cc licensed ( BY ) flickr photo shared by cogdogblog
I know zero about business, but in some alternate universe where I was teaching a course in business practices, there is an entire syllabus full of materials from Yahoo on how not to be successful. Look at their portfolio of successes with acquisitions, as painfully outlined in the 37signals sad tale of What Happens After Yahoo Acquires You (the answer seems to be, “they mis-manage/ignore you, then shut down your service. Take the money and run”).
Previously, I marveled at their lack of communications or effort to build a business out of delicious, the largest social network of web bookmarkers that will ever likely be in one place. Yahoo sat on this network for years, and did not do thing one to leverage any gain for their so-called business.
Look at their blog! No news since thier December “Please buy me” post
One more time- it has been over two months since their dirty little dump the sucker rumor went out, and Yahoo has not done one public thing to explain themselves.
PR? Marketing? Bueller? Bueller? Bueller? Anyone?
And get this. They chop MyBlogLog off at the knees (no crying here, I cannot even remember what it did or why I signed up). There goes another $10 million investment down the shitter.
But look at this heart warming, full on sincere message we got
Dear MyBlogLog Customer,
You have been identified as a customer of Yahoo! MyBlogLog. We will officially discontinue Yahoo! MyBlogLog effective May 24, 2011. Your agreement with Yahoo!, to the extent that it applies to the Yahoo! MyBlogLog, will terminate on May 24, 2011.
After May 24, 2011 your credit card will no longer be charged for premium services on MyBlogLog. We will refund you the unused portion of your subscription, if any. The refund will appear as a credit via the billing method we have on file for you. To make sure that your billing information is correct and up to date, visit https://billing.yahoo.com.
Questions?
If you have questions about these changes, please visit the Yahoo! MyBlogLog help pages.We thank you for being a customer on Yahoo! MyBlogLog.
Sincerely,
The Yahoo! My BlogLog Team
Does this do anything to engender any sense of trust, belief that Yahoo is not been run by frothing zombies who’s brains and senses have been exported to Planet Xoron? Does it apologize? Does it explain why? Does it freaking apologize? Does it read like something a human or some drone wrote?
I have seen better letters written by 5th graders to explain their actions.
Perhaps the real letter was:
Dear Dumb Shit,
You have been identified as a fool who signed up for a Yahoo! service. For no real logical reason, we are tossing your ass out on the streets, effective May 24, 2011. Your agreement with Yahoo!, to the extent that it applies to the Yahoo! MyBlogLog, will terminate on May 24, 2011. Our agreement to you? We never bothered with one. You are specs in the sand.
After May 24, 2011 your credit card will no longer be charged for premium services on MyBlogLog, but heck, we might just keep them written down on little slips of paper in our desks.. We will refund you the unused portion of your subscription, after we buy some pizzas. The refund will appear as a credit via the billing method we have on file for you. To make sure that your billing information is correct and up to date, visit https://billing.yahoo.com or just toss your hands up and say, WTF?
Questions?
If you have questions about these changes, please visit the Yahoo! MyBlogLog help pages. We might ask a monkey to look at them.We thank you for being a customer on Yahoo! MyBlogLog. Actually, we dont give a crap about you. Cant you tell?
Without care,
The Yahoo! My BlogLog Team (where did that jar go with my brain in it?)
I have a new company name and logo for Yahoo. I can understand why no one wants to buy their “services”
I’m very sad that Yahoo owns Flickr–because I love Flickr. I’m still using delicious. If I had millions of dollars, I’d buy it. It’s so much better than any bookmarking service out there, but it does need some love.