Yahoo gets initial thumbs down for changes in Home Page
Posted by Manuela Barreto @ October 20th, 2008 in Media News
Many people have already shown signs of repudiation towards Yahoo’s recent changes to their front page, that’s why the world’s most visited homepage is taking baby steps into fully revamping it.
Yahoo! has been running bucket testing to perceive the initial thoughts and impressions from a selection of people with dissimilar backgrounds, demographics and geographic locations randomly chosen by the team.
In a short bit I will be showing you examples of various common exclamations received following Tapan Bhat’s(Front Doors president-Yahoo’s personalized home page) blog post from a few weeks back.
But what I’d like to say is, isn’t this a déjàvu? We already witnessed user discontent preceding Facebook’s face lift, which incited for over 1.800.000 users to join www.new.facebook.com.
Hopefully we won’t have to say ‘learn from other people’s mistakes,’ because maybe it will not be the case, let’s hope. But these are some of the comments Yahoo! has received:
“I do not like this. I did not ask for it to be changed. It scares me that you have control over my computer to change only mine in the office and no one else’s.”
“E-mail sucks. You have to go through four screens before you can read your e-mail. I want the old Yahoo back. You changed this; I did not. How do I change it back?”
“I have written to the support group to find out how to get the original Yahoo page back. The answer is, you cannot. I am now stuck with having to click and navigate multiple times to get to my normal e-mail screen instead of doing it in one click…”
Yes, the first few experiences can be quite maddening, you’ve probably lived it yourselves. As we know, people don’t like change, they are satisfied with what they have, which is in this case, somewhat contradictory to the fact that Yahoo! not only wants to go unnoticed but also wishes to preserve they same exact audience.
In the meantime, during this period of major economic distress, Yahoo! will undoubtedly not only loose millions of users but also millions of dollars in advertising. Change is good, but is it really worth risking at times of such uncertainty?
Let’s hope that over time users will come realize that there was a method to the madness, things are actually organized better, and it allowed for additional product offerings like checking for new email from different accounts (Gmail/AOL). Visit Yahoo’s blog for more updates.
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Comments
The Lovable Rogue
October 21st, 2008
Although I understand the need for organisations to remain innovative in order to stay ahead of the competition, I find the recent moves by companies such as Yahoo! and Facebook confusing. As you correctly mention above Manuela, people were satisfied with the original products. As such, it seems unnecessary for these organisations to then force a new model upon the user. Change is good, however it should not be forced upon those individuals upon whom the organisation relies; in this case, the electronic community. In a time in which the number of social platform providers continues to rise, customers can easily substitute one for the other. Effectively ‘trapping’ the service user will not represent a viable solution for ongoing success.
m.barreto
October 21st, 2008
confusing, that’s it. And it’s during such confusing that people are in search of their comfort zone, which leads to brand disloyalty..But let’s not think ahead of the game, let’s see what the actual outcome is. Thanks Chris.
Caroline
October 28th, 2008
I’m one of the people who got the new Yahoo homepage. Folks, I hate change and kneejerk against it as much as anyone else, but after several weeks (it seems that) this new page is just dead. First of all it’s ugly. Purple Yahoo? Second, it reminds me of a homepage that didn’t make it in the 90s. It kind of looks like something microsoft would design. Everytime I click the home button looking to get reoriented in my web surfing I cringe when the ‘new Yahoo’ comes up once again. I havn’t gotten used to it, it is just plain different and ugly and no better in terms of functions. I havn’t abandoned it ONLY because I am very committed to my yahoo email address, but if not for that I would have been somewhere else after the first few days of it. Their political headlines were making me think of moving prior to that. Bad move, just kind of blah, go away.
The Lovable Rogue
October 28th, 2008
There seems to be a lot of resentment towards organisations like Yahoo! and Facebook in the blogosphere at the moment, mostly stemming from the imposition of change upon their users. I actively encourage enhanced functionality, but simply juggling everything around and forcing one’s users to deal with it seems a bit short sighted. If these users are driven away by the changes then the organisation simultaneously cuts one its greatest assets. Remember, organisations like Facebook rely almost entirely upon the contributions of its users. Driving these users to adopt competing offerings moves the competitor one step closer towards achieving critical mass.
richard speed
November 17th, 2008
The changes seem to have something to do with the browser type or browser version.
E.g. Yahoo front page logo became PURPLE on IE version 6.0, however, did not change (Yahoo logo remained RED) on a computer with IE 7.0 version.
Has anyone else noticed this or is it just me?
Pamela
December 4th, 2008
If there is anyway to get the old Yahoo homepage back, please let me know. I hate this new one! I realize that competition promotes change, but options are also good!
mike hue2_1998
December 26th, 2008
I guess its time to get excite or msn as my front page. this new yahoo homepage isnt for me
John Olson
December 31st, 2008
I want old Yahoo back, now.
phil
January 6th, 2009
I do not like the new homepage that pops up time to time…I only want change when it is warranted and I see no reason to change this…If Yahoo wants me to use their product, then dammit, leave it alone and I will use it, otherwise, there are others waiting to take their place…
rebekah
January 7th, 2009
I am glad to see I am not the only one HATING the new yahoo homepage layout changes! I hate hate hate it, why can’t they leave a good thing alone, if it ain’t broke, DON’T FIX IT! Just when you get used to something, someone goes and changes it.