jakerome
join:2003-03-09
Manhattan Beach, CA
|  Forced SBC My Yahoo! Upgrades kills Yellow Pages!
Hi,
Don't know if this has affected anyone else yet, but recently Yahoo! forced me to "upgrade" My Yahoo! page to the new, enhanced SBC My Yahoo! page; I don't quite understand why I was forced to make this change,but I guess I have to accept it.
Sadly, Yahoo! has now removed the yellow pages module from My Yahoo! page, and there is no way to put it back. Personally, I found the yellow pages on My Yahoo! to be one of the better designed applications on the web. In about 3 steps (from my home page), I could find any business near any of my favorite locations and get directions to go there. Now, there are at least 2 extra steps in the process.
Anyways, I decided to make a mountain out of a molehill and I created a petition, asking Yahoo! to restore this functionality. Please take a look at it, and if you agree with the sentiments, please sign it. Thanks.
»www.petitiononline.com/RYPtMY/petition.html |
|
ebaykeith
Bandwidth Hog
Premium
join:2003-09-06
San Ramon, CA
clubs:
 ·AT&T U-Verse
|  If you go to your SBC Yahoo Home page, up at the top, right hand side you'll see an "edit" button. Click on this and choose "Choose Content". Scroll down to "reference and tools" section and select "Phone Search". This is not quite the yellow pages. You can add a Yellow pages button to your browser so that all you do is click on it and you're there (just click on the blue edit button next to the row of buttons in your browswer).
Also, your original page did not go away. When on the SBC Yahoo home page, look next to where the edit button is at the top (for choosing content) and you'll see tabs with "My New Page", and "????'s front page" (???? is your name) which is the old yahoo page the new one replaced, so you still have your old page if you want to use it.
--
If you can't be a good example, then you'll just have to be a horrible warning. -Catherine Aird- |
|
jakerome
join:2003-03-09
Manhattan Beach, CA
| Alternatives fall far short
Thanks for your suggestions. Well, almost the first thing I did was delete the "New Page" Yahoo! created for me & set as my default. Next, I went back to my old Yahoo! page, and looked in vain for a way to add the yellow pages back-- there is no way. Phone search is nice, but serves a completely different function. Finally, I don't use the SBC Yahoo! browser for many reasons-- can't use it at work, prefer Mozilla over Explorer for many reasons anyways, it isn't supported on Macs or thin clients, and I don't like the extra heft that the Yahoo! toolbar adds anyways. I'm well aware that there are many other options to use the yellow pages out there, but it boggles my mind why Yahoo! would remove this extremely useful & well-implemented feature. |
|
ebaykeith
Bandwidth Hog
Premium
join:2003-09-06
San Ramon, CA
clubs:
·AT&T U-Verse
|  Ah looks as though removing the yellow pages from yahoo home pages was a change in Yahoo, not SBC Yahoo. The SBC Yahoo browser has a short cut button on the menu tool bar (just a click away).
Best work around I can think of is to have it bookmarked. Here's the link »www.smartpages.com/?From=SBCYahoo
--
If you can't be a good example, then you'll just have to be a horrible warning. -Catherine Aird- |
|
CCCMTech
Premium,VIP,MVM
join:2002-05-17
Pound, VA | for all concerns with yahoo, they want your emails at
experience@yahoo-inc.com
--
Thank you for choosing SBC Internet Services. My name is Rick. How may I help you today? |
|
jburst
join:2002-08-23
San Jose, CA
| reply to ebaykeith
said by ebaykeith  :
Best work around I can think of is to have it bookmarked. Here's the link »www.smartpages.com/?From=SBCYahoo
The big problem is that smartpages isn't nearly as good as the native Yahoo YP site. In the My Yahoo YP module, I can save my home and work address, and in one click search for businesses near either address, and then in one more click get driving directions without having to re-enter the same information over and over again.
Most likely SBC forced Yahoo to remove the YP module from My Yahoo to promote their awful smartpages site. Yahoo, fight back! |
|
ebaykeith
Bandwidth Hog
Premium
join:2003-09-06
San Ramon, CA
clubs:
·AT&T U-Verse
|  said by jburst :
The big problem is that smartpages isn't nearly as good as the native Yahoo YP site. In the My Yahoo YP module, I can save my home and work address, and in one click search for businesses near either address, and then in one more click get driving directions without having to re-enter the same information over and over again.
Wow! You're right. I guess I didn't use the service too much. I didn't think about, because I didn't have to. My information was usually there so I never really thought about it. I tried everything you described and it just totally blew the personalization and ease of the the whole thing.
I wonder if SBC realizes this makes their SMART-pages seem cumbersome and hard to use, and will quickly turn the Yahoo users off....not something SBC would want to be associated with, they really do want to give customers what they want.
Did Yahoo YP have reverse number lookup and all the other extras that come with SMART-pages? I don't remember.
Since Yahoo has made a change (I doubt SBC strong armed anyone. It would make sense for Yahoo to support it's customers and SBC is one of Yahoo's largest customers. Why wouldn't they try and use the services of it's client base to support the entire venture in business?). As toaster2k said, you need to let Yahoo know this. Yahoo would be able to strong arm SBC into adding that functionality to SMART-pages when coming from Yahoo. If Yahoo got too many complaints on this they would have to change it or bring down customer ratings. Changing it could be to bring Yahoo YP back, or get the current one provided in their service updated for user personalization from their home pages. Here's the link for Yahoo mailto:experience@yahoo-inc.com let them know.
--
If you can't be a good example, then you'll just have to be a horrible warning. -Catherine Aird- |
|
jburst
join:2002-08-23
San Jose, CA
| said by ebaykeith :
I doubt SBC strong armed anyone.
You underestimate the shortsightedness of marketing people. "Hey, we have our own [bad] yellow pages site, and we get all the advertising revenue to ourselves from that one -- Yahoo, you can't let SBC users use your yellow pages, even though it's better."
SBC should be the target of complaints. The Yahoo Yellow Pages is only disabled for SBC customers -- try logging in as a regular Yahoo user and you can add the My Yahoo YP module just fine. |
|
DrewCapu
Giant Diehard
join:2001-12-19
California
clubs:
| reply to jburst
said by jburst :
said by ebaykeith :
Best work around I can think of is to have it bookmarked. Here's the link »www.smartpages.com/?From=SBCYahoo
The big problem is that smartpages isn't nearly as good as the native Yahoo YP site. In the My Yahoo YP module, I can save my home and work address, and in one click search for businesses near either address, and then in one more click get driving directions without having to re-enter the same information over and over again.
Most likely SBC forced Yahoo to remove the YP module from My Yahoo to promote their awful smartpages site. Yahoo, fight back!
It looks to me like smartpages.com has an address book feature which allows you to save addresses (either addresses you entered & saved or addresses from search results) and then you can do driving directions or search for businesses nearby from those addressbook entries. |
|
ethant
join:2000-06-13
Burbank, CA
| reply to jburst
It's really annoying that when I check my email I have to either, 1) Update SBC Yahoo, or 2) let it mangle my homepage. I want to do neither! I'm using web mail from someone else's computer and don't want it to do anything! THIS IS COMPLETE AND UTTER BS! Leave me alone! I just want my damn email. I want nothing else from their crappy website! |
|
ebaykeith
Bandwidth Hog
Premium
join:2003-09-06
San Ramon, CA
clubs:
·AT&T U-Verse
1 edit | This has nothing to do with email, so you're won't really be affected. We are talking about Yahoo YP and SBC SMARTpages and how the pages changed with the new format. --
If you can't be a good example, then you'll just have to be a horrible warning. -Catherine Aird-
I'm sure SBC has a lot to do with the layout and design of the pages, but SBC is not an ISP content provider, they are a Telephone Company. Instead of just giving you your internet access and letting you go and sign up for basic Yahoo, or MSN, or where ever, to get content etc. they ventured with Yahoo, a content provider. Otherwise, it would just be SBC, no SBC Yahoo, they wouldn't need Yahoo to provide the content if they did that. (Or wait, yeah, Yahoo is providing you with really great DSL speeds, and SBC is the content provider??? now you see how this works?).
Seriously, any problems with DSL service and this is the place. The SBC techs online here are the greatest, and you'll always get your answer, REALLY.
Content, on the other hand, is handled by the content provider, Yahoo.
Everyone should try this. Go to your SBC Yahoo home page, and click on the link at the top right hand of the page that says "Send Feedback". You'll be talking to the right people about the right issue, content. And they've even provided you with a link to do so, really simple.
The technicians here would probably love to be able to fix your problems with the content on your home pages, but they can't do anything about it here. You actually get results to problems like why your pings aren't pinging, or your modems not syncing. If you use the information provided you and speak to the right people, they will be more than happy to help you (like the techs are here) and you'll be able to get your point across to the right people, and probably even get a real answer. This can only get frustrating as no one here can do anything about it. But they can sure fix any technical problems you might have.
Does anyone know if there's an forum anywhere on line that focusses on Content providers? |
|
ethant
join:2000-06-13
Burbank, CA
| I understand it has nothing to do with email but it does have everything to do with SBC shoving crap down our throats that many of us don't want. As it stands today any time I check my email at Yahoo using my SBC account my only choices are to either install the SBC crap or to let SBC Yahoo! change a bunch of my IE settings such as the home page. This isn't my computer so I don't want a website to do ANYTHING to my browser. Why is that so hard for SBC to understand? |
|
ebaykeith
Bandwidth Hog
Premium
join:2003-09-06
San Ramon, CA
clubs:
·AT&T U-Verse
| »us.rd.yahoo.com/csp/sbc/hp//head···feedback
feedback link from SBC Yahoo pages for content issues with browser etc...
--
If you can't be a good example, then you'll just have to be a horrible warning. -Catherine Aird- |
|
alpha164lx
@intertek.net | reply to jakerome
Re: Forced SBC My Yahoo! Upgrades kills Yellow Pages!
Is this what you are looking for?
»yp.yahoo.com |
|
