ya think?
  
  --
  SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
45. Re:Kind of a bummer by DerekLyons · 2012-01-19 04:25 · Score: 1
  
  It's not like Yahoo has much else going for it besides a few services like Finance
  Finance, web mail, Flickr, Yahoo Groups, searches (I quite a few hits from it), their games portal, etc... etc...
  
  and I don't even know how well that's doing.
  Not being the sexy fantasy babe of the tech crowd it flies mostly under the Slashdot radar. Not being as outrageously profitable as Google, the IT/Finance analysts and media scorn it. But the reality is that Yahoo is still a very big, fairly stable, and reasonably profitable business.
  
  Not being on Slashdot's radar isn't a dishonorable place to be, in fact that places them firmly with roughly 99% of the world's large companies. But it does lead to bullshit comments like yours where you (and many other Slashdotters) assume that your aged (to the point of being moldy) memories, narrow viewpoint, and egregious bias against anyone who isn't a techie or Google represent more than the tiny, ill educated, and out of contact with reality they actually are.
  
  I really have to wonder if Yahoo should have accepted Microsoft's $45 billion bid, which Yang was roundly criticized for rejecting.
  Yang made a decision that represented the best interests of his customers rather than his stockholders. Usually Slashdot praises that. Yahoo stood up to Microsoft and told them to piss off. Usually Slashdot praises that too.
  
  Once you understand that Yahoo isn't the irrelevant dowager princess Slashdot percieves it as, you'll understand why despite the frothing at the mouth here and in the tech press there weren't immediate calls for Yang's head by the stockholders. My fear however is that the board and major stockholders have quietly ousted Yang because they have come to the same mistaken conclusion that Slashdot and the tech press have - share value and short term cash are more important than long term viability.
46. Re:Kind of a bummer by mcgrew · 2012-01-19 04:56 · Score: 1
  
  I was on gMail first, went to Yahoo mail when google closed my account without explanation. I got another gMail account, but I only use it for G+ related stuff.
  However, I much prefer google's email interface. When I open my mail I want the inbox there, but Yahoo insists on first asking me to re-enter my ID and password even though I checked the box that says "save it" and sometimes does it on a completely different password page that FireFox doesn't have the password to, and I have to look the damned thing up (the trouble with strong passwords). Then it takes me to the "everything" email page that doesn't show new mail, but does show their news stories (as bad as newspapers' HTML is, Yahoo's is the very worst).
  But at least they didn't yank my account like google did. That happened years ago, and I'm still pissed at Google for it, the bastards.
  
  --
  Free Martian Whores!
47. Re:Kind of a bummer by mcgrew · 2012-01-19 06:24 · Score: 2
  
  In my own experience, the only people I see using Yahoo are computer illiterate users with old email accounts there who refuse to switch to Gmail
  I was on Gmail before I was on Yahoo's mail... switched to Yahoo when Google closed my email account with no explanation after about six months of use. Been on Yahoo's for over 5 years now with no trouble whatever. Switching email services is a huge pain in the ass, why would anyone dump their Yahoo account for an Gmail account, especially since with Google you're in constant danger of being instantly cut off from your email with no apparent reason or explanation? Just because "google is cool and yahoo sux0Rz?"
  Far from being computer illiterate, I had an email account in 1983 with Compuserve, I've written games in assembly and hand-assembled the machine code, I build my own computers. I have a copy of the TTL cookbook that I read maybe a dozen times before it went in the basement, as well as a few hundred other books I checked out of the library, and had my on web sites in 1997.
  
  --
  Free Martian Whores!
48. Re:Kind of a bummer by Grishnakh · 2012-01-19 07:26 · Score: 1
  
  It wouldn't be the only time MS paid way too much for something. Look at their Skype acquisition for a prime example of overpaying for a company.
49. Re:Kind of a bummer by mcgrew · 2012-01-19 07:35 · Score: 1
  
  Most of the people that are on the Internet since the 90's aren't computer iliterated
  "illiterated"? What, they were once computer literate but forgot how?
  
  --
  Free Martian Whores!
50. Re:Kind of a bummer by mcgrew · 2012-01-19 07:51 · Score: 1
  
  check how these accounts are employed together in the same discussion to karmawhore and to steer the discussion into a more corporate PR position
  That makes no sense. If they're posting the same or nearly the same comment, they'll be modded offtopic and lose karma, not gain it. And any of them you see posting are not moderating, at least not with the poster's account.
  There really are MS fans, but I can't for the life of me figure out why unless the only OS and software they've ever used was MS's. Mostly shill spotting is easy -- if the verbiage sounds like it came from a marketing agency, it's probably a shill, but OTOH there are some extremely stupid and gullible people who will parrot the marketdroid buzz in a futile attempt to sound intelligent and educated.
  
  --
  Free Martian Whores!
51. Re:Kind of a bummer by Grishnakh · 2012-01-19 07:54 · Score: 1
  
  In any case, trying to astroturf with pro-Microsoft postings on slashdot is about as sensible as spamming bacon sandwiches on an Islamic website.
  I completely disagree. There's tons of MS shills and supporters on this site. They come out more for certain articles than others.
52. Re:Kind of a bummer by Grishnakh · 2012-01-19 07:58 · Score: 1
  
  I don't know about your Gmail, but on mine there's a single line of text for advertising, just above the buttons. BFD. There's even add-ons you can get to remove them if it's that annoying. Yahoo, IIRC, still uses annoying graphical ads.
  I honestly don't care about previews; I can tell if I want to read an email by the subject and sender, and loading an email is pretty close to instantaneous most of the time (are you still using 56k or something?), so it doesn't take any time to click on an email, see that it's crap, and hit delete. The threaded conversations are the killer feature of Gmail, and no one else even tries to make something like it. The spam filtering is also excellent.
53. Re:Kind of a bummer by hendridm · 2012-01-19 09:55 · Score: 1
  
  > "migrating over to Gmail would be too much of a hassle"
  Migrating wouldn't be as difficult if Yahoo supported IMAP. Then again, if Yahoo supported IMAP, there would be less of a reason to migrate.
54. Re:Kind of a bummer by ThunderBird89 · 2012-01-19 21:39 · Score: 1
  
  Actually, my Nexus S seems to have configured itself to use IMAP with my Yahoo account. At the very least, the server addresses say imap.mail.yahoo.com, and everything I do gets replicated on the servers at the next synchronization, including moving messages (finally, the newest email app can do that too) and deleting.
  
  --
  Hyperbole: I use it liberally!
Kids in the Yahoo! by Ashenkase · 2012-01-18 11:36 · Score: 2

Scott Thompson?!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZX-sUGWt6o
Son of a beotch! by Anonymous Coward · 2012-01-18 11:36 · Score: 2, Funny

Yahoo's still around!
Scott Thompson? by Anonymous Coward · 2012-01-18 11:37 · Score: 0

The Kids In The Hall will do a better job anyways! Just need to get the rest of the cast. Sorry, couldn't resist when I saw his name... LOL!
But Yahoo shareholders got such a good deal. by Anonymous Coward · 2012-01-18 11:41 · Score: 5, Informative

Good luck finding someone who will work for his salary. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24376328/ns/business-us_business/t/yahoo-ceo-yang-made-salary-last-year/#.TlfhkF34TSg
1. Re:But Yahoo shareholders got such a good deal. by hondo77 · 2012-01-18 12:06 · Score: 2
  
  Given the billions of $ in shareholder value lost because Yang valued his pride more than the shareholders, that $1 cost way too much.
  
  --
  I live ze unknown. I love ze unknown. I am ze unknown.
2. Re:But Yahoo shareholders got such a good deal. by bartoku · 2012-01-18 14:41 · Score: 2
  
  I will work for a $1 as CEO of Yahoo!
  I am looking for a resume builder.
Take the money and run... by Anonymous Coward · 2012-01-18 11:48 · Score: 0

So Jerry, it's time to take the $$ and run? Can't say I blame you! Best of luck in your new endeavors, and remember to spread a bit of that bling around! :-)
Re:Organized trolling campaign by GreatBunzinni by flimflammer · 2012-01-18 11:49 · Score: 1

So, which one of those accounts he's accusing are you?
Or do you expect people to believe you're spamming this crap in every single irrelevant thread out of the kindness of your heart?
Uhhh.... by Anonymous Coward · 2012-01-18 11:49 · Score: 0

Overstayed his welcome, 15 minutes are up Jerry! Like 4 years ago
"Pursue other interests" by Anonymous Coward · 2012-01-18 11:52 · Score: 0

Isn't "pursue other interests" the usual doublespeak for getting fired?
1. Re:"Pursue other interests" by hedwards · 2012-01-18 12:00 · Score: 1
  
  No, sometimes it means banging the secretary and quitting before that becomes public.
2. Re:"Pursue other interests" by Anonymous Coward · 2012-01-18 12:46 · Score: 0
  
  Nowadays I think it usually means, "I have my fingers in 3 little start-ups that will be over-funded, over-hyped and probably die. Oh, and yeah, everyone wants me out of my current position."
Yahoo is more worthless than garbage by Anonymous Coward · 2012-01-18 11:53 · Score: 0

That site has nothing to offer other than legacy email account access and stock pumping/bashing on the finance boards.
The only thing Yahoo ever had going for it was the Yahoo Message Boards linked to news stories.
1. Re:Yahoo is more worthless than garbage by Macrat · 2012-01-18 12:27 · Score: 1
  
  That site has nothing to offer other than legacy email account access and stock pumping/bashing on the finance boards.
  I had forgotten about their stock message boards.
  99.9999% noise.
Yahoo - the Google that wasn't by Anonymous Coward · 2012-01-18 11:54 · Score: 5, Interesting

I've never quite been able to figure Yahoo. They went boring-corporate early, but never quite managed a full changeover to irrelevance.
As late as ~2005 they contacted me (anon, so I can say) as part of a web-dev famous-name dream-team they wanted to assemble.
They'd decided that being no.2 to Google just wasn't a recipe for survival; they'd have to be better to simply survive. They'd have to be smarter than Google about the Web.
So they asked all their web devs, 'Who are the Names? Who do you read? Who do you want to work with?' and then set off on a CEO-mandated mission to hire those people. Good offices, good projects, staff masseuses -- the old days brought back and amplified. Serious bait.
As far as I could tell, they never managed to get anyone. And since their web-savvy didn't change, they didn't seem to empower their in-house staff any either. The project went nowhere, at least from what I could see on the outside.
Re:Organized trolling campaign by GreatBunzinni by TheCouchPotatoFamine · 2012-01-18 11:54 · Score: 1

how is meta-moderation broken? I saw evidence I could relate to, and i believe that it's quite possible these people are shills. You sound very much like someone protecting their /job/. And you being AC? that's just seals it. piss off.

--
CS majors know the time/space tradeoff, but they never get taught the 3rd, crucial, tradeoff of the set: comprehension!
Re:Organized trolling campaign by GreatBunzinni by Anonymous Coward · 2012-01-18 12:04 · Score: 0

All someone has to do to convince you of something is post a list of names followed by a website link? You must be the most gullible person on the planet.
Re:Welcome To Yesterday's News by MrEricSir · 2012-01-18 12:08 · Score: 5, Funny

Yesterday's news about yesterday's companies!

--
There's no -1 for "I don't get it."
Who is Yahoo? by Anonymous Coward · 2012-01-18 12:13 · Score: 0

Seriously, does anyone care what Yahoo does? They were always the shit search engine, they've always been "those toolbar bundling mofos", and lately they have just been "that logo on channel 7 (Australia) websites".
In effect that organisation exists to now just to slowly spend the money it made during the years it was actually doing something.
1. Re:Who is Yahoo? by kiwimate · 2012-01-18 13:26 · Score: 4, Interesting
  
  Mmm-hmm...
2. Re:Who is Yahoo? by wvmarle · 2012-01-18 20:23 · Score: 1
  
  I am one of those regular visitors to Yahoo. Use them (almost) daily to play online card games (bridge specifically). There probably are other board that offer it, but Yahoo works fine and I'm used to the culture and game play conventions (very important when playing bridge) on that board.
  That said I always wonder how they make money off of that. There is an interstitial ad when navigating to the game room the proper way; I never see it because if I use that route it's blocked for being flash, and normally I access the room directly - just bookmarked it. Furthermore the game itself is free, just requires a Yahoo login which I have since the late 1990s. And occasionally I visit their finance page for forex rates, usually via a Google search.
3. Re:Who is Yahoo? by sglewis100 · 2012-01-19 02:34 · Score: 1
  
  I am one of those regular visitors to Yahoo. Use them (almost) daily to play online card games (bridge specifically). There probably are other board that offer it, but Yahoo works fine and I'm used to the culture and game play conventions (very important when playing bridge) on that board.
  That said I always wonder how they make money off of that. There is an interstitial ad when navigating to the game room the proper way; I never see it because if I use that route it's blocked for being flash, and normally I access the room directly - just bookmarked it. Furthermore the game itself is free, just requires a Yahoo login which I have since the late 1990s. And occasionally I visit their finance page for forex rates, usually via a Google search.
  There's a lot of companies getting used without making a dime. I still go to Barnes and Noble all the time, browse the books in person, pick out one, and buy it on my Kindle. Sometimes I'll grab a cup of coffee for $2 and sit down and read $20 worth of magazines.
4. Re:Who is Yahoo? by wvmarle · 2012-01-19 02:45 · Score: 1
  
  At least they make something off of you - the coffee. Not much but it's something. And there is the off chance that you may actually buy a book or magazine there. Not so with my use of Yahoo: can't buy anything there to begin with. And the magazines you read will be read by someone else later I suppose.
Yahoo: Turn around or die by Anonymous Coward · 2012-01-18 12:18 · Score: 0

I've quit Yahoo for everything but my 'junk' mail address. I don't mind a few liberal pieces now and then, but when they started running mud-slinging stories against those with differing political opinions, I quit. I like the BBC more and more these days-- probably the closest thing to spin-free news you can get.
throwaways are easy with gmail by bigtrike · 2012-01-18 12:19 · Score: 4, Informative

username+throwawaypart@gmail.com will be redirected to username@gmail.com.
1. Re:throwaways are easy with gmail by madprof · 2012-01-18 12:27 · Score: 1
  
  You are a legend - thank you!
2. Re:throwaways are easy with gmail by Hentes · 2012-01-18 13:00 · Score: 4, Informative
  
  The problem with that is that it's trivial to discard the part after the + thus getting the real address.
3. Re:throwaways are easy with gmail by johnsnails · 2012-01-18 13:06 · Score: 3, Interesting
  
  something I picked up from /. is putting a period anywhere in the address still reaches your real email address, so if you sign up for something you can track down who is giving away your email address if you get spam at s.omename@gmail.com i think you get the idea....
4. Re:throwaways are easy with gmail by nblender · 2012-01-18 13:16 · Score: 5, Interesting
  
  yeah... And it's awesome that as much as 30% of the websites on the intarwebs will accept an email address with a '+' in it...
5. Re:throwaways are easy with gmail by Hentes · 2012-01-18 13:30 · Score: 1
  
  This is effectively the same, removing periods from an address is still no hard task.
6. Re:throwaways are easy with gmail by Anonymous Coward · 2012-01-18 13:30 · Score: 0
  
  good luck using that on 90% of the sites out there
7. Re:throwaways are easy with gmail by suomynonAyletamitlU · 2012-01-18 14:25 · Score: 1
  
  yes, but you can have a canonical email address with dots in it (your.name@gmail), and filter out email addresses without dots (yourname@gmail). They'll all get delivered, but you can set it up to tag anything with a wrongly-formatted to: address, kick it out of your inbox, or even automatically delete it.
8. Re:throwaways are easy with gmail by tokul · 2012-01-18 18:28 · Score: 1
  
  The problem with that is that it's trivial to discard the part after the + thus getting the real address.
  
  If you have problems with that, get real domain and setup catchall for entire domain.
9. Re:throwaways are easy with gmail by syockit · 2012-01-18 22:59 · Score: 1
  
  What you suggest for people like me who's already used the address without the dots as the default?
  
  --
  Democracy is for the people; you only vote once per season and we'll do the rest of the work for you don't have to.
10. Re:throwaways are easy with gmail by Anonymous Coward · 2012-01-19 02:01 · Score: 0
  
  which is annoying because I keep getting mail from other people with similar usernames.
11. Re:throwaways are easy with gmail by Stephen+Chadfield · 2012-01-19 04:43 · Score: 1
  
  I think you mean "your.name839283424@gmail".
12. Re:throwaways are easy with gmail by suomynonAyletamitlU · 2012-01-19 06:48 · Score: 1
  
  That depends on where your existing mail is coming from. If you have a small number of legitimate sources, you can add a filter that makes sure nothing bad happens to their mail (select any mail from them, "filter messages like these;" you can select multiple emails, each from a different source, to make a single large filter). You'll also want to change your "reply-to" address in your gmail settings to a new canon, to prevent complications from people you email. This suggests you may soon be able to filter by google+ circle, which may help with this task.
  Aside from that, you may be out of luck. If you get email for a wide variety of sources, or you can be reasonably assured that you will get a lot of miscellaneous email that's hard to filter, I don't have a clever solution. It's possible there are other solutions out there from REAL power-users, but I don't know them.
Wasn't his fault - problem goes 1 level higher. by ron_ivi · 2012-01-18 12:22 · Score: 4, Interesting

This wasn't even Jerry's fault.
Yahoo had management problems ever since their old board was so enamored by AOL buying Time Warner that they wanted to become a copycat-media-company and decided to hire that Warner Bros Hollywood guy who didn't know anything about the internet.
If it weren't for that guy, Yahoo could have had it all.
* Geocities could have been Facebook+Myspace if they further developed their webrings social features.
* Altavista + Overture + Inktomi could have ruled search if they didn't decide to outsource their own search first to Google and then to Bing.
* Broadcast.com could have been Youtube if they encouraged user content.
* I would have stuck with Yahoo Mail if they had sane quotas and IMAP.
But they wanted to become AOL-Time-Warner-II so much that the board picked a Warner Brothers exec for CEO in 2001 or so; and nothing Jerry could do could fix that issue.
1. Re:Wasn't his fault - problem goes 1 level higher. by Anonymous Coward · 2012-01-18 13:01 · Score: 0
  
  Lot of if's there.
  "Altavista + Overture + Inktomi could have ruled search if they didn't decide to outsource their own search first to Google and then to Bing"
  Whatever. Having been part of Overture and then Yahoo and now Google let me just say that is wishful thinking. They had Inktomi powered search for a fairly long time. Google had much more critical mass in terms of usage, which alone means that its collecting much better statistical tuning information. Same thing in Adwords space.
2. Re:Wasn't his fault - problem goes 1 level higher. by Anonymous Coward · 2012-01-18 15:57 · Score: 0
  
  ...did you even bother to read what you quoted or has being at google rotted your brain away?
  Google had shit traffic till Yahoo outsourced their search to Google in an atrociously stupid deal. Inktomi came after that, when they realized just how idiotic their deal had been.
  Thing is, despite their lack of traffic in both markets Yahoo wasn't doing too badly. They had good technology and good scientists creating that technology.
  Upper management however was incompetent, they couldn't find their own ass if they had a team of fifty engineers to help them. I'm not even talking long term vision, basic management tasks like assigning proper resources to critical teams were not handled at all.
3. Re:Wasn't his fault - problem goes 1 level higher. by larry+bagina · 2012-01-18 17:03 · Score: 1
  
  I used alltheweb's (since bought up by yahoo and thrown away good use of money guys!) advanced search before discovering google's "exact search" and +modifiers (which have turned to shit recently). I'd switch back if it was still around.
  
  --
  Do you even lift?
  These aren't the 'roids you're looking for.
4. Re:Wasn't his fault - problem goes 1 level higher. by elrous0 · 2012-01-19 04:22 · Score: 1
  
  * If grandma had balls, she could have been grandpa.
  
  --
  SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
Steve jobs completely separated from Apple in 1985 by peter303 · 2012-01-18 12:29 · Score: 4, Interesting

Resigned after 9 years. Sold all his stock. Apple III had failed. Mac was fine, but the board wanted an "adult" in charge. Steve returned in 12 years.
And... by Anonymous Coward · 2012-01-18 12:30 · Score: 0

...nothing of value was lost.
A sad day, but maybe a catalyst by goodviking · 2012-01-18 12:49 · Score: 3, Insightful

Let me preface this statement by saying I love yahoo, or rather I love who theyused to be. I started using yahoo in the akebono days. Back then, Yahoo helped transform the web from a loosely connected set of "hotlists" into a strtuctured entity. They were the cartd catalog for the world wide web, and they owned the space. But they lost their way in the dotcom hype brigade. They tried to be the orginization of the web, the sales front, the noIse maker, ... They built their business on being an organizing force online.
Those days are long gone. They gave it up to be the circus barkers of the internet and are now just like the circus, an outdated spectical with no compelling purpose, kept alive by nostalgia. If Yahoo is to exist in anyrelevant form in 10 years, there needs to be a blood letting. It may be ugly and brutal, but in the end maybe Yahoo will find a reason to exist.
In the end, I am not shedding a tear for Jerry Yang anymore than anyone else who won the lottery.
1. Re:A sad day, but maybe a catalyst by 200_success · 2012-01-19 12:05 · Score: 1
  
  The problem is, hiring high-school interns to categorize the web doesn't scale. The first good search engine to come along ate their lunch. Yahoo is a tech company with no technology to offer. I'm surprised that they made it this far by imitating and acquiring other companies. But hey, excite.com and lycos.com still exist, so maybe it's possible for Yahoo to just coast along forever.
Time to switch, then by Wee · 2012-01-18 13:01 · Score: 1

Regarding searches, I've long since switched over to Google, but for me, mail will always be on Yahoo!, even though I don't use anything else from the company any more.

Given this knowledge, how much longer do you believe it is that Yahoo will still be able to provide you with free email?

-B

--
Ash and Hickory, straight-grained and true, make excellent bludgeons, dandy for the cudgeling of vegetarians.
Re:Steve jobs completely separated from Apple in 1 by Anonymous Coward · 2012-01-18 13:10 · Score: 0

Jobs left his personal imprint on Apple. He was the catty lead singer of the group; they were nothing without him. Much as I like Yang, he hasn't been the rudder-holding captain of Yahoo for at least a decade.
Totally looking forward to his solo projects now that he's cut himself away. He's got time to be interesting again.
From the link by jakartus · 2012-01-18 13:17 · Score: 1

"About Yahoo!

Yahoo! is the premier digital media company,..."

Really?
early adopter by Anonymous Coward · 2012-01-18 13:26 · Score: 0

Similarly, some of us with common names keep yahoo because we we adopted it early enough to get our own names @ yahoo dot com. By the time gmail came around, there were so many more internet users that my first and last name combination was probably gone within days and I missed it. so though i have several active gmail accounts, the yahoo one is the easiest to verbally give out to people who already know my name - they'll never forget my email address.
Yahoo Finance by durdur · 2012-01-18 14:08 · Score: 2

I still use Yahoo Finance quite a lot - it's fast, well organized and useful. But if it went away tomorrow, there are alternatives. Yahoo is still making money but their long-term future is starting to look bleak. IMO they should be looking to sell off the valuable pieces while they still have value.
Name change in order by MrKevvy · 2012-01-18 14:41 · Score: 2

Yahoo will now be known as Yang Who?

--
-- Insert witty one-liner here. --
Re:Steve jobs completely separated from Apple in 1 by MarkRose · 2012-01-18 15:34 · Score: 3, Interesting

Almost all his stock. He kept one share so he would continue to get the shareholders report.

--
Be relentless!
Advice for, to be ,Yahoo employee. by Anonymous Coward · 2012-01-18 16:33 · Score: 0

I have a job offer form Yahoo. Its a software developer profile. Should I join it. Currently I am in final year of graduation.
Too Late ... Parachute Malfunctions ... Oh by Anonymous Coward · 2012-01-18 16:37 · Score: 0

Had Jerry bailed out 10 years ago ... he could be returning now. Yet, as in now, time has passed him by.
An illness, ... thearpy ... somewhat recovery ... only to decline more rapidly.
Current internet history has not be kind to Jerry. I can only hope that after his death that ... rewriting will be allowed.
Yahoo by jhon_smith12 · 2012-01-18 19:17 · Score: 0

This is not a your fault.Yahoo have management problem sometime and it take long time to create account but on the other hand gmail is better to create account. So i like most the gmail account. uswebauthority
1. Re:Yahoo by andrew3 · 2012-01-18 21:22 · Score: 1
  
  it take long time to create account but on the other hand gmail is better to create account
  And naturally, as a spammer, the ease of creating accounts would be fairly important.
and just who is the 'bonch'? by Anonymous Coward · 2012-01-18 23:01 · Score: 0

http://techrights.org/2010/02/19/defamed-by-access-employee/
http://phoronix.com/forums/showthread.php?20559-Does-a-grand-evil-conspiracy-lie-behind-specific-Desktop-Environments/page21
Reckoning Time. by luis_a_espinal · 2012-01-19 00:11 · Score: 1

I really have to wonder if Yahoo should have accepted Microsoft's $45 billion bid, which Yang was roundly criticized for rejecting.
It should had, and Yang was a bone-head. Anyways, good riddance, and it should be soon reckoning time for Yahoo, which hasn't been a tech company in ages. It is now a limited set of marketing services, that's all, the AOL of tech has-beens. Paul Grahams provides some insights as of why of such fateful transformation: http://www.paulgraham.com/yahoo.html
Crisis by Anonymous Coward · 2012-01-19 02:42 · Score: 1

It seems that the long tenure of Jerry Yang at Yahoo has ended.
This just in: Yin, deciding to stay at Yahoo, is despondent, unbalanced.
Re:Organized trolling campaign by GreatBunzinni by TheCouchPotatoFamine · 2012-01-19 07:10 · Score: 1

it wasn't just that, and your an obvious shill - for trying to discredit me without knowing what i wrote first. damage control, much?

--
CS majors know the time/space tradeoff, but they never get taught the 3rd, crucial, tradeoff of the set: comprehension!