"Greeeaaaaat," he said sarcastically.

The new Yahoo mail is going out of beta over the next few weeks. Maybe they are fixing some bugs in the process to make it smoother, but as is, it is a clunky product.

One problem is that it takes a while to load, especially at home where we have a slow connection. I usually pre-empt it by clicking the link to view my mail in the old standard version.

And it always drives me nuts that you have to go through hoops to get to the actual email. What kind of email program doesn't open up by showing its inbox? Instead, you get some screen with a bunch of news links. If I wanted the news I'd go to the DrudgeReport (uh oh, Republican Senator Larry Craig is in a bit of hot water) but I wanted to see my email so I came to Yahoo! Mail. So then you have to click on the Inbox Tab and wait some more for that to load. And don't try to open one of the actual emails before the ads are fully loaded or things may come to a complete halt. Oh greeeaaaat, it finally loaded. I've got spam!

Thumbs Down on New My Yahoo! Beta

I am always wary of changes that Yahoo makes to their My Yahoo! feature because I have it set up just the way I like it.

The last major change they made to it added RSS feeds which was very useful. Some items that I formerly used on the page were discontinued, but I don't remember what they were anymore so ultimately that didn't matter.

Last night they released a new Beta for the service. I tried it out but quickly reverted.

The new version says that:

"Bookmarks are now easier. We've moved your Bookmarks to the "My Quicklinks" menu at the top left of your page."

But they weren't easier. Now you have to click a drop menu and the first page view of bookmarks aren't my own bookmarks, but links to Yahoo services.

Then they reorganized my bookmarks, the layout was much different than the way I view them now. I do a lot of research during the day and like to be able to see all of my bookmarks, organized by category, at a quick glance. I keep MyYahoo open all day so I can get to the links whenever I need them, and I right click to open them up in new windows. I only need to open a subfolder for links that I rarely use.

I have my most frequently-used bookmarks at the top of the page, these links aren't in a specific folder so they appear at the top. Those links weren't visible in the Beta, I could not figure out where they were.

Next I have a folder called "1.News" (I have them in numerical order to force the order in which I want to see the folders rather than the alphabetical-default order) with about 10 links I regularly check and a subfolder of links I infrequently use. Under the old MyYahoo, those 10 links are sitting right there on the page for easy access. In the new Beta, you have to click on the folder "News", wait 5 seconds for a slide-out menu to appear with the links. And then click again to open up the link I want to access.


I don't want to have to click on drop-down or slide-out menus to see my bookmarks, that isn't easier! I love the way it currently is. I have them all organized for easy access.

I left Yahoo! some feedback as I switched back to the regular My Yahoo in order to keep seeing and using my Yahoo bookmarks the way they've been for the past 10 years.

I hope they take my counsel under advisement. But just in case I am going to use the handy "Export Your Bookmarks" feature.