Yahoo, end of an era, IE advertising, and new features

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It's with a bit of disappointment that I announce the Yahoo/Microsoft advertising/search deal appears to be a done deal. I really shouldn't be disappointed, I haven't really used Yahoo for years, early year 2000-ish roughly. When I thought about why the answer is quite simple - Yahoo went all portal-ish and left simplicity behind.

One of the reasons I love Google is that the interface is simple, it doesn't assail me with dozens of different things. I didn't mind Yahoo so much when it was a directory of text links, but when the links became images, the advertising started flopping all about the site, I headed for other search pastures.

But I decided to give Yahoo another chance recently. Some aspects of Yahoo are interesting (Yahoo Answers). I set up an account and found myself looking at a page that had a space for blog entries. When I got home I couldn't find any reference to a Yahoo Blog except the official blog. Signing in to My Yahoo led me in circles, nowhere near the blog.

I did however find the Directory search, essentially the classic Yahoo I loved.