Gripes about Yahoo

November 30, 2003. While your file(s) are uploading you see a web page with a big ad. The text on the page says that you can click on the ad and it will open in a new window and not interrupt the file upload. I tried it today and both statements were false.

Getting Into The Directory

Yahoo became famous as a directory of web sites. Now they are into so much more that they may be slipping a bit on the directory. I had to submit one web site three times before it got added. Another web site had to be submitted four times. Another has been done twice with no success so far.

Yahoo has two submission tracks, a free one, which I used, and an express line that costs $200 and gets your submission reviewed within seven days. There is a Yahoo help page called I've submitted my site; why hasn't it been added?

Web Site Number Four

Using free submissions only: First submitted January 11, 2003. It was added March 13, 2003.

Web Site Number Three

Using free submissions only: First submitted September 18, 2002. Second submission November 12, 2002. Third submission January 12, 2003. Fourth submission March 28, 2003. As of September 16, 2003, it is still not listed.

This is less of a problem than it used to be as Yahoo no longer searches its directory by default, instead it searches the web. The web site in question is found on many search engines and now appears in the results of Yahoo searches.

Web Site Number Two

June 29, 2000. I requested this web site be added to the Yahoo directory. It was not.

October 23, 2000. Again, I requested that web site number two be added to Yahoo.

November 17, 2000. Not added yet, so I submitted it a third time. This time, I requested a different category for the site. Big mistake. The top level category I tried was Business and Economy. Yahoo now charges $200 to submit a web site in this category. Instead I used the standard submission (free) in another category. .

January 20, 2001. Two months since my last submission for Web Site Number Two, it has still not been added. Today I requested the web site be added yet again. I also emailed Yahoo asking why it was not previously added.

January 26, 2001. Well Yahoo! They sent an e-mail today saying that web site number two will be added to their directory in a couple days.

Computer Gripes is not a humor web site. This is also not a rant web site. I am not a mad, angry customer ranting about anything. Instead, I document problems.

Web Site Number One

March or April 2000. I submitted the request to add the web site. Not expecting it to end up as a gripe, detailed records were not kept.

June 28, 2000. A second request to add the same web site was made today. Now I'm keeping good records.

September 28, 2000. I wrote an email to Yahoo at url-support@yahoo-inc.com complaining about the web site not being added. They responded with a form letter the same day, but with nothing else. In part, the email said:

The Directory Support Department assists users who are experiencing problems getting their site or change requests reviewed. Due to the volume of requests we receive, we are unable to personally respond to each message; therefore, we have included a copy of the guidelines that must be followed before we will open an inquiry. If your request does not meet these guidelines, your query will be ignored.

Then the message went on to state the Yahoo requirements (which they call guidelines). I obeyed all these rules.

Let me summarize: Don't call us, we'll call you.
The big kicker is saved for the end:

... we cannot guarantee your site will be included in the index, even if you have followed the guidelines listed above.

Fortunately the web site does show up in Google, which Yahoo falls back upon when they can't find something in their directory. The web site is for a software company and does nothing more than explain about their software products.

October 17, 2000. I emailed to Yahoo again and got the same auto-responder reply.

October 19, 2000. I submitted the web site for the third time. In the interim, Yahoo has created a new category that fits the web site better than the older categories, so this submission was to a new category.

November 1, 2000. I'm in! The category is the one from the October 19th (third) submission. The two earlier submissions must have fallen off the end of the earth.

Yahoo Finance

August 31, 2001. The Yahoo Finance web site caused this error today while loading it home page with IE5. This is the JavaScript script that failed:
if (window.navigator.appVersion.toLowerCase().indexOf("msie 5") >= 0)
{var t = new Date();
t.setYear(t.getYear() + 10);
setMediaCookie(".yahoo.com", "/", t);}

The highlighted statement caused the failure. Interestingly, Yahoo was setting a cookie that expires 10 years from now (the variable T is used as an expiration date). Later in the day the same page loaded with no errors.

Yahoo