ReallyVirtual

I have started to dislike Yahoo!, and it is only a matter of time before this disliking turns into hate. Here’s why…

1- Their slideshow does not run on a dialup! If you have a slow connection, their slideshow keeps switching to the next image before the current image is loaded! It has been like this for the last 5 years (at least). They should have realized by now that not everyone has bandwidth that goes beyond 5 Kbps. Here’s a screenshot:

2- Yahoo still hasn’t grasped the concept of “system tray”. I have been using Yahoo Messenger ever since it was released, and I keep my task bar at the top (ala Mac, not the default bottom) of the screen, my mouse pointer has to travel less distances while switching between applications and using File menus this way… and yet, each time a contact logs in, I get the notification at the bottom right corner, even though my tray is in the top right. All the other notifications (MSN/GTalk/Outlook/RSS Bandit etc.) appear near the top right system tray as expected. Plain stupid.

3- And then there’s the new Yahoo Mail – they’ve finally discovered AJAX, and even though its a LOT slower than GMail, it is still AJAXy. The problem: whenever I check my Yahoo mail, it automatically logs me on my messenger inside the email window, and my LaunchCast music (which is usually running in my messenger) stops! They say the mail window will remember the last messenger setting, but that doesn’t work. They don’t want to interrupt me, but they do.

(From their help page)

“See the smiley face next to your user name at the top of the mail page? Click it – then click Sign out of chat. (If you never signed in, the face is gray and sleeping…meaning you’re already signed out/disabled.)

Since Yahoo! Mail remembers your settings from session to session, you’ll be signed out of chat until you change it.
Yahoo! Messenger users: If we detect that you’re already signed into Messenger on your desktop, we’ll just quietly not sign you into chat – we don’t want to interrupt what you’re already doing. Of course, you can always change your status from the menu in Mail. Signing into chat will sign you out of Messenger on your desktop.”

4- The messenger context menus don’t work correctly on a multiple monitor setup. I regularly use two monitors, and any drop down menu inside Yahoo Messenger (on Monitor 2) appears on my primary monitor (Monitor A) – irritating.

Five years should be more than enough to discover and fix any bug, especially for a firm worth billions of dollars.