[crouton] Nathaniel Trost: Yahoo, Serious(ly)

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Posted by Nathaniel Trost:
Yahoo, Serious(ly)
http://crouton.powerblogs.com/archives/archive_2006_12_31-2007_01_06.shtml#1167938709


   Sometimes I will switch to a different piece of software, service, or
   web site if something comes along that is head and shoulders better
   than what I am currently using. I marveled at MapQuest in 1997. Yahoo
   Maps proved much less irritating and quickly replaced it. Yahoo pretty
   much remained the standard until Google Maps appeared and blew
   everything else out of the water in terms of interface. I presume
   Yahoo Maps has improved since then, but I have no motivation to bother
   checking.
   There is another motivating factor: when an upgrade goes horribly
   wrong. Since Iâve been using the Web since the early days (would that
   be Web 0.5?), Iâm used to doing everything I can via the Internet,
   including my TV listings. Iâd always used Yahooâs TV listings, which
   while a bit clunky, were perfectly functional and worked well enough
   to let me see what was on in the timeframe I was interested in.
   In recent weeks, it seems Yahoo has given their TV listings site a
   huge upgrade. Previously it refreshed the page when you jumped around
   on the timelime. Now, it has the requisite AJAX crap going on so you
   can drag a scroll bar around to update the time view. This would be
   great, except it manages to look absolutely horrible, feels just as
   clunky if not worse than the old site, and most damning of all,
   sometimes loads incorrectly or not at all under a vanilla Firefox 2.0.
   I am now using Zap2It.
   There is actually a third motivating factor: my needs change.
   Interestingly this did apply, but wouldnât have been a tipping factor.
   What changed is that I recently broke down and bought a LCD TV with an
   integrated HDTV receiver. Yahooâs broadcast listings, for whatever
   reason, still only include analog channels. If there was a way to turn
   on digital listings in the new site, it wasnât immediately obvious.
   Zap2It displays all the channels.
   Since I generally am only checking for channels that have analog
   counterparts anyway, that annoyance probably wouldnât have been enough
   in and of itself to make me switch from Yahoo. Coupled with the broken
   site upgrade, itâs pretty much set my new TV listings âproviderâ in
   cement.
   As an aside, holy crap does Southern California have a lot of digital
   broadcast channels. What was also interesting, although not shocking
   to me, was even though Iâve always had very marginal reception using
   cheap indoor antennas, most of the digital channels come through very
   well with a minimum of fidgeting using the same antennas. Viva
   technology.