Quicksand Fans

When I saw Yahpoo...er, Yahoo, had a new e-mail system, I cringed and put off converting to it as long as I could. I've learned by now that "Yahoo" and "new mail system" always means it's more confusing and difficult than it was, and most of the bugs have yet to be worked out.

When I started on Yahoo mail ten years ago, it was simple and easy to use. Then, they 'upgraded' it into something that was a pain in the posterior. I hated it. I wanted to make my feelings known, but I couldn't find a contact e-mail address or phone number. Believe me, I looked for quite a while.

Yahoo then upgraded again. This time, I learned my browser couldn't handle the system. I was sent back to an earlier version of Yahoo Mail. Guess what? It was the same version I had known and loved so much! Yaaaay!

So, when Yahoo said they had a new mail system, I was dreading it. It turns out I was right to be worried. The first thing I found was I couldn't find the delete key. I looked all over the page for it. It was nowhere to be found. i finally found it when I inadvertently rolled the mouse over it and the message came up that it was the delete key. I guess the poor thing was embarrassed or afraid to show its face on the page.

I found a few other quirks. I now get pop-up ads over the text and they won't go away. The pop up ads also cover some of the command keys, and command keys also cover the text. If this is an 'improvement,' I'd hate to see their idea of a regression.

The geeks at Yahoo would probably tell me their wonderful new system isn't to blame and I need to upgrade my browser. However, I know I'm not the only one having problems. A friend of mine who's a lot more computer savvy than I am says he's had nothing but trouble from the new system as well.

My older brother has been a computer software engineer for over 30 years. He keeps tabs on all the major e-mail providers, and, when he saw the new Yahoo Mail, his first thought was, "What were they thinking?"

He explained to me there are a lot of geeks in Silicon Valley who find they need to justify their existence and large salaries. So, they innovate and make changes. They may never have had an original thought in their lives, they may be changing something that didn't need to be changed, and they may be changing things for the worse, but they can point to the changes they've made and thereby justify their existence.

When you understand this mindset, a lot of stuff that comes out of the world of high tech makes sense.

These geeks don't live by two adages most folks with good sense live by:

- Keep it simple, stupid!

- If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

I've come to the conclusion that, in the world of high tech, innovation is not necessarily an improvement.

- Big Bad John

This would be why, many moons later, I still have my Yahell mail set to 'classic'

I've had a yahoo account for years but never use it. It seems to be slower than gmail although an atul measurement would be difficult. But the main difference is spam. The spam filters with gmail seem to work fairly well whereas with Yahoo there is spam that very much appears to be approved by Yahoo if not actually from Yahoo.

Gmail doesn't seem to give you as many insta - viruses as Yahell does, which is why I only use my Yahell account sparingly these days.

Mom's only internet access is at the library, and she uses Yahoo mail. The "upgrade" really threw her for a loop. She's not that good with the computer to begin with, and this was way over her head.

Wow Yahoo is still around lol. I haven't used or seen Yahoo since middle school.

Hotmail went through an overhaul as well. Made things more colorful and flashy. Simplistic too. I'm still getting used to it.

One feature of the old Yahoo Mail I really liked was, when I first clicked on mail after logging in, I got a notice of recent e-mails from my contacts. That way, I could go straight to the e-mails I was most interested in reading.

The new Yahpoo Mail has done away with this feature. Now I have to find e-mails from contacts amidst all the ads, spam and other crap I get. I should mention a lot of stuff that used to go into my spam folder now goes into my inbox.

So, it's harder to get to the e-mails I really want to read, but I'm also getting a lot more ads and spam in my inbox.

As I said before, if this is an improvement, I'd hate to see what they consider a regression.

After one of Yahoo's earlier "upgrades," the home page featured a link to a story about the people behind the new and improved Yahoo Mail. That link was gone within a couple of hours after I first noticed it. You don't supposed I wasn't the only one who wanted to let those dumbasses know what I thought of them, do you?

- Big Bad John

Ironically enough Gmail's recent upgrades was to seperate mail into categories like social, and so on.