Remember back in the old days when Yahoo didn’t suck? When I was helping out friends new to the Internet, I’d bookmark Yahoo and Google for them and tell them how to use both, but I’d always note “Use Yahoo first, because everything listed there had to be approved by a person, and it’s organized much better”.
That’s not true any more, and I’ve found out why.
I recently finished a site for Global Simulation, operators of North America’s largest mobile flight simulation ride, and of course they’d like to show up in online searches. So I took some time and submitted them to the main ones, and headed over to Yahoo. I clicked “Submit a site” and was told that if the site was commercial, a listing would cost $299 USD.
Yes, that’s right, $299 US Dollars for a link from Yahoo.
PER YEAR.
It’s insane, and it explains why nobody “yahoos” much any more. They’re driving away useful (but albeit commercial) links with that pricing structure, which therefore reduces the usefulness of their site, which makes it less worthwhile to pay to get a link on their site. The thinking behind it baffles me. But it’s no big deal. I simply won’t bother submitting that site, or any others.
Yahoo, you used to be cool.
Obligatory Simpsons reference:
“What happened to you China? You used to be cool.”
“China still cool! You pay later! Later!”