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My Yahoo

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My Yahoo!
Developer(s)Yahoo
Initial releaseJuly 15, 1996; 28 years ago (1996-07-15)[1]
PlatformWeb browsers
TypeWeb Gadgets
Websitemy.yahoo.com

My Yahoo! is a customizable start page or personal web portal which enables users to combine personalized Yahoo! features, content feeds and information onto a single page. iGoogle[2] is similar to My Yahoo. On the 19th of September, 2013 a tablet oriented redesigned version of My Yahoo was launched. On the 31st of January, 2014, this new version was rolled out to all users.

As of the week of March 3, 2014 Yahoo users are being informed that the localized versions of My Yahoo are being discontinued and users must log-on to the US edition (my.yahoo.com) where most of the users' settings and applications will be migrated to so they can continue using My Yahoo after March 24, 2014.[3]

While the appearance, layout and content of the main Yahoo homepage is standard, My Yahoo offers a more customizable experience.[4] On it users can for example, apply themes, add their favorite sites as news sources, add widgets (among others) to display content like Weather and a glance to the users' Yahoo! Mail and GMail inboxes, rearrange the layout controlling the type and amount of content on each tab and add additional tabs to the page.[5]

Applications of MyYahoo

A user’s MyYahoo page allows them to access almost everything they need on one page. They never need to go to another website and open up another browser to get information. There are many applications and programs that allow users to access their social networking pages, the daily Lottery numbers, and much more.[6] Another feature that MyYahoo offers is a mail aggregator that allows users to add several email accounts to one email page, keeping all their email accounts in one easy-to-get-to location. It even has a Yahoo Update Aggregator that allows users to see updates from Yahoo, Facebook, Twitter, etc. all in one location. Additionally, it has gaming applications such as FishVille, Mafia Wars, Balloono, and Draw My Thing where users can play against friends and family. Holiday backgrounds, family recipes, and fun activity suggestions that users can do with their friends and families can also be utilized. Having a MyYahoo account can give people access to everything they are interested in without having to go search around on multiple sites and browsers. Recently, MyYahoo has taken it a step further. In 2011, they created a MyYahoo mobile app that users can download on their smartphones so that they can always be connected even on the go.[7]

Personalized News Pages

MyYahoo’s ultimate purpose is to have its users personalize their pages to their own interests.[8] It usually has the top headlines of that day that users initially select themselves.[9] The most common news sources that users choose to be shown on their personalized pages are: Associated Press, Reuters, Agence France-Presse, Fox News, ABC News, NPR, USA Today, CNN, CBC News, Seven News, and BBC News.

Comparison to other personalized homepages

MyYahoo and Google are very similar. Google was MyYahoo’s competitor. On October 14, 2011, Google announced that with its new focus on Google+ MyYahoo regained a lot of its users back that they previously lost to Google.

Another competitor to My Yahoo! is based in Paris, France. The site features many of the same features, and is generally more custom than My Yahoo.

Features

Reliability is an essential component to a website’s success. The best websites will go down or become slow from time to time, but Yahoo will go down far less than a more specialized and less popular site.[10] MyYahoo users are able to create a link to Yahoo! Answers on their personalized page.[11] This has been found to be extremely beneficial since it allows users to ask questions or answer other users questions. MyYahoo, also, provides users the option to have Yahoo Local on their personalized page. Yahoo Local is used to look for businesses around your town or city. It puts all local search capabilities on one page and makes it easier for their users.[12] It is similar to White Pages. Additionally, MyYahoo is one of the fastest readers when it comes to loading in the articles of multiple really simple syndication (RSS)feeds.[13] MyYahoo has the highest awareness and use of any RSS-enabled product. 52% of MyYahoo users are aware of RSS tools and 39% use RSS tools.[14] Not only the speed, but the ease-of-use is also an advantage. Many websites have a “Add to MyYahoo” button to make adding an RSS feed to MyYahoo simpler.[15]

Criticism

MyYahoo cannot mix different feeds into one consolidated feed. A person can add ESPN, Fox Sports, and Yahoo Sports as separate feeds, but cannot create a single feed that contains all three.

Since the redesign of My Yahoo! in September 2013, many users have complained of numerous issues they have encountered. These include 1) font size is too large and cannot be changed, 2) applications are less configurable, 3) the weather app does not remember the chosen location (uses auto-locate instead), 4) column resizing is no longer allowed, and 5) the forced inclusion of a large Yahoo search bar near the header.

References

  1. ^ "Yahoo! Inc. - Company Timeline". Wayback Machine. 2008-07-13. Retrieved 2016-07-19.
  2. ^ http://www.informationweek.com/news/internet/google/240003223
  3. ^ "My Yahoo Help - My Yahoo shutdown".
  4. ^ "Difference between Yahoo! homepage and My Yahoo!". Yahoo. Retrieved 2014-04-13.
  5. ^ "Overview of My Yahoo". Yahoo. Retrieved 2014-04-13.
  6. ^ "My Yahoo! Blog". My Yahoo. Retrieved 2013-04-18.
  7. ^ "My Yahoo! Blog". My Yahoo. Retrieved 2013-04-18.
  8. ^ Kanalley, Craig. "Yahoo Homepage Goes Social With Facebook-Personalized Streams". Huffington Post. Retrieved 2013-04-18.
  9. ^ "What is my Yahoo! profile?". Yahoo. Retrieved 2013-04-18.
  10. ^ Nations, Daniel. "Using MyYahoo as an RSS Reader". About.com. Retrieved 2013-04-18.
  11. ^ "The Only 7 Things Yahoo Does Better than Google". Marc and Angel Hack Life. Retrieved 2013-04-18. {{cite web}}: |first= missing |last= (help)
  12. ^ "The Only 7 Things Yahoo Does Better than Google". Marc and Angel Hack Life. Retrieved 2013-04-18. {{cite web}}: |first= missing |last= (help)
  13. ^ Nations, Daniel. "Using MyYahoo as an RSS Reader". About.com. Retrieved 2013-04-18.
  14. ^ Grossnickle, Joshua. "RSS—Crossing into the Mainstream" (PDF). marketingsherpa.com. Retrieved 2013-04-18.
  15. ^ "QUICK TIPS: Quickly browse sites with MyYahoo!'s RSS parser (Mac OS X 10.1 and later)". PorQuest Computing. Retrieved 2013-04-18. {{cite web}}: |first= missing |last= (help)
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