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Yahoo Killing Maps, Pipes & More

alphadogg writes: Yahoo is shutting down its mapping service, Pipes and reducing the availability of Yahoo TV and Yahoo Music. The company has decided instead to focus on three major parts of its business: search, communications, and digital content. "We made this decision to better align resources to Yahoo's priorities as our business has evolved since we first launched Yahoo Maps eight years ago," says the company.

176 comments

  1. It's going to be painful... by bobbied · · Score: 2, Interesting

    To watch Yahoo slowly die because they got out classed by all the upstarts in the market.

    Really, they fell prey to the PHB effect before their competitors did. MBA's took over too fast at Yahoo after the founders took their money and ran...

    --
    "File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
    1. Re:It's going to be painful... by farble1670 · · Score: 2

      To watch Yahoo slowly die because they got out classed by all the upstarts in the market.

      yeah those upstarts like Google? Google hasn't been an upstart for a very long time.

    2. Re:It's going to be painful... by bobbied · · Score: 3, Insightful

      They got taken over by MBA's too after the founders took their money and ran...

      Facebook and Twitter are next....

      --
      "File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
    3. Re:It's going to be painful... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Funny thing is (and yes, most of us probably realized this years ago, but still worth saying), Google initially beat yahoo largely because they focused on search whereas yahoo buried the search feature under all the other crap they were trying to push.

      The biggest appeal of Google back in the 90s was that their page was a search box and two buttons, which contrasted to yahoo which looked like a page out of the classifieds. Google hasn't gotten as bad as yahoo was/is, but they are definitely heading there.

    4. Re:It's going to be painful... by binarylarry · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Google is still run by the founders and early advisors.

      --
      Mod me down, my New Earth Global Warmingist friends!
    5. Re: It's going to be painful... by AvitarX · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Google seems to push relevant parts of its other stuff into the results, rather than overwhelm with it.

      If I search for a place, they show me the map, a news topic, they show me news, etc etc.

      They don't push me to news when it's not relevant.

      --
      Wow, sent an e-mail as suggested when clicking on "use classic" banner, and got a fast response that addressed my msg
    6. Re:It's going to be painful... by bobbied · · Score: 2

      No... They still work for the company and collect paychecks, but it's actually RUN by the board of directors who are elected by the share holders....

      But to be fair, they have retained a lot of their original talent, it's just in the process of being watered down by MBA's and turning into what all companies become.... Which is why they are beating Yahoo... But even mighty Google is not immune to the march of the MBA's

      --
      "File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
    7. Re:It's going to be painful... by kamapuaa · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Yahoo was done down by sloppy engineering. Everybody went to Yahoo for first the curated internet and later (when that proved impossible) internet searches, and the internet searches were terrible. Later Google came along, their results actually good, and there was a sudden migration to a site which could actually get shit done.

      I don't know if MBAs helped or hurt Yahoo's case, but ultimately they were just swapping deck chairs on the Titanic. There's no possible way a site with shitty search results could compete with a site with good search results.

      --
      Slashdot: providing anti-social weirdos a soapbox, since 1997.
    8. Re:It's going to be painful... by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 2

      Yahoo was done down by sloppy engineering. ... There's no possible way a site with shitty search results could compete with a site with good search results.

      Not just search. Their maps were crappy and rarely updated. Their email doesn't even have basic features like sub-folders, although they first promised to add them 18 years ago. Their services are so bad, that I have heard some employers will reject resumes coming from @yahoo.com, presumably because anyone using Yahoo is too dumb to hire.

    9. Re: It's going to be painful... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      You sure you aren't describing langoliers rather than MBAs?

    10. Re: It's going to be painful... by Anrego · · Score: 2

      Indeed.

      Creepy as it is, the "oh by the way" stuff google does is often relevant. I actually kinda like how when I get an email about a shipment from UPS, google picks up on the tracking number in the email and provides a quick link to the tracking page.

      And the maps are a no-brainer, because yeah, a lot of times when I google for a place, I'm gonna wanna know where it's located.

    11. Re:It's going to be painful... by kamapuaa · · Score: 4, Informative

      Yahoo held on to Jerry Yang WAY longer than most stockholders or common sense would have dictated. Mostly because he and various people he knows owned/own such a large percentage of the company (if not a controlling share).

      --
      Slashdot: providing anti-social weirdos a soapbox, since 1997.
    12. Re:It's going to be painful... by ron_ivi · · Score: 5, Insightful

      MBA's took over too fast at Yahoo after the founders took their money and ran...

      Even a bit worse than that --- after they watched AOL buy Time Warner they wanted to emulate that they hired some Warner Brothers guy as their CEO who didn't know much about the internet. And they never invest in the technologies they have. Consider all the times they aquired the leading company in a space --- only to *not* invest in it and kill it:

      • Broadcast.com - that Yahoo bought for ~$4 billion - was the leading audio/video site of its time, and could have been Youtube + Hulu + Netflix
      • Geocities.com - that Yahoo bought for ~3 billion - was the leading social network of its time - could have been MySpace+Facebook
      • Egroups - for a half a billion - another social network component.
      • del.icio.us - another social network component
      • Altavista as part of Overture - that Yahoo bought for i-forget-how-much - was the leading search engine of it's time - and yahoo doesn't even use them, preferring to pay competitors for search results.
      • MusicMatch - that coulda been Pandora.

      And such irony that they *now* descide to focus on Search --- after having bought what was once the best search engine on the internet (AltaVista), yet have since then been paying competitors to do search for them.

    13. Re:It's going to be painful... by ron_ivi · · Score: 2

      but it's actually RUN by the board of directors who are elected by the share holders....

      Not really --- note that most Google shareholders hold stock with far fewer voting rights than the class "B" shares that Brin and Page hold. People holding the lesser "A" and "C" shares in Google don't really run anything,

    14. Re:It's going to be painful... by mrchaotica · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Not to mention, that "Pipes" thing actually looks pretty cool... too bad they never marketed it, so I didn't know it existed until after they decided to shut it down!

      --

      "[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz

    15. Re:It's going to be painful... by Alomex · · Score: 3, Insightful

      But you forgot to add that they refused to pay 1 million for Larry and Sergei's search engine.... which forced them to go on their own and create Google.

      How's that for a fscked corporate M&A department?

    16. Re:It's going to be painful... by whoever57 · · Score: 2

      It is my impression that Yahoo email accounts are compromised and used to send spam far more often than other services. This could be due to one of 3 reasons:
      1. Yahoo has more email subscribers than competing services.
      2. X-site scripting vulnerabilities in Yahoo.
      3. More clueless users.

      I don't think that the magnitude of 1 is large enough, so options 2 and 3 are left. I think that there were some cross-site scripting vulnerabilities reported a year or two back, so it might be this.

      --
      The real "Libtards" are the Libertarians!
    17. Re: It's going to be painful... by TWX · · Score: 3, Insightful

      You sure you aren't describing langoliers rather than MBAs?

      There's a difference?

      --
      Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
    18. Re: It's going to be painful... by gumbi+west · · Score: 2

      Google is really good at search and keeps getting better.

      But everything else they do is just awful. Maps, broken and their too stubborn to fix it to what it used to be; android is a mess, my moto G is about 1/2 as fast AT BEST for the MLB app relative to my iPhone, most apps crash every few days, and only one app makes any intuitive sense to me (the google app, love it) whereas about 80% of my iPhone apps make sense right away, plus privacy is just a list of demands and no most of my apps can turn on the camera without asking or even telling me since the "simplified" the permissions interface; google+, 'nuf said; google docs is OK for scheduling when you don't share calendar software, but that comes up only every once in awhile.

      Anyways, many tech firms are really just one idea that, once played out, is just done.

    19. Re:It's going to be painful... by erice · · Score: 2

      No... They still work for the company and collect paychecks, but it's actually RUN by the board of directors who are elected by the share holders....

      Larry and Sergey still own a majority of the voting shares. They own the board, by design.

    20. Re:It's going to be painful... by CronoCloud · · Score: 1

      Egroups - for a half a billion - another social network component.

      Didn't they incorporate that into Yahoogroups or something? It's been so long that I can't remember.

      MusicMatch - that coulda been Pandora.

      Oh yeah, I had that on XP, liked it well enough that I actually paid money to upgrade the thing to pro. Had an internet radio feature that worked fairly well. I think you could even buy songs in it, besides that Spotify/pandora-ish subscription thing. The Interface wasn't too bad either. Personally I think Internet radio didn't take off because back then it was tied to the computer, which often didn't have good speakers, and it required a good internet connection, which quite a few people didn't have, even in 2003. After all shoutcast/icecast has been around for a loooong time, but if you mention it to non-geeks they'd say "what"? Sure some people may be using TuneIn, but they don't know it's Icecast/Shoutcast.

      Nowadays practically everything can use Pandora or Spotify, and people can use them on their phones/tablets/whatever. It's more convenient for most.

    21. Re:It's going to be painful... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      There's also the matter of a nonexistent abuse department. Check out Yahoo Finance message boards for examples -- the same two or three rings of scam stock newsletters has been running completely unopposed for the past 3-5 years since the last big message board revamp.

      Basically, the message board revamp took a working BBS-style discussion system and made it all AJAXy. The UXtards wrecked it, alienated the customer base, and one of the pieces of functionality that was broken (it literally works only about 20% of the time) was abuse reporting. Even when abusers are reported, no action is ever taken.

      A simple fucking Bayesian filter against the string "Stock Aviator" or "Penny Stocks Weekly" would have eliminated the problem in ten seconds flat, but Yahoo has never considered doing so.

    22. Re:It's going to be painful... by Blaskowicz · · Score: 2

      4. Weak password and/or high password reuse are enough to get you hijacked, and Yahoo doesn't lock you out or require a mobile phone number like microsoft and gmail do.

      This is a good feature by the way. They tried to get me to provide a phone member, and to convert my account to a "social media" one but it was easily clicked through and they stopped buggering me about it.
      So, you get long term webmail that doesn't lock you out. Your webmail can be locked if hijacked, but this can be recovered after a waiting period and once a new password is set you aren't getting hijacked.
      It's probably better to get webmail service elsewhere, but there doesn't seem to be many non paid options.

    23. Re: It's going to be painful... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The founders are in the board.

    24. Re:It's going to be painful... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I had to work at Yahoo! before I knew what Pipes were and everyone there thought it was cool except for management it seems.

    25. Re:It's going to be painful... by sound+vision · · Score: 1

      Was GeoCities really much of a "social network"? I had a site on it in the late 90s and I only remember it as a place to dump my HTML files. I guess some people tricked out their page with guestbooks - which IIRC was always done through a third party by embedding a frame in your page. But the functionality of even the most dynamic Geocities page was not equivalent to Facebook or Myspace. At least that I remember - if they tried adding that type of stuff later on, let me know.

    26. Re: It's going to be painful... by FatdogHaiku · · Score: 1

      Langoliers appear to show more compassion, but that could be an illusory coincidence.
      People are supposed to be gone before the langoliers start working...
      MBA's on the other hand seem to want people to see what they have wrought.

      --
      You have the right to remain sentient. If you give up the right to remain sentient, you will be elected to public office
    27. Re:It's going to be painful... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Pipes is AWESOME
      I've been useing it for years, NOW what do I do?
      I kind of hope someone will buy it.
      Or maybe Google will do some thing similar

    28. Re:It's going to be painful... by hairyfeet · · Score: 1

      Actually last statistics I saw had Yahoo neck and neck with Google on the number of email users and as a PC shop guy who deals with home users every day I can tell you the #1 home page I see on folks computers is Yahoo.

      So this move is understandable and I doubt signals a "slow death" at Yahoo, they are just getting rid of the stuff with a low amount of users in favor of their most popular stuff, the Yahoo Mail, the Yahoo Homepage (which is where part of the "digital content" comes in) and I wouldn't be surprised to see more featured concerts as they seem to have been doing that a lot lately and it seems to be pretty hot.

      --
      ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
    29. Re:It's going to be painful... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      But you forgot to add that they refused to pay 1 million for Larry and Sergei's search engine.... which forced them to go on their own and create Google.

      would have been one of the cheapest things they bought only to kill off later :-).

    30. Re:It's going to be painful... by omnichad · · Score: 1

      It was very "set it and forget it" and didn't require authentication to keep using RSS feeds created with it. I have no idea if I'm using it every day or not. I know that I had been at one time.

    31. Re:It's going to be painful... by omnichad · · Score: 1

      It's a social network in the sense that it served as the equivalent of your "profile" page on Facebook now. That's really the only common thread I can find, but it is probably the 90's equivalent at least for that small (mostly non-social) part.

    32. Re:It's going to be painful... by Khyber · · Score: 1

      "as a PC shop guy who deals with home users every day I can tell you the #1 home page I see on folks computers is Yahoo."

      That's likely because Mozilla partnered with Yahoo recently, and not done by conscious choice.

      --
      Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
    33. Re:It's going to be painful... by KlomDark · · Score: 1

      Yah, it's MBii...

    34. Re: It's going to be painful... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Langoliers destroy the past, not the future.

    35. Re:It's going to be painful... by hairyfeet · · Score: 1

      Nope because I've actually had users ask me to switch them back when they got "Chrome'd". Ironic that you should bring up the Yahoo/Mozilla partnership as one of the biggest complaints I get is people who get "Chrome'd" when some freeware program they download takes control away from their browser and sticks them with Chrome and the Google home page as they do NOT like it in the least, in fact many act like its some sort of PC hijacking.

      I have to explain to them that its because some program they downloaded had a little checkbox but I do have to agree that when you go from opt-in to opt-out? You have entered into "scumbag" territory, right along with McCrappee and Horton with their sleazeball security tools.

      --
      ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
    36. Re:It's going to be painful... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You are probably very young and have had very little experience in business. Board of Directors really do not RUN anything in most companies. They can fire the CEO and other officers, but the day to day operations are handled by various CxOs.

    37. Re: It's going to be painful... by TWX · · Score: 1

      True. MBAs seem to like to pretend that the past didn't dictate how the present came to be, and thus by ignoring it destroy the future.

      --
      Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
    38. Re:It's going to be painful... by farble1670 · · Score: 1

      i know google bashing is good fun, and makes us all feel good, but their search page is incredibly spartan and fast loading, and contains no ads. you must be able to find something better to complain about than this, right?

    39. Re:It's going to be painful... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I don't think you can make the argument that Google is getting as bad as Yahoo was/is. Google's front page is still essentially just a search box and two buttons, and I've seen no movement towards a more Yahooesqe presentation.

      Google's downfall, for me, will be simplification, not excess complexity. They are trying to optimise out too many details of the user experience. Not everyone wants everything done for them, automatically, especially those times when Google inevitably gets it wrong.

      That and suddenly changing Google Maps from the UK's standard road colours to various incomprehensible shades of yellow and orange, while cluttering cities with information about local businesses that is irrelevant at the current zoom level.

    40. Re:It's going to be painful... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Unfortunately Altavista was not world class search engine you imagine. Before Google came on the scene it was the best search engine, but it was eclipsed quickly, because it was too attached to using expensive DEC hardware. By the time Altavista was bought by Yahoo, it was lagging very badly behind Google. Yahoo had it's own internal search ability at that time and absorbed some of the Altavista search engineers into it's own team. I know all this because I worked at Altavista during those years. By the time Yahoo bought Overture/Altavista, I doubt it would have mattered much even if Yahoo discarded it's internal search engine and adopted Altavista search whole heartedly.

    41. Re: It's going to be painful... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      google maps is broken how exactly?? saying something is broken without defining it is useless to the audience..."fix it to what it used to be" is also pretty useless; considering the reiteration for maps alone...2005 version? Feb 2008?

    42. Re: It's going to be painful... by gumbi+west · · Score: 1

      Am I confused, is this the bug tracker for google maps?

      Nevertheless...

      google maps doesn't get me where I'm going. It takes me the wrong way on one ways, gives me directions to use roads that either don't exist or are not labeled with the name google is feeding me. In the online version, once I've entered google maps page, anything that requires a click requires quite a bit of thought and searching for how to do it.

  2. Yahoo has maps? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Who knew?

    1. Re:Yahoo has maps? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      Yahoo maps is actually really nice. It is somehow one of the only map services that has a scale bar. I continue to be baffled by Google leaving this out. What the hell is the point of a map without a scale bar?

    2. Re:Yahoo has maps? by kamapuaa · · Score: 2

      I have not once wanted to use a scale bar. Really you want to know how long it takes, or how many miles it takes, and it does that. If for some reason Google Maps stopped telling you this information automatically, then yeah I guess a scale bar would be a good way to estimate the same information,

      --
      Slashdot: providing anti-social weirdos a soapbox, since 1997.
    3. Re:Yahoo has maps? by crashumbc · · Score: 1

      Google Maps has one... lower right corner, after the "report a problem" link

    4. Re:Yahoo has maps? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yahoo maps is actually really nice. It is somehow one of the only map services that has a scale bar. I continue to be baffled by Google leaving this out. What the hell is the point of a map without a scale bar?

      There is a scale bar still, it's just tiny and pushed down into a corner beneath some icons now. I used it a lot on some projects when I had to estimate some cable runs, printing out the satellite view of the job site with the scale bar and a ruler made for some quick rough estimates.

    5. Re:Yahoo has maps? by antdude · · Score: 1

      My king ant used it. :/

      --
      Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
    6. Re:Yahoo has maps? by Noah+Haders · · Score: 1

      I agree with this comment on the scale bar. apple maps also has a scale bar, but for whatever reason it only shows you the scale bar when you're resizing the map. once you're done pinching to zoom, the bar fades away.

    7. Re:Yahoo has maps? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Speaking as someone who works in mapping... The problem with a scale bar is Mercator. When you have a mercator projection, and you're even moderately zoomed out, the scale bar will be wildly inaccurate at some area of the map, simply because the projection distorts the world so badly.

    8. Re:Yahoo has maps? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yahoo had maps, but no direction.

    9. Re: Yahoo has maps? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'm kind of baffled by the "eight years ago" part. I was using Yahoo Maps in late 2001 for certain, and possibly before, but I can't remember that part for sure.

    10. Re:Yahoo has maps? by xaxa · · Score: 2

      The scale bar is very useful in unfamiliar countries. Is the next building to my hotel is 2km away, or 200m, or 20m? Can I walk to the beach?

      It's much quicker to look at a scale than to ask for directions, especially when I don't know what the destinations are called.

    11. Re:Yahoo has maps? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I agree. Yahoo Maps, until today, was my go-to. It's the one that sucks the least.

    12. Re:Yahoo has maps? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And Google can't figure out when that (very rare and predictable) situation applies?

    13. Re:Yahoo has maps? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Over small distances (around a neighborhood, within a city) there really shouldn't be any projection issues unless you are the Little Prince.

    14. Re:Yahoo has maps? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Not on the new Google Maps anyway. The lower right corner just has zoom buttons and a button to enable street view.

    15. Re:Yahoo has maps? by crashumbc · · Score: 1

      http://i61.tinypic.com/11ukas6...

      [IMG]http://i61.tinypic.com/11ukas6.jpg[/IMG]

      see the very bottom right below the zoom?

      it shows 1000ft and a line showing how far.

    16. Re: Yahoo has maps? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Google has the distance measurement tool. Right click the starting location, "Measure distance", click the ending location.

    17. Re:Yahoo has maps? by Little_Professor · · Score: 1

      A scale bar would be pretty useless in those circumstances, unless you were flying. The hotel may be 200m from the beach as the crow flies, but if the only way to get there is via a footpath that is 1km long then you will be walking five times the distance. The walking directions you can get on Google/Bing maps are much more useful at telling you the actual practical distance between two locations

    18. Re:Yahoo has maps? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      A scale bar is useful for getting a general feel of the scale of things. When I look at a map, I very rarely want directions from A to B. That's very limited information that's only applicable in limited circumstances. What I'm looking for instead is a general sense of what things exist in a given area and how those things relate to each other in physical space. A known scale is useful for that. Having gained such an overview, it's usually trivial to navigate through the area with very little further reference to the map.

      With that said, Google Maps does actually have a scale bar. On the other hand, it has a tendency to do other things that make it difficult to judge scale, such as hiding small roads when you zoom out.

    19. Re:Yahoo has maps? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Apparently this only works if you use Chrome. Google doesn't seem to provide it to non-Chrome users.

    20. Re:Yahoo has maps? by DiEx-15 · · Score: 1

      Who knew?

      When I read the title in my Yahoo Mail I was like "Why is Google shutting it down? Has Skynet become sentient now and wants to confuse humanity without maps?!"

      Then 'i realized it was Yahoo and not Google and then was like "Oh. Nevermind. When did they have Maps and what the hell are Pipes?"

      I need to enact a rule not to read anything until I've downed at least my first pot of coffee in the morning.

  3. interesting by lucm · · Score: 2

    The company has decided instead to focus on three major parts of its business: search, communications, and digital content.

    So that's what Yahoo does. I wondered what was their business besides unreliable email and annoying CEOs.

    --
    lucm, indeed.
    1. Re:interesting by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      I did not know there were Yahoo Maps?

      I thought they were just email and in the past a search engine.

      Well, listen, and learn something new everyday.

  4. Yahoo Should... by MightyMartian · · Score: 4, Funny

    Yahoo should concentrate on figuring out who will be the last person out of the building, so they can make sure to turn off the lights.

    --
    The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
    1. Re:Yahoo Should... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I suspect they'll turn into AOL. Like, everyone will assume they are dead, and the brand will be worthless so they won't throw the name around, but they'll actually own huge assets in the background and basically be an umbrella corporation for completely incomprehensible reasons.

    2. Re:Yahoo Should... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yahoo pulled a stunt similar to /. beta -- logo changed, mail changed, home page changed, all for the worse. Gone was the simple, clean design, replaced by soulless, complicated webpages. Ads disguised as stories, constantly pestering mail users to enter their phone numbers etc. Too bad the users had no means to push back like they did on /. beta, so now yahoo! has turned to crap and is slowly dying. Always listen to your customers to prevent shit like this from happening.

  5. Uhm by Eyezen · · Score: 2

    ...reducing the availabilty of TV and Music ...instead focus on digital content

    1. Re:Uhm by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      read: ads and the clickbait and news articles stapled to them.

  6. yahoo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Laying off all their remote workers really saved them!

    Interesting to know that was their whole problem all along! /s

  7. they ought to kill mail too by lophophore · · Score: 1

    yahoo mail is barely usable at all any more, and it is so full of spam...

    the usability has reached a new low, and I think they must be selling targeted email, because I get so much stuff that is obviously spam that it is ridiculous.

    Had I not been using yahoo mail pretty much since it was announced in 1997, and I still have people who only know me at that address, I would not use it at all.

    Maybe it is time...

    --
    there are 3 kinds of people:
    * those who can count
    * those who can't
    1. Re:they ought to kill mail too by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I agree, maybe it is time. That web interface and the ads, trackers, and news feed they try to push. I feel dirty just checking my mail.

    2. Re:they ought to kill mail too by LessThanObvious · · Score: 2

      My only issue with Yahoo mail is the number of permissions the current Mobile app version wants. If I ever switch phones the Yahoo app goes way, I will not give them more permissions. I already ditched the Yahoo Finance app for privacy reasons. That I can live without since Yahoo Finance now sucks and isn't likely to return. Really Porter Stansbury and his end of the world predictions on the front page of Yahoo finance, meh, get off my lawn*.

      *Due to drought conditions visitors will now have to get of my dirt patch.

    3. Re:they ought to kill mail too by CaptainDork · · Score: 2

      I have two (2) Yahoo! emails that I have paid for since 2002 and they work very well.

      I have 17 free Yahoo! email accounts and the ones I never actually even used are good spam magnets and stuff.

      --
      It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
    4. Re:they ought to kill mail too by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Me too, paid for it for a long time. I have a shitload of stuff in Yahoo Mail that I should back up to local storage. How do I do that?

    5. Re:they ought to kill mail too by Blaskowicz · · Score: 1

      I tried Thunderbird the other day. I didn't expect it but on first start you provide it email address and password, and it sets itself up automatically, even with a free yahoo mail account.

    6. Re:they ought to kill mail too by omnichad · · Score: 1

      You have IMAP access and can use a tool like offlineIMAP to dump the mail to a maildir. Or just use a mail client for that. And with a mail client, it's relatively trivial to then drag those messages into another IMAP account.

    7. Re:they ought to kill mail too by Howitzer86 · · Score: 1

      YOUR account is full of spam.

      Mine is not. Remember you can unsubscribe and block emails.

  8. maaaan pipe was awesome! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    fuck proffit, guys give us useful creative tools

  9. Pipes was actually useful by afaiktoit · · Score: 3, Interesting

    its like companies want RSS to die or something.

    1. Re:Pipes was actually useful by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      A straightforward tool that lets content providers and users connect without any annoying middlemen? I'm shocked that the fat leeches wouldn't like such a thing. Just shocked

    2. Re:Pipes was actually useful by taxman_10m · · Score: 1

      It was basically the thing people used for an RSS widget after Google Reader discontinued their service, right? It's true that RSS has taken a beating the past number of years.

    3. Re:Pipes was actually useful by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Never saw the point of RSS, so never used it.

    4. Re:Pipes was actually useful by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's like subscribing to an email list, only your RSS client pulls the content rather than the service pushing it to you. Thus, it's entirely under your control, so when you want to stop receiving the messages, you just tell your client to stop fetching them. It's far more logical than email subscriptions.

      I'm not entirely sure why everyone says it's dead. Most web sites with frequent updates (blogs, message forums, etc.) support it so that you can get notification of their updates. I suppose the only real issue is that most people don't know how to utilize it and so they don't realize it exists.

    5. Re:Pipes was actually useful by Hunter-Killer · · Score: 1

      I used to use iGoogle heavily with feeds from Pipes, then Marissa Mayer spearheaded a redesign to to cater to the "real" users (gadget creators) as part of a monetization strategy. I figured that with her move to Yahoo, she'd quit strangling projects I rely on. I guess it was only a matter of time.

    6. Re:Pipes was actually useful by gpoul · · Score: 1

      Any ideas on what might be a suitable replacement for Pipes? As it so happens I'm lazy and still seem to be using one or two pipes we built a long time ago :)

    7. Re:Pipes was actually useful by TheRaven64 · · Score: 1

      It's also useful for providing an API that other tools can use. Lots of things can parse RSS feeds, not just readers, and it's a good way of providing activity indicators on other sites.

      --
      I am TheRaven on Soylent News
    8. Re:Pipes was actually useful by omnichad · · Score: 1

      That and podcasts.

  10. Die Yahoo by koan · · Score: 1

    Just die...

    --
    "If any question why we died, Tell them because our fathers lied."
  11. Yahoo Announces "I'm Not Dead Yet, You Pinhead!" by Irate+Engineer · · Score: 1

    They should hire Abe Vigoda to do ads for them.

    --

    Left MS Windows for Linux Mint and never looked back!

    Vote for Bernie in 2016!

  12. Thank you internet Jesus by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    For killing off the unholy spawn that was Yahoo Maps. I keep our web information up to date with the major players out there, and by far and away the absolute WORST to deal with was Yahoo Maps. Bing Maps? Not as bad by even half. Google Maps? We're stuck with them, but at least you can call someone for help on the really stupid problems. Yelp? Same.

    But OH GOD is dealing with problems on Yahoo Maps a pain. Can't die soon enough.

  13. Stopped using Yahoo when Gmail became relevant by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Yahoo had a relatively great email system... then they removed POP/IMAP access and it no longer became something usable (forcing you to use the web interface at all times)

    Then Gmail came along and offered this for free and enough space to never have to delete anything.

    Pipes... only gets used for malware/anonymous-proxy abuse, so I'm not sad to see that go. Too bad for people who actually used it for something not copyright-infringing.

    1. Re:Stopped using Yahoo when Gmail became relevant by crashumbc · · Score: 1

      Umm I'm using IMAP on my phone right now...

    2. Re:Stopped using Yahoo when Gmail became relevant by omnichad · · Score: 1

      They brought back IMAP for mobile support...a long time ago.

  14. Another nail in the coffin by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Yahoo is another worthless portal that nobody needs. If they went away tomorrow the internet would survive.

  15. Didn't know yahoo maps by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    http://maps.yahoo.com/

    Played with it a bit, it feels like the old google maps (i.e. fast) and doesn't need flash. None of the lag and those too many stupid boxes seen on new google maps.

    Looks like it was based on Nokia here. Guess that is why it's going away.

  16. noooo! not pipes! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    I use pipes every single day in bash. What are we supposed to do now, redirect everything into a temporary file, like in the early days? That gets cumbersome with many steps, and anyway it is less multi-processor efficient, and CPUs have more than one core these days!

    1. Re:noooo! not pipes! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I use pipes every single day in bash. What are we supposed to do now, redirect everything into a temporary file, like in the early days? That gets cumbersome with many steps, and anyway it is less multi-processor efficient, and CPUs have more than one core these days!

      Try mkfifo, dude... I promise you won't regret it.

    2. Re:noooo! not pipes! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I have a few terrabytes worth of text files filled with pipes. I figured the demand is going to rise soon....

  17. In other words... by Jumunquo · · Score: 1

    Yahoo decided software engineering is too hard and decided to just hire a bunch of writers.

  18. This may be saying something by thegarbz · · Score: 1

    I didn't even know Yahoo had a maps service. I knew they had a TV service that I never used but otherwise I had heard of none of these services. I'm interested how "search" is still a major part of it's business. Isn't it just now regurgitated bing results?

  19. Women CEO. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Troll

    Yup, that's what you get when you hire Marissa Mayer.

    1. Re:Women CEO. by Grishnakh · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Oh please. Carly Fiorina was a female CEO too, and look at the great job she did at HP.... oh wait. Now it's run by Meg Whitman... hmm, another bad example.

      Well, there's also GM, run by Mary Barra... maybe that's not such a great example, considering the ignition switch problem.

      Seriously, though, there's a bunch of female CEOs these days, as seen in this list. I can't say, however, that any of these companies are all that great.

    2. Re:Women CEO. by Lehk228 · · Score: 1

      reddit is next with Chairman Pao

      --
      Snowden and Manning are heroes.
    3. Re:Women CEO. by Grishnakh · · Score: 1

      Except that Reddit is actually highly successful, unlike this dying wasteland of a discussion forum.

    4. Re:Women CEO. by Lehk228 · · Score: 1

      she just took over recently, the damage a woman CEO causes takes time to accrue.

      --
      Snowden and Manning are heroes.
    5. Re:Women CEO. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Honestly, are any CEOs particularly great? I don't think this is a gender thing so much as a corporate role thing.

  20. Hipsters be like ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    What is Yahoo! ?

  21. flickr by stafil · · Score: 1

    flickr is the only service yahoo should focus on. In fact they should rename themselves to flickr and remove the annoying yahoo toolbar on the top of the page.

  22. Yahoo Maps was BIG until it destroyed in years ago by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Yahoo Maps wasn't the only great thing about Yahoo! in its hey-day. They had a great news section, then destroyed it. They removed the open source section!!!! And layer destroyed to layout/design that actually worked for one that didn't. They also destroyed Yahoo! Mail multiple times. And the main page as well! Well- they destroyed pretty much everything but... they actually had a decent web chat too in the early 1990s.

    Yahoo! is dead and I haven't visited a Yahoo! property in years (until today- and it looks more like advertisements on scammy web sites... then again it reminds me of some of the Microsoft properties as well).

  23. Re:they ought to open source maps by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Dear Yahoos,

    Please give your map data to openstreetmap or better yet completely open source it. Yahoo might then at least leave a legacy

  24. 8 years? by jdavidb · · Score: 1

    I was using Yahoo maps before Google maps, and I've been using Google maps a lot longer than 8 years.

    1. Re:8 years? by rockmuelle · · Score: 1

      Yahoo rebranded MapQuest early on and then switches to a different provider before bringing maps in house 8 years ago.

      -Chris

  25. A little ironic by Daetrin · · Score: 1

    Since Google has started disabling the old version of Maps i have seen people suggest Yahoo Maps as a good choice to move to for those who thing the new Google Maps is too slow and painful. That probably wouldn't add enough new users for them to justify keeping it, but it's still a little sad for anyone who just recently decided that Yahoo was the right place to move to for maps.

    (I didn't go that route myself because i dislike having the entire browser window covered with the map, so i'm thinking of moving to Bing instead.)

    --
    This Space Intentionally Left Blank
  26. Keep Groups by g01d4 · · Score: 1

    I like Yahoo Groups because it provides a functional interface w/reasonable features to several niche hardware/software vendors/authors and interest areas - all w/a single login and all available in the same browser window. What's annoying is that many vendor Groups are moving to their own little custom forums w/unique interfaces and more bells and whistles than is necessary. Add multiple passwords/windows and it's typically more hassle than it's worth for casual access to see what's going on in the user community. I don't know if Yahoo could have done more to keep these groups from moving or they moved because they saw some shiny forum software glittering w/a lot of features and figured why not.

  27. Okay, why are you all being so tough on Yahoo? by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 4, Funny

    Okay, sure, they're in a tough spot. None of us knew they even had maps, their email sucks, and nobody wants to work there because of recently introduced draconian measures.

    But that logo tweak Marissa Mayer shepherded to completion is amazing!

    --
    #DeleteChrome
    1. Re:Okay, why are you all being so tough on Yahoo? by cavebison · · Score: 1

      their email sucks

      Depends how you use it. Yahoo have one of the best systems for creating throwaway email addresses, I've been using them for years and have accumulated around 70 of them. Their UI gets more cumbersome and slow with each fab new design iteration, but I don't check email online, I use POP down to Thunderbird.

      Except that the POP account is Gmail, as Gmail has the best spam detection, but for some reason an utterly useless alias system (some email forms don't even accept "+" signs). So my Yahoo account, with the great aliases, forwards to the Gmail account, which then comes down to Thunderbird on my laptop, while still letting me check emails on the go with the Gmail app.

      You don't have to use the services the way they'd prefer you to. The only time I visit mail.yahoo.com.au is to add another email alias. Works great, I like it.

    2. Re:Okay, why are you all being so tough on Yahoo? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You can no longer create yahoo email addresses without supplying your phone number.
      They basically killed themselves.

  28. Wow! Yahoo's still in business! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Who knew?

  29. Yahoo keeps making their services worse by walterbyrd · · Score: 1

    The last update to yahoo mail was horrid. I am far from the only person who thought so.

    I stopped using yahoo maps a long time ago when they screwed that up.

    1. Re:Yahoo keeps making their services worse by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I was a paying customer for Flickr until Yahoo made the interface so bad that I stopped paying for and using the service.

  30. Open source what you can, Yahoo by MikeRT · · Score: 1

    Never used pipes, but would love to see them open source what they can. Even if it's incomplete, it would be a really good show of good will and who knows, maybe someone could do something with it that would give Yahoo some cred back.

  31. Hint: Earlier Info by SuperKendall · · Score: 1

    Really you want to know how long it takes, or how many miles it takes

    So, um, like, that's what a scale bar TELLS YOU. Without having to click "directions". Especially for walking directions.

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
    1. Re:Hint: Earlier Info by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Drop by AAA and pick up some maps then, old man. Your way of doing things is antiquated.

    2. Re:Hint: Earlier Info by TheRaven64 · · Score: 1

      And, especially, the maps where I most want this are embedded (e.g. in a hotel side where I want to see how far the hotel is from the places I actually want to go) and so don't provide access to the directions bar.

      --
      I am TheRaven on Soylent News
    3. Re: Hint: Earlier Info by IMightB · · Score: 1

      Just curious how is clicking on Directions typing/clicking, at least, one, possibly two locations better than just glancing at the map and saying "huh it's roughly 1200 miles to go from A to B, maybe I'll fly"

    4. Re: Hint: Earlier Info by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So right click the map at the starting point, "Measure distance", click the end point. There. Distance as the crow flies. Exact, not some result of eyeballing based on a scale bar.

  32. Reducing Their Focus? by R3d+M3rcury · · Score: 2

    Yahoo is [...] reducing the availability of Yahoo TV and Yahoo Music. The company has decided instead to focus on three major parts of its business: search, communications, and digital content.

    Okay, TV and Music seem to be "digital content." So they're reducing what they're focusing on?

    And if they're reducing, why are they spending what I assume is a ludicrous amount of money on this?

    1. Re:Reducing Their Focus? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I see no mention of that in the article.

      Here we go...
      Yahoo kills Pipes, Maps, and some TV and Music services in prioritization drive

      as well as Yahoo Music and Yahoo TV in some regions.

  33. Melissa Mayer by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    The person who finally killed yahoo

    1. Re:Melissa Mayer by hambone142 · · Score: 2

      Marissa is to Yahoo as Carly is to HP.

      Both couldn't leave anything alone and both failed.

      I removed Yahoo news from my bookmarks. When I saw how much overhead was downloaded and how long it took (I'm in a rural area on satellite internet) I just got fed up with it and canned the link.

      I have a grandfathered yahoo paid email account but don't use it for anything serious.

      When one judges "effectiveness" by the quarterly report, ya get CEOs that will do anything to meet the numbers. Often, at the risk of the long term health of the company.

    2. Re:Melissa Mayer by crashumbc · · Score: 1

      that and half the "news" links on the main page are nothing but ads for "original" series they are pushing

    3. Re:Melissa Mayer by PPalmgren · · Score: 1

      I wouldn't really say that. Mayer inherited a failed business and failed business model death-spiral company. Staying the same was a death sentence, competing directly with google et. al. was a death sentence. I think what they're doing now, trying to find a niche with a shotgun scattershot approach to different strange endeavors, is the only move that they had to make. Carly, on the other hand, inherited a very successful business and completely destroyed it through management+profit > product methodology.

  34. Just "communications" and "digital content," eh? by Art3x · · Score: 2

    The company has decided instead to focus on three major parts of its business: search, communications, and digital content.

    I'm sure they had something more specific in mind, but "communications" and "digital content" covers just about everything.

  35. Android apps by Assembler · · Score: 1

    I recently discovered the nice work they did on their Android apps (finance & weather). I had completely written Yahoo! off before then. If they keep that up, they might get some traction from them. (It even got me to sign in to my old account)

    1. Re:Android apps by ic3m4n1 · · Score: 1

      Apps is massively competitive space. Yahoo will never have that differentiation or edge among 100 other popular weather apps to keep them going for any foreseeable future.

  36. What's Yahoo? by tgibson · · Score: 1

    Some sort of digital archive for cowboy yells?

  37. Google maps - report a problem by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Nobody at Google listens to the "Report a problem" issues you click on in any significant way.

    Most likely all the responses to that are collated and "data mined" for the most common phrases or words.

    Why do I say that?

    There are *numerous* issues with the new Google Maps (when compared to the old) that have been reported in this fashion that Google has done nothing about.

    Google doesn't want to know about your problems, they just want to create the "next cool thing" for you.

    Fuckers.

    Just use bing instead of Google. Google are too big and too egocentric.

    1. Re:Google maps - report a problem by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Just use bing instead of Google. Google are too big and too egocentric.

      Actually, if you want to stick it to the man, then use duck duck go. it is the new hot startup search engine.

    2. Re:Google maps - report a problem by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Just use bing instead of Google. Google are too big and too egocentric.

      Actually, if you want to stick it to the man, then use duck duck go. it is the new hot startup search engine.

      I prefer startpage.com because they prevent IP tracking.

    3. Re:Google maps - report a problem by omnichad · · Score: 1

      I've reported a large handful of mapping errors in my neighborhood and for every single one, I've gotten a response months later telling me I was right and that it was fixed. Might be a sort of large backlog, but it was handled.

  38. Re:they ought to open source maps by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It's doubtful they own the data but instead lease/rent/buy it from third parties and can't "give it away" except via limited interfaces such as Yahoo Maps.

  39. More like by Ol+Olsoc · · Score: 1

    Yahoo has decided that it's major focus must me more Kim Kardashian stories. Apparently only 2/3rds iof their total content isnt enough.

    --
    The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
  40. I like Yahoo! for a couple of things by Streetlight · · Score: 1

    I haven't found anything that matches Yahoo! for its financial pages. I've used their Portfolios feature to keep track of a variety of investments for quite some time. Portfolios can be set up with a variety of views that gives me what I want to know about my investments.If you want historical information on particular stocks, mutual funds or indices, you can usually find it there. If others here have a better free recommendation I'd like to hear about it. The yahoo.com home age aggregates information that's of interest to me, but maybe not everyone in this thread. I have a Yahoo! mail account, though I don't have any correspondents there, but I can't remember whether that's required to access other features. Gmail works well for me either in the web view or via my imap desktop app.

    It's too bad Yahoo! may fail. Maybe they've tried to be everything to everyone. A smaller number of best of class features might let them survive.

    --
    In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act. George Orwell
    1. Re:I like Yahoo! for a couple of things by istartedi · · Score: 2

      I also enjoy tracking stocks on Yahoo portfolios. It was just a slight nick in my chest (as opposed to a stab in the heart) when they replaced the old Gnuplots with the new charts, which have less data. Maybe they were getting screwed by the data provider, and if that's the reason then I can understand that. Anyway, their portfolios and charts remain useful, and I still use them too. It's nice to be able to check stocks you own without logging into a broker, and check stuff you don't own but are thinking about--all in one glance. Unfortunately, there are sometimes errors in things such as dividend yield. You have to take anything beyond the chart and price with a grain of salt.

      The problem with Yahoo neglecting and/or killing off all these services is that while one in particular may not be the killer app that makes us stay, collectively there is something for everybody. It could be death by 1000 cuts. Really though, it seems like they're flailing around in the advertising sand-pit just like a lot of other people in the biz. You know, when you flail in a sand-pit it just gets deeper. Yahoo looks worse than others because they've been doing it longer.

      --
      For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
  41. Re:Just "communications" and "digital content," eh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The company has decided instead to focus on three major parts of its business: search, communications, and digital content.

    I'm sure they had something more specific in mind, but "communications" and "digital content" covers just about everything.

    I'm not sure they have *anything* in mind. It seems like they're a goddamn disaster.

  42. Marissa needs another daycare by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Marissa needs money to build another daycare nextdoor to her spacious office. Can't afford to keep the business services running.

  43. Focus on search by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Now they're REALLY going to start skiming Bing and Google for results!

  44. Wait, Yahoo! had Maps? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    how long has it been since I've used it?

  45. Back to maps, is there a good online map? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The history of the Big Sites on the Internet:

    1. Provide a somewhat useful thing, like Yahoo Maps or Google Maps.
    2. Encumber it with pop ups, driving instructions, ads, images, street views, all the while slowing it down. (And it's impossible to turn all that off)*
    3. Wonder why people stop using it. (See #2)

    BTW, in my opinion Goggle maps is worse than Yahoo.
    10, even 5 years ago Yahoo and Google had okay maps. Google got better. Now-a-days, Google, the lapsed worshiper of simplicity, Maps are sloooow, and try to outguess you, and cover large sections of the maps with bars showing businesses.
    Maybe I'm upset because I just want a map, with a zoom in and out feature, and the ability to move around via the cursor.
    Maybe I'm upset because, at 64, I'm one of the last persons who knows how to a read map?

    ==
    * The Wannabe Swiss Army Knife Effect: the compulsion of designers of things to want everything to have multiple functions, like a Swiss Army Knife. Comment: usually the compass on a hammer or the wifi on the toaster or the DNA sequencer on a diaper doesn't work very well, if ever, and often interferes with the basic function.

    If you go the the cloths iron section at a store, or Amazon, it's amazing how all the upper priced ones have "Digital" splayed across the box.

  46. anyone know a pipes alternative? by Chrisq · · Score: 1

    anyone know a pipes alternative? It's very useful in combining feeds for mashups

  47. Google Maps has been ugly lately by billstewart · · Score: 1

    Bah - Yahoo's dumping their maps just about the same time that Google's been making Google Maps much less usable, at least on browsers. Not only does it take a lot longer to load the map of where it thinks you are before it's willing to listen to you type what you really want a map of, it's been getting much harder to actually display directions even after that. For instance, if you want to go from A to B, it shows you a short abstract of the directions, and lets you click on parts to expand them. But you can't just expand the area around B without losing the fat purple line display of the route. Almost all the time, when I'm looking for directions to somewhere, the part I need the most detail about is the area around the destination; I usually know where I am, and how to get to the freeway from there.

    For a while I was able to use "Classic Google Maps" and avoid this "upgrade", but that seems to have gone away.

    --

    Bill Stewart
    New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
  48. Why shut these things down? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    What beats me about this is why do you shut it down at all?

    Surely it would make more sense commercial to sell them off than simply shut them down? They've spent a lot of money building and maintaining the products, so why not try to recoup some of it? There must be companies out there that would like to own a mapping service?

    This also applies to all the things Google has shut down over the years. Some of the things that Google have switched off have been pretty good products, and with a reasonably solid user-base. Surely at least some of them could have been sold to someone else who would have kept them up and running?

    1. Re: Why shut these things down? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'm sure if you make them an offer, they will consider it.

      However, if you think there is money in some of these services, you're probably better off developing them yourself than starting with their code

  49. Can't log into yahoo.com anymore, so no loss by Trax3001BBS · · Score: 1

    As mentioned at the start of the thread it's sad to see yahoo starting to shutdown. I remember when Yahoo was considered the leader of the pack and the most used search engine.. I was one of it's first users but Google was better from day one and offered less on it's main page so I switched.

    Not the first site I've had an account yet can't access anymore, so a different note bye bye Yahoo, I spent three hours tonight trying to create a new account on yahoo.com (for the PowerPro discussion group) after numerous verifications replies I still couldn't get in. HOSTS file was blocking me (yes, it took that long to figure out, as it rarely causes problems), I'm not going to disable my HOSTS file for yahoo, and it's too large to effectively find the offending entry.

    If it was a problem I'd trim the file down a bit but only yahoo has given me any problems.

    1. Re:Can't log into yahoo.com anymore, so no loss by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I remember when Yahoo was a "stanford.edu" page.

  50. don't make me laugh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    incompetent Yoohoo Web monkeys can't even get the comics feed working right - it has been broken many times over the years and currently isn't working right now - what a joke!

  51. Yahoo TV is a steaming pile anyway. by joerdie · · Score: 1

    I tried to watch Community on their TV service but even when logged in, it didn't keep track of what I had seen (it tried but was never correct) and rarely displayed the next episode when I finished one. It would auto play an episode 3 or 4 away from where I was in the show. The steam itself was okay once it got started, but if I paused the playback, upon resume the CC would have to be manually turned off. It's a hot mess and I don't see how they could continue with it. I guess my point is that I agree with their decision to "reduce availability" of Yahoo TV.

    1. Re:Yahoo TV is a steaming pile anyway. by omnichad · · Score: 1

      I used it on Roku and it's worse. It starts playing a random channel immediately on opening the app. You can press up or down, but that changes "channels" which is really the start of a static stream of an episode of something. You have to intuit that you press "Go Back" to get to the list of shows. As you said, no history of what you've viewed. Luckily they only have Community and the episodes are unique enough that the synopsis will tell you. But you have to exit as soon as the episode ends.

  52. Search Hijacking shows increasing desperation by Martin+Spamer · · Score: 1

    Whenever I get called in to cleanup unwanted malware from the PCs of family and friends it is most commonly search hijacking by Yahoo.

    This increasingly desperate behaviour is ultimately counter productive, the Yahoo brand is trash and some friends actually call the search hijacking they suffer the "Yahoo Virus".

  53. Yahoo maps is great... by Maxwell · · Score: 1

    They were right after mapquest to jump into the mapping game. Their China coverage is miles and miles better than Google, with both english and mandarin names on the map (google is only mandarin when you are in China). Too bad.

  54. Still alive? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I thought that Yahoo had become all but irrelevant years ago, staying alive only from a technical point of view.

  55. PHB effect? by wardrich86 · · Score: 1

    Excuse my living-under-a-rockedness... what is the PHB effect?

    1. Re:PHB effect? by hax4bux · · Score: 1

      PHB = "Pointy Haired Boss" from Dilbert

  56. Any alternatives? by Comboman · · Score: 1

    I use Yahoo Pipes to "repair" RSS feeds that only have one-line summaries and replace them with the whole article. Does anyone know of an alternate that does the same?

    --
    Support Right To Repair Legislation.
  57. Re:Just "communications" and "digital content," eh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Communications is code for email/IM and social networking.

    Digital Content is code for "news" and buzzfeed-style articles.

  58. Yahoo Japan by mutherhacker · · Score: 1

    Yahoo Japan seems to be completely independent from Yahoo! US. It is now owned by Softbank (the country's 2nd largest telephone provider and majority stockholder in Sprint). I wonder what they're going to do.

  59. Amusing by SuperKendall · · Score: 1

    I find ut pretty amusing to call me an "old man" when your response is to go find some paper maps...

    Digital Density is the realm of the young, my friend.

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
  60. Pipes alternatives by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    http://alternativeto.net/software/yahoo-pipes/

    You're welcome.

  61. Love Pipes by SwashbucklingCowboy · · Score: 1

    Losing it sucks. Not sure how to replace it.

  62. Re:Yahoo Maps was BIG until it destroyed in years by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I think the pedophiles are the reason why chat was ended.

    Yahoo! Mail, Yahoo! Answers, and Yahoo! Groups are doing well, aren't they? Well, except for the people they lost when they redesigned Yahoo! Mail.

    I would suggest to Yahoo! that they modify the $50 subscription for an ad-free Yahoo! Mail so it makes their entire website ad-free.