Yahoo, Google wrestle to sell changes
Even with careful testing and an ambition to improve features, it's hard to make changes at a big Web site.
Recent revamps at Yahoo and Google, for example, have riled some of their users. Google updated its iGoogle customized home page service, adding a left-hand navigation bar and a larger "canvas view" for applications, and Yahoo added a new centralized profile page that mimics some Facebook features and revamped the Flickr page to shed more light on the photo-sharing site's social activity. Those changes triggered complaints that already had begun pouring in after Yahoo began testing a new home page.
Yahoo headquarters in Sunnyvale, Calif.
(Credit: Stephen Shankland/CNET News.com)"How can I be rid of this ugly piece of crap?" asked one forum user about the iGoogle overhaul. "Google has decided to unilaterally change the layout of my page. If I can't find a hack or a Greasemonkey script to undo this, good-bye Google, hello Yahoo!"
The comment reveals not only that changes are unwelcome, but that a feeling of powerlessness amplifies the problem. People who've invested a lot of time into their Web presence clearly feel some ownership not only of their data, but of the platform on which it's presented.
But here's the rub: the Web is changing, and companies that provide services must change, too. It can be difficult for people who must grapple with that change, but Internet companies that don't adapt can wither and die. On the Web, stasis isn't bliss.
And look at some of the pains that can result when companies don't change fast enough. Arguably the social-networking innovation that took place at MySpace and Facebook a few years ago should have happened at sites that already had a giant socially connected membership.
Instead, because Yahoo didn't change fast enough, people have to worry about maintaining multiple incompatible profiles and contact networks. Even if one particular service doesn't change, the Internet as a whole does, and it's no good being left in a stagnant backwater.
Gripefest
Much of the iGoogle vitriol is chronicled at the 10 Zen Monkeys site--including a link to the Greasemonkey script that did in fact appear and comments from people who posted Google employee e-mail addresses and phone numbers.
Thousands of comments have poured in on Flickr forums, too. Yahoo wanted Flickr to show its members community features such as comments and responses discussing photos, but one common complaint for people who already know about that feature is new difficulties distinguishing their own comments from others'.
Google headquarters in Mountain View, Calif.
(Credit: Stephen Shankland/CNET News.com)And Yahoo took a contrite tone in explaining some of its profile changes, such as the fact that older profile information isn't imported. "We want to apologize straight away for not being more proactive in communicating in advance that we were making changes to our profiles...We also know lots of you worked hard on your old profiles and want your data. If you feel like you're missing data, we've saved a copy of your old profile (and alias) and our Customer Care team can retrieve this information. You won't, however, be able to revert back to your old profile format, but you will be able to get any data that you think is missing," Yahoo Community Manager Melissa Daniels said in a blog post.
In its comment to me about this matter, Yahoo tried to be delicate, but its message boils down to this: The Web is evolving, and Yahoo is evolving along with it in an attempt to appeal to more customers. You'll be consulted, but you'd better get used to it.
Here's the polite version: "As the Web matures, people's needs are evolving and Yahoo is constantly striving to meet the changing needs of consumers. Our recent changes are intended to help users more easily find out what's happening with the people who matter most to them. We recognize that change can be difficult, and not every person will like every change, but we truly value all feedback and strive to keep consumers at the heart of our product development process. Evolving and changing our products helps Yahoo to continuously deliver the best online user experience."
Don't freeze up
But here's the way I see it: Should these companies freeze Web site designs? Of course not. I don't want Yahoo.com circa 2003 back, much less the 1998 version.
I know that's an oversimplification, but the trouble is that it's not financially feasible for companies to maintain multiple incarnations of their sites, so contented people are frog-marched to a new design. Unusual cases where old designs are preserved, as with Yahoo Mail and Hotmail, are the exceptions that prove the rule.
New doesn't necessarily mean better, of course, and certainly fads or ill-advised management whims can trigger counterproductive redesigns. But user testing, careful measurement, and warnings to users ought to be able to defuse some of the troubles, and responding to feedback can help.
Of course some people will never like the new look. Reading inflamed comments about Web site redesigns, I'm reminded of a Los Alamos National Laboratory manager I once spoke with who'd been involved in various attempts to reorganize the lab's thousands of employees: he saw the organization as similar to a living organism, and any change triggered a rejection response like that from the antibodies in a human being's immune system.
What annoys me is the number of people who see other complaints and assume everyone agrees with them. Sure, there are more than 3,700 comments about the Flickr home page change, many of them critical, but rarely do people take time to remark when something new is better.
Worse are those who assume just because they weren't consulted, nobody was. In contrast, Google said, its iGoogle design incorporated changes from testers' comments.
"We're constantly thinking about how to improve our products for our users. Then, we take our ideas, prototype them, and put them through a vigorous set of usability tests and experiments to make sure we are doing the right thing for users. The iGoogle features we launched yesterday went through this exact process, and we've made changes along the way based on feedback from users and developers," Jessica Ewing, iGoogle group product manager, said in a statement.
One such change was a narrower left-hand navigation pane on iGoogle. Maybe that accommodation wasn't enough for those who don't want it at all, but it's naive to assume Google steamrolled over objections during its months-long switch to the new design.
I'm glad people feel empowered enough to squeal when they don't like change--it beats complacency and passivity by a mile, and it can help companies do what's best. Yes, change is a pain, but in balance it's unavoidable when it comes to something as fast-growing, social, and adaptable as the Internet.
Stephen Shankland writes about a wide range of technology and products, but has a particular focus on browsers and digital photography. He joined CNET News in 1998 and since then also has covered Google, Yahoo, servers, supercomputing, Linux and open-source software, and science. E-mail Stephen, or follow him on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/stshank.
The part you seem to miss about the iGoogle page updates is that it's MY page they changed. Hell, they can change all of the Google pages they want, just leave the page you've given me alone. I think that's where all the vitriol comes from. You are correct, it took a ton of messing around with where everything was to get it like I wanted, and now it's all different, and doesn't work very well for me anymore. Yeah it's "free" but it's supposed to be a free service, where's the "service" in changing something that only I see so that it doesn't work for me anymore?
I could not care less if Yahoo changes my profile. with Yahoo that is not the issue. the issue is they never notified anyone that their profile has been blanked out. If I had not stumbled upon this issue on another website I would never have known. In terms of their relationships with their users, Yahoo has always been mediocre at best and abysmal the rest of the other time. Yahoo can do all they want with their stupid little Yahoo 360 pages since I don't use them but I have several profiles that I use within other yahoo services that I now have to go and re-do...all without a single email or notice. also your reporting on this is useless. You spend a good part of the time bashing the complainers and letting both Google and Yahoo of the hook as to how they handle their changes. you obviously have too close a tie with the industries and companies you report on and should immediatley look for another line of work as nobody that reads this can put any reliance on your reporting.
I think the previous version had a more natural design feel with the tabs across the top. However there is more function with the new sidebar and at the end of the day I will always want more function over design.
As a Google user, I am confident their improvements means a better user experience. Let see what's next.
Its simple. these sites that change, alienate loyal users who end up leaving.
yahoo changed their search engine-i left yahoo search
yahoo changed their email-i left yahoo email
yahoo changed their My Yahoo-I left my yahoo
yahoo changed their News-I left yahoo news
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by ti99_forever
November 6, 2008 12:38 PM PST
- What annoys me most is that a company that has been around as long as Yahoo! should know how to handle email!
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Reply to this comment
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(8 Comments)They have forced changes on me, even in Classic! mode!!!
The new interface inserts a non-editable, non-breakable blue line down the left side of quoted material. You cannot insert your own text within quoted email to answer certain parts of the original posters email.
If you convert it to text, so you *can* insert your comments, the quote marks (the characters that mark a quote, generally ">") disappear! So you cannot intersperse your comments within theirs where others can tell the difference!
In Classic! mode, it changed to not adding the ">" characters for the quoted material, to adding it ("Yea, it is fixed") to a week later back to the broken version.
Funny thing is, I have 3 Yahoo! email accounts, and different accounts have different versions of the same "Classic!" interface. One of my accounts was "forced" to upgrade to the new interface, without any exception - and finally it allowed me to go back...
Yahoo! Tech support is clueless... they couldn't even spot an issue where a secondary email address had disappeared from my profile and their system wouldn't allow me to edit & save it! Finally, many emails and days later, they finally edited my profile themselves to add it... they couldn't explain why I couldn't edit it myself.