Perhaps I’m a curmudgeon, but I don’t want to give up my old Yahoo! Web site for the “new and improved” Yahoo! that is coming — whether I like it or not — on September 1st.
Every day they remind me that the new site is coming, that my old site is being “retired.” Makes me feel like I’m being retired.
I’m not trying to be difficult. I’ve tried the new site. I just don’t think it’s much better. I don’t like having the navbar on the left side of the page. I used to be able to click on Yahoo! Sports with my eyes closed; now I have to fumble down an endless list of icons.
However, despite what I think about the new design, I do have to give Yahoo! credit for taking this design global quickly. While most companies may take up to a year to roll out a new design across all country sites, Yahoo! is off to a blistering start.
Here is the new design in Brazil…
And Korea…
China has sorta migrated over to the new design…
At least Japan is still old school.
I’m sure it’s just a matter of time before Yahoo! Japan meets its redesign.
As for me, I’m not giving in easily. I’ve got a few days left of Yahoo 1.0 and I’m going to refuse every day to opt in to the new design. No, I’m holding out until the end.
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I quit my Yahoo! account as soon as I learned they did business with Alibaba. I've often done these things; I had to get rid of my cingular (now AT&T) cell phone and pay a penalty when I read they're the largest supporters of rodeos (America's bullfights.)
Admittedly, I had a lot of internal resistance to doing so; it was the e-mail address I liked to use to receive non-important mail, so as to free up my POP account. It was my full name, and it was cool.
But even if boycotts are essentially useless—and they seem to be, a lot of the time—I wanted to do the right thing, and I wouldn't feel right about keeping it. So I resigned it.
I don't regret it.