Feedback Needed: Member Search
When we asked you all to put together a list of your priorities for Profiles, many of you included the member search feature in your list. Some of you elaborated on what specifically you’d like to see in terms of search, but others just mentioned that you’d just like to be able to find other members.
We’d love to hear a little bit more about your thoughts on member search, and what specifically you all would like to see, so this week we have two questions:
- How would you like to find other members? (ex: search by interests, name, location, etc.)
- What information would you want to display in the search results? (ex: full name, nickname, picture, location, etc.)
By now, you all know the drill: leave your answers to the questions in the comments section below, and I’ll compile the answers for the team to review.
I’ll do my best to respond to as many questions/comments as possible, but you all have proven to be an enthusiastic bunch (no, I’m not complaining-it’s fantastic!) so sometimes I’m not able to comment on every comment (sorry), but that doesn’t mean your comments go unread: I DO read every submission.
Thanks in advance for your enthusiasm, your answers, and for working with our teams to create products that you all are as excited to use as we are as excited to create.
Melissa Daniels
Yahoo! Community Manager
UPDATE: Currently there is a Member Search feature integrated into profiles (though it is a little hard to find– http://profiles.yahoo.com/people-search/), which allows you to search for users based on email address, first name, last name, or a combination of first and last.
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- 131 Comments
February 26th, 2009 at 6:03 pm
It would probably be best to use
1.the categories in the about me as the search categories, except for anything else. Use the comma as delineation for the query terms.
interest
music
movies
movies to see
books
books to read
quotes
food
places
visit
2.update categories
whether it is a yahoo service or a service outside of yahoo, people with similar tendencies usually will use have similar updates, so allow people to check by updates. BUT, it must only be for the public updates, not for connections or no one.
February 26th, 2009 at 6:05 pm
My comment did not get accepted so I am trying it again
It would probably be best to use
1.the categories in the about me as the search categories, except for anything else. Use the comma as delineation for the query terms.
interest
music
movies
movies to see
books
books to read
quotes
food
places
visit
2.update categories
whether it is a yahoo service or a service outside of yahoo, people with similar tendencies usually will use have similar updates, so allow people to check by updates. BUT, it must only be for the public updates, not for connections or no one.
February 26th, 2009 at 7:06 pm
Similar to what we use now on 360 We are not necessarily searching for people we already know. We want to meet new people as well.
1…Location
2…Interests
3…Yahoo ID’s ( not many people really prefer to use their real names)
4…Names
5…Key words ( it may be something they have in their profile)
It would be nice if it brought up their Profile Id, picture and location.
Perhaps make it a choice if we want to see either just the name or both name and pic.
March 5th, 2009 at 9:04 am
I concur with what Joy said.
Sometimes it’s nice to look people up by their yahoo! ID or look up a partial (cause you met an old friend but for some reason didn’t friend them while talking with them and you can now only remember PART of their user name.) and get some results.
March 21st, 2009 at 6:46 pm
Totally agree. I’ve had some great contacts but can only remember partial id or name.
May 17th, 2009 at 6:45 am
This is a basic function of the old 360, browse for new people by location and interest. Isn’t it obvious? Why have the folks here removed that feature?
February 26th, 2009 at 8:05 pm
Search by Keywords and Names
I say keywords instead of Interests because I’d rather have the spaces in the About Me section HTML capable. I like the set up for 360, if we could have something that works like that with Keywords, that would be awesome (I’ve met a few people using the system there).
Keywords would probably work like Tags or appear like a Tag Cloud. And could be a band name, a book title, a hobby, etc. If people want to be found by location and name, that could be included somehow-I don’t know how all that works so my hats off to you for figuring it all out, lol.
~Da’Nela
February 26th, 2009 at 9:22 pm
I’d like to be able to shut OFF the connections-connect to suggestions..they are a pain in the butt.
February 27th, 2009 at 8:38 pm
amen
March 2nd, 2009 at 12:32 pm
Seconded. Yahoo sucks at guessing my interests in an automated way anyway. NO suggestions.
March 4th, 2009 at 10:56 am
Ironically enough, these suggestions are based off of some of your online habits. We did update these suggestions in our latest push that went out last week so you should see some more relevant suggestions (I know mine improved) so hopefully that’s a bit more encouraging.
Just out of curiosity, do you ever find yourself acting on the suggestions? (Either in a positive way (accepting) or in a negative way (declining)? )
-Melissa
March 26th, 2009 at 7:12 am
i think you should go back to be able to change the nickname shown in chat rooms. as of right now i have my full first and middle name showing in chat room and i dont like that i want to be able to change it
February 26th, 2009 at 9:54 pm
To be honest, my preferred method is to click on another members’ pic as shown in another page or profile. I think I’ve used Member Search maybe five times in the past eight years. The only way that’s worked for me is to search for someone by their Yahoo ID.
February 27th, 2009 at 1:33 am
(This is OT to the question asked)
As a Group “owner” I loved the my old profile – it was simple and it let me do what I needed most – tell those interested which Groups I am involved in. I believe Yahoo! made a critical error when they did away with the old profile.
The reason:
It takes years for most people to start using a certain feature. Group members were just only starting to use the “old” profile when Yahoo decided to dismantle it (before having a replacement). No thought whatsoever to the efforts many Group managers were making to educate their members – this will teach them not to “waste” their time in future, sigh…
February 27th, 2009 at 1:50 am
Frankly I have always found the whole member search function rather frightening. No offense to others but I do not want to be pestered by people who have no idea that they are looking at an RP profile or who see something about me and decide that we should be friends even though I would probably be happier not knowing that they existed. Even worse its an easy way for Identity theft to take place when looking around for people who are too, shall we say ‘net ignorant’ for lack of a more polite term, to guard their personal information. A smart Phisher or other theif can easily get the information that they need to start keeping tabs on someone and potentially stalk or steal from them. In other words its just a horrible and dangerous idea.
However, apparently people want it, so here is the deal. If you are going to set up a new search system then you HAVE to finally give us back our Alias profieles. At that point its not even a matter of ’satisfy your RP community’ as it is ‘protecting your overall community.’ Letting people search and look at random profiles is dangerous and to my knowledge no other ’social networking’ site lets you look at other peoples profiles that way because of it. Alias profiles allow you a wonderful layer of protection against dangerous individuals as well as the unsavory ‘I want to be friends with you!’ element we all hope to avoid.
No good, solid, real reason has been given for the lack of Alias profiles before other than ‘it does not fit in with the other plans’ which at this point I will say flat out sounds like pure stubbornness to your end users. Now though if you are seriously considering this, you have no choice. Yahoo is more than willing to shut down private rooms because parents who let their children on the internet can’t be bothered to take the three hours and learn how to keep their kids safe from pedophiles, well this is a bigger and more legitimate concern encompassing all users. If Search comes back, Alias HAS to as well. At that point its no longer an option.
March 1st, 2009 at 10:35 am
I’m strongly for Search but for people like Terra I suggest making it like it was before where the user chooses whether or not their profile can be searched in the profile. Did you not realize Terra, that you had the option to choose whether or not your profile could be searched, some people like the ability for others to find them based on their interests, it’s what made yahoo fun, and interactive, that along with chat. So please stop trying to ruin that for everyone else just because you didn’t like the search.
March 1st, 2009 at 10:40 am
Once again Melissa how about a way to delete our own comments b/c some of us like me who don’t proof read realize we make mistakes after we post something.
First sentence at the end where I posted earlier should be profile database not profile.
March 2nd, 2009 at 11:01 am
This blog is powered/hosted by WordPress and Yahoo! Small Business– the functionality you’re looking for is something you should bring up to WordPress.
-Melissa
March 8th, 2009 at 1:15 am
Thanks for the reply Melissa.
February 27th, 2009 at 8:13 am
Melissa:
This feedback blog is great…really gets the public into it.
Why not implement the same concept as Y! Personals into Profiles. There are so many free dating sites now I’m sure it could work.
Mike
March 4th, 2009 at 11:16 am
Hi Mike G,
Thanks! We love hearing what you all have to say about specific initiatives we’re working on or considering, and think it’s important to bring the user’s perspective into the decision making process.
Can you elaborate on what you mean by “Why not implement the same concept as Y! Personals into Profiles.”? — we don’t want to make profiles into a dating service, but if you think they do an amazing job of search, then by all means, please share!
-Melissa
February 27th, 2009 at 4:22 pm
I would like to be able to search key words to find interesting blogs. Otherwise it is a poor search system to find new people.
February 27th, 2009 at 5:41 pm
I think this is a good idea and it could work two ways.
one , take the text from a users connections updates for blog services and scan them to see if the text match.
the other way , is to do that 360 merge with profiles and scan the profiles blog.
March 4th, 2009 at 11:16 am
Great suggestion, thanks!
-Melissa
February 27th, 2009 at 5:40 pm
Search for people within 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5 miles within a particular ZIP code.
People who are worried about being “found” can put a ZIP code farther away from their home. On MySpace, it is not unusual to see people put their age as 100 years old and set their location to a completely different state if they do not want to be found.
If you are going to add social features to Yahoo, make it easy for people to find someone with similar interests close to where they live.
StumbleUpon MySpace, Facebook etc. have an item for stating whether you are looking for friends, a relationship or just websurfing.
StumbleUpon calculates how similar you are to someone else based upon common interests.
Break down the interests into specific genres/types of movies, music, books and food. If you use IMDB’s data, people could list specific movies they like which would make any match on similar interests more accurate.
Netflix and Amazon use an algorithm called ’singular value decomposition’ to figure out, given a database of users and their ratings of particular products (e.g. movies), what other products you would be interested in. Since Yahoo just came out with advertising specific to a user’s interests, Yahoo might be using a similar algorithm. You might be able to share the technology they are using.
The results can be used to expand the search for someone with similar interests. People who like movie A also like movie B so expand the search to people who like movie A and movie B.
In the search results, a thumbnail of the profile picture, a tag/quote line and list profiles from nearest to farthest location.
MySpace has a page where you can read blogs of particular genres. Reading and commenting on blogs on MySpace one of the most social features on the site since it brings people with an interest in a particular topic together.
February 27th, 2009 at 8:40 pm
We put ourselves ‘out on the web’, we are adults, can’t everybody just be carefully responsible, like we wish our dutifully ellected would, ha ha.
February 27th, 2009 at 8:44 pm
MSN, and the like are bossy and intrusive, bah!
February 28th, 2009 at 8:27 am
search by location would be great like the old yahoo member search
February 28th, 2009 at 8:33 am
We need it so we can change the color schemes of our pages. All of them look exactly the same. Oh, and get rid of the character limit. That is really annoying when you can’t put a lot…
February 28th, 2009 at 9:13 am
I noticed on the profiles there is now a “member since” area….that is a step in the right direction. Thanks. If all the info that could be found in the old profiles could make it’s way to the new profiles, I would be a very happy camper.
March 6th, 2009 at 6:09 pm
Hi Kate,
I mean it!
Yep! I posted about that this week– we’re taking your feedback and implementing it in profiles. We do care about what you all think and say and want.
-Melissa
February 28th, 2009 at 11:15 am
I think the following should be added.
Member name or ID
Interesting with any type of interest the member may have tagged on their profile (I think it’ll be good to add “tags” by interest like favorite members.TV show,video game, etc etc)
Occupation
Location
Age
Keep it coming Yahoo~!
February 28th, 2009 at 11:16 am
music* I meant not members. >.<
February 28th, 2009 at 9:06 pm
I know this isnt part of the blog subject, but how do you change your NICKNAME on yahoo now? I can’t find it anywhere. You know – the name that shows up in chat rooms and NOT the profile name etc.
There should be an option to do so in the edit/create identities, but all I can do there is manage my email addresses.
March 2nd, 2009 at 5:51 am
Login first
then go to this link: http://manage.members.yahoo.com/
you should know the reset.
March 2nd, 2009 at 5:50 pm
That just logs me into my profile.
March 3rd, 2009 at 2:55 pm
Abbey,
Actually in the current profiles offering you can’t change your nickname. You can change your display name, which is used throughout Yahoo! sites, but isn’t what you’re talking about.
I have been poking around trying to figure out a resolution to this issue (especially since personally I’m not a big chat room user and wanted to be sure I gave you as best of an answer as I possibly could), but as it stands, your best bet is to create a separate alias and use that to chat. (I even tried using the old http://manage.yahoo.com/YOURID site to see if updating the nickname there would reflect in chat rooms, and it didn’t).
I know the messenger team is aware of this, as is the profiles team and are working to find some sort of a resolution (preferably one that is easy enough that just forces you to update your “Display Name” in your profile as that’s taken over as your “Nickname”) but as of right now I’m afraid I don’t have an update on this issue.
I’ll be sure to let you know more as soon as, well, I know more! In the meantime, be sure to create an alias and use that to chat (it should appear in a drop-down before you enter a chat room. (Also, if you just created the alias, be sure to log out and log back into messenger before trying to use it, otherwise it might not show up in the drop-down)).
Sorry!
-Melissa
March 3rd, 2009 at 5:05 pm
Thanks Melissa.
Atleast now I know it’s not because I can’t figure it out.
March 3rd, 2009 at 5:12 pm
Okay try these steps.
Login
go to http://manage.members.yahoo.com/put_your_yahoo_id_here
then click Edit Profile Information
and there you can change your nickname.
March 4th, 2009 at 10:18 am
Abbey,
Nope! Not you (or me). I did follow up with the teams to make sure though and unfortunately, this is the only way to access a chat room. I’m also told though that the old nickname feature didn’t mask your YID; the YID was still shown in after your nickname, so really, creating a new alias is the only way to keep your main ID safe.
-Melissa
March 4th, 2009 at 5:32 pm
Well I just wanted to use it for the chatroom. Not to disguise who I am, but as a fun feature – a call name in the rooms.
Right now my nickname is stuck on the one I made before the feature disappeared. I used to change it ever so often for a little variety. I don’t want a new alias or anything like that. Really I just want my profile display name to be visible in the chatrooms as well
March 4th, 2009 at 5:35 pm
Tasu – thanks for trying.
I tried the link you suggested and it just brings me to a blank page that says “Oops! Nothing to see here. Go back to your profile.”
March 4th, 2009 at 8:33 pm
I just did what Tasu suggested and it worked for me…I changed my nicname and it worked when I went into chat. I also am not interested in an alias..I only used those for roleplaying…when we had roleplay rooms…I just liked changing the nic to suit my mood.
Anyways, try it again Abbey…maybe the servers were busy or something.
March 5th, 2009 at 9:13 am
Lacie,
Tasu’s suggestion does work some of the time which is why it might not have worked for Abbey. That link refers back to an old database, and we don’t suggest that people use it to update their information as it’s inconsistent in whether or not it “accepts” the data or not. We’ve left the site up as a reference for people looking to retrieve information they felt they had “lost” during the profiles migration period– that way, users can still view their old profiles and verify the information, but it’s not the correct or supported way of updating your information.
-Melissa
March 6th, 2009 at 2:49 pm
Yeah it’s still not working for me. Maybe because I already migrated my old info?
March 6th, 2009 at 5:46 pm
Abbey,
No, it’s probably more complicated than that, but lucky for you (or not) it’s not supposed to work as it’s merely up as a resource not a replacement service.
-Melissa
March 9th, 2009 at 12:49 pm
Yes Melissa but its preferable to the new profile system for those of us who do not want to use it. Granted I have no reason to change my profile information but I still give people reference links to look at the old profiles, or ‘real’ profiles as I call them rather than bothering with the new one because it simply does not do what I need it to.
Just remember people if you want to see someones profile go to http://p1.pf.re4.yahoo.com/(your and replace the (your with their name, then you get to see their profile without bothering with the new system.
February 28th, 2009 at 9:08 pm
Where did the option to change your yahoo nickname go? It should be in Edit/Create Identities but its gone.
February 28th, 2009 at 9:08 pm
Oops sorry – i reposted cause the first didnt show up for a while.
February 28th, 2009 at 10:00 pm
Many times I cannot distinguish one member from another since they have very similar information on their profiles or information. My preference would be a member search via PHOTO/PICTURE. That way I could be sure if I am connecting or locating the right person.
February 28th, 2009 at 10:00 pm
To clarify: I’d like a member search with name AND photo.
March 1st, 2009 at 1:38 am
I want to be able to locate a profile by yahoo nickname. Used to have that but can not find it. Want to see a way we can search a profile name to see the profile.
March 1st, 2009 at 5:29 am
I think the old member search was great so I’m not sure why there is a need to change the way it worked.
We should be able to search by location, keywords, gender, age, Yahoo! ID, real name, and occupation. I might be forgeting a few but these are probably the most important ones.
Chevy
March 1st, 2009 at 8:25 am
Testing to see whether id pictures showing yet.
March 1st, 2009 at 8:27 am
Trying with my MyBlogLog URL entered in website slot.
March 1st, 2009 at 8:32 am
Trying with my 360 URL entered instead.
March 1st, 2009 at 8:35 am
Trying with my Profile URL.
March 1st, 2009 at 1:20 pm
I don’t want to get anyone pissed off, but when I search for people to connect with, I go for picture ID and Yahoo ID…keywords that correspond to their blog tags, cause honestly, the new profile doesn’t really tell me much and most have chosen not to fill it out. Location isn’t important to me…but others may find it useful.
So again, I’m back to blogs, specifically Y360..and I don’t want to be redundant in my posts so just integrate Y360 with the profiles, including a better member search linking Profile ID, Picture and keywords…which bring us to the person’s blog and corresponding profile.
DId that make sense?
Oh yes..I must also ask along with Abbey…where do I change my nicname in the new profile? My nicname in chat? I cannot do it on the new profile..all it takes me to is an alias page…which I cannot delete the alias I created to test…a glitch I assume? Can someone show us how to do that please! I like to change my nic name…and have it show whenever I enter a chat room as my name. We used to be able to do that before the new profile came out.
Thanks for listening…
Lacie~
March 2nd, 2009 at 4:25 am
searching by blog tags would be good but yahoo profiles doesn’t have a blog. When or if, the blogging aspect of 360 gets added to profiles, then blog tag searching will be a good addition
March 2nd, 2009 at 4:54 am
Hello again,
I would love to be able to search people by ethnicity, age, gender, interests .. online/offline status in order to be able to chat with who is online, location, languages spoken [ this will be great to have, in order to communicate with people using the required language ], work field , all kind of options that would help us to find the right person …
In the search results, I would like to see the nearest to my search, beside the default of Name, Gender, Age, location, and pic if possible ..
Thanks in advance
March 2nd, 2009 at 8:29 am
First make Member Search the way it used to be — and make sure it works! Then you can add some of the frivilous frills some here are asking for.
March 2nd, 2009 at 12:36 pm
For me, interest would be the most relevant, if I was to use such a feature. I would use it to discover new content, though, not new users. I’m not too big in to randomly messaging strangers. It usually isn’t something I appreciate when it happens to me (rarely anyway), so I can’t imagine it being ideal for people. However, if I were to, say, search out members who had similar interests, and be able to see the places they were going to for more about those interests, I would be stumbling on new things willy-nilly. That could motivate me to use this product once in awhile.
March 3rd, 2009 at 6:43 am
I would like to find other members by our shared choice of interests.
March 3rd, 2009 at 10:44 am
The old advance member search was great, but you may want to add the option of using boolean operations like and, not, or in the keyword search, to filter the results better.
Also the ability to use wild cards when searching by name or email address. You should be able to indicate whether the wild card part indicates the beginning/end/middle part of what your searching for.
You may want to consider adding a feature that makes the profiles of children under a certain age invisible to any adults using the search engine unless that adult is on that childs contact list.
Would be good if you could exclude profiles that were simply advertising another website or were linked to a known bot when doing keyword searches.
Have the ability to also rank the search results by different criteria, such as how other users rank a profile, to when it was last active. The ability for users to rank a profile may help to weed out people who may be trying to scam (for want of a better word) other users.
If you also allow people to embed user defined tags in there profiles that are only visible to the search engine, rather then just the usual ones that indicate that you’ve ticked a box for a particular interest, that may be helpful.
As part of the location search you may want to include a tick box / radio button to only show people in that location (or are going to that location) who want to car share etc may be useful for people who travel alot
If yahoo wants to be really different from their competitors, they could have a facial/image recognition feature at allows you to describe a feature in a profile picture you may have seen and then search for that. eg statue of liberty in the background or the person having blue eye or a green t-shirt etc.
All the points of interest that the others have mentioned for searching by such as books/religion/movies are good.
From the other side of the telescope it may be a good idea to be able to exclude your profile if a particular keyword is used as part of the search. This may only be relevant if you can use more then one keyword in a search. You may also wanna be able to exclude yourself if someone under/over a particular age group is searching.
March 27th, 2009 at 1:05 pm
some good ideas here guys
March 3rd, 2009 at 12:36 pm
Location is the biggest catagory
March 3rd, 2009 at 4:32 pm
i dont know how to view other’s profiles.can anyone help me?
March 3rd, 2009 at 4:46 pm
It just bogs my mind that after at least two years ive been waiting for somthing new from you guys (yahoo) that your still asking and trying to figure out what people want. Isnt there somthing wrong with that picture?
March 4th, 2009 at 10:52 am
Hey Frank,
Thanks for commenting. I have to say, that I totally disagree. Profiles rolled out October 2008, which is totally new, we’ve had lots of new releases (Buzz, Search Monkey, Search Pad, Boss, a new look for the homepage, YAP, OneConnect, I can keep going…) and there’s lots more to come.
This next bit is all me– personally, I totally disagree with you in saying “your still asking and trying to figure out what people want. Isnt there somthing wrong with that picture?” — asking users what they want is a sign of a good company– a company that cares about their users and wants to ensure that what they’re creating is actually something their users want as opposed to something that we think people want. It’s good research, and it’s good karma. Involving people in the development and decision making process of a company isn’t bad business, it’s good business, but that’s just my personal take on things.
-Melissa
March 4th, 2009 at 1:18 pm
i agree Melissa,
good going by yahoo.
As yahoo does better customer service, people will lighten up and be satisfied. Previous poor customer service has generated these emotions. If yahoo stays on the course, more users will be content with communication
March 4th, 2009 at 8:47 pm
Actually, I think Frank’s comment was in regard to the promise of a new and improved Y360.
I’m hopeful though, that with this feedback, something positive will be the result.
Oh, btw…MSN has consolidated everything into Windows Live Mail..(hotmail to me). I can reach my old blog, which I forgot I had…my profile, my connections and wheeeeeeeee…themes to go with the new features.
Unfortunately…I don’t have very many friends in MSN.
March 5th, 2009 at 4:37 am
Lacie, that is true. yahoo did promise to do something with 360. I think considering the responses, yahoo will, if they truly care about customer response. And, I agree, that yahoo has not been concise concerning Y! 360. I think a good thing for yahoo to do would be to tell people directly, that y!360 will be saved or merged or whatever into profiles. I know they said blogs would be saved and all 360 info but people are still unsure.
The only windows service i use is skydrive, but looking at their interface, yahoo can beat or equal that simply with an advanced tab bar. if a yahoo user could go from their addressbook to on of their my yahoo pages in one click. And, then from a my yahoo page to their connections updates page in one click, I think people would be satisfied.
But, I am hopeful as well that we will get something finally. We have waited:)
March 4th, 2009 at 11:20 pm
The fact that you are still asking tells me that Yahoo is still a rudderless ship with no real idea of what it wants to be. Yahoo has been asking us what we want since 2007 when we first found out about the eventual of 360. We’ve give you feedback on the 360 page. We gave feedback to Matt Wartburton. We gave you feedback on Mash. You closed Mash. You gave us a profile system that did even less than Mash. You’ve given us a few interesting features the duplicate things that other Yahoo services provide. Your promised us a profile system could used across all of Yahoo’s service and a ’smarter’ in box. Your CEO says Yahoo isn’t trying to be Facebook, but it sure SOUNDS like Facebook.
It’s time to stop asking and start IMPLEMENTING. We want features, not surveys.
March 5th, 2009 at 4:40 am
good point carl,
remember though, the new ceo has only been with yahoo for a short bit and she once to take the company into a more efficient direction. yahoo has been unstable management wise from 2007 to now with so many different people running things.
It is sad to say but part of our wait has been yahoo’s management changes. But, I say give the new ceo a chance to see what she will do.
March 4th, 2009 at 11:33 am
Make it like the old member directory search please. Include, city/state/age/personal status, e-mail,messenger etc.
This time though make it smart enough to recognize the OH is OHIO and so on. It used to come back with separte results.
Oh and keep the bogus/spamming profiles out please.
March 4th, 2009 at 2:40 pm
I’ve met many new people in my area back when one could search by location. I miss that.
March 4th, 2009 at 8:34 pm
At one time I could go to http:\\members.yahoo.com and once there do a search or advanced search by member ID, even using just part of the ID with a * for global and then a listing would come back. I could click on anyone and get their profile…. could even see if they were online or not. I used it often and really miss it. Same with profiles.yahoo.com Why were these features eliminated? Seems to me that yahoo has become more complicated but less usefull.
March 4th, 2009 at 9:55 pm
At least bring back the former search options.
As far as finding folks with similar interests..thats what yahoo groups is for is it not?
March 5th, 2009 at 5:36 pm
Hi Steve,
For some, yes, most definitely. But for others, no.
I’m with you on finding people with similar interests on Groups instead of through profiles as there’s more context in Groups than there is on profiles, but that’s just me!
I’ll pass on your thoughts to the team. Thanks for commenting!
-Melissa
March 7th, 2009 at 1:59 am
perhaps when you do a search in yahoo profiles the most successful groups[number of people , rate of messages, rate of messages from different users] with the key words in relevant places [title, frontpage message] will be returned
March 4th, 2009 at 11:50 pm
no comment,,,thanks
March 5th, 2009 at 2:45 pm
I would like to search by:
-Nickname
-Interests
-Location
-Gender
-Age
-Pictures?
-Online?
-Keywords in free profile text
Search options and keywords should allow combinations with “AND, OR, NOT”.
That is similar to the old search method, but should deliver refined results (not tons of spam profiles like aaaaaahottie etc..)
Search results should allow sorting by Name, Age, Country, Date Joined, Date of Profile Update and Last Login Date. I know some of these might be a problem due to data protection.
I hope you don’t a little criticism. Why don’t you ask the users for this BEFORE you switch off the old profiles. Since there is this beta running, nobody can search anymore. Also displaying links to a homepage or cool sites is disabled. Why? Also the migration from the profile pics to flickr resulted in some problems. The staff marked all of my bodybuilding pics as adult, so actually the majority of users can’t see my photostreams anymore and there is no way for me to correct this although I am the owner of MY pics. All this is way too complicated and no fun at all.
Simple, intuitive integration of all related yahoo services into the profiles, that’s it. A couple of years before yahoo did it better. Back to the roots with a new and cooler look. That’s my recommendation.
March 6th, 2009 at 6:46 am
Personally I will be fine with just being able to search by name. I am have a hard time with search right now. Mostly because I can not find it. wverytime I click the member directory my profile comes up and i do not see the find member button.
March 13th, 2009 at 6:39 pm
Hi Tanicka,
You’re right– it’s definitely buried right now. Here’s the link: http://profiles.yahoo.com/people-search/
-Melissa
March 7th, 2009 at 10:00 pm
There’s a few thoughts that have been going through my head in regards to profiles, but also how the specific issues in profiles relate to larger issues going on with Yahoo services.
I am a partner in a web development, marketing, and consulting firm. So I spend a lot of time thinking about design and about user experiences. I have been using the Internet extensively since the early 1990’s and Yahoo services since the late 80’s, so I have obviously learned quite a bit. And, as a long time user and as a current partner in a company that currently spends quite a bit of money on Yahoo services (such as pay per click ads and domain registrations), I would like to see Yahoo prosper.
Regarding member search: You don’t have to start from scratch on this. Yahoo at one time had an excellent system in place for finding other members and meeting new people. It was not perfect, but it was functional and it did quite a bit considering that Internet technologies were not as advanced at the time as they are now. With new technologies being available, I’m sure it could have been improved dramatically. The logical thing for Yahoo to do would have been to take the system they already had and tried to build on that. Ideally, this would have been done using modern tools and technologies to involve the users in the process from the very beginning in order to find out what users were doing and utilize user input to create the best product possible. Instead, Yahoo has dismantled everything and seems to be starting over again AFTER breaking so many things that a great number of users are complaining. This to me is completely backwards.
I am not one to simply say “Go back to the old profiles.” I realize that when something new is unveiled, a lot of people will simply be resistant to change and progress. No doubt, some of that is going on here. But from what I have seen, user objections are not about being resistant to change. Rather, the complaints are about change that doesn’t fit in with what users want from Yahoo.
OK, a specific example. It used to be that you could join various interest lists and then choose to display those interests on your profile. As a user, I liked this because it allowed me to tell people about what I was interested in and click a link to find out at a glance what other members shared a particular interest. And as a manager of successful Yahoo groups, this was certainly a powerful tool, allowing me to communicate with those who might be interested in my group while not wasting the time of those would have no interest. After all, it would be absurd to promote a group about, say, nanotechnology, to members with interest lists that indicated their primary hobby was cooking.
Many other sites still employ tools that allow search by interests and allow members the choice of whether or not to display any information about them in a specific interest category. Yahoo users should, of course, have complete control over what information about them would be accessible via search, what interests appeared on their profile, whether or not their name appeared in a certain interest list, etc.
This is only one of many examples across Yahoo’s suite of services where I see revisions that result in a loss of useful functionality or in which Yahoo does not incorporate the best ideas that have become almost standard in other sites.
And yet, at the same time, Yahoo also seems to want to be all things to all people. Yahoo wants to be Facebook, Yahoo wants to be MySpace, and with this new buzz feature, it now seems to want to be Del.icio.us and Digg. In trying to do all things for all people, Yahoo has destroyed so much of what used to make Yahoo *Yahoo*.
Of course, like a lot of people, I use Facebook. I use Del.icio.us. That doesn’t mean that I have lost interest in using Yahoo. Rather, I have started using Yahoo less and less because so much of what made it unique ends up being dismantled instead of improved.
March 8th, 2009 at 7:08 am
Okay, you have a ton of great suggestions, get it working. The Member Directory is gone so we are in limbo. Yahoo is in a perpetual state of beta, so give us SOMETHING to search with so we can find people. Yahoo has been a driving force in the growth of many other social sites by making the Yahoo 360 site, which was very popular, dysfunctional and frustrating. Many of my former online friends have moved on. GET IT DONE!!!
March 13th, 2009 at 6:41 pm
David,
Search is still there, but not totally discoverable, and currently only returns results for queries done by first name, last name, and email address.
http://profiles.yahoo.com/people-search/
However, there is something there in the meantime.
-Melissa
March 8th, 2009 at 10:19 am
Well! Being a new member here, I would like to be able to search by location! i.e.
Name: Alias
Near me: Miles
By State: Mine or others
Age: min-max
And as for results of search:
Pics: Have or Havn’t got
Location: State and City and possibly distance
Alias’ Age(s) and Age requirements: Min-Max
Alias’ Gender(s): Gender requirements-looking for
Name: Alias
Last time visited site and if online now
And at the bottom of each profile, a place to report that profile for abuse!
The last thing I would like to see, and to show up only on the main page, which I haven’t seen on ANY site, is a site help box that will let you talk to someone about your profile and any problems you may be experiencing. I am so sick and tired of having to go through pages and pages of referal pages before you can send a message, if they even let you! Or if they even acknowledge you at all! And even though I love using Yahoo, they are the worst for this. On my yahoo personals page, they will not let me update my profile, and I have continuosly tried to receive assistance to no avail. (Sorry! Just Venting)
March 9th, 2009 at 5:24 pm
Where is the BLOG feature on the new profile? I can’t live without the BLOG!!!!
March 10th, 2009 at 3:40 pm
Why in the world was the member search ever taken out ? You really dropped the ball, Yahoo. I figure you’re trying to get people to pay for your personals. Here’s a suggestion:
— Have queries that actually work. ie– if I check female for gender and type in Dallas TX, don’t return males in Chicago.
March 10th, 2009 at 5:04 pm
Tony,
Member Search wasn’t completely removed, it was just changed. You can still search for people here: http://profiles.yahoo.com/people-search/ However, this change was met by the displeasure of many users, which is why we’re revisiting the feature and looking to improve it.
As far as your comment goes regarding personals, I can honestly say that has nothing to do with it. It was actually a decision that was made to protect user’s privacy.
-Melissa
March 10th, 2009 at 3:56 pm
MELISSA COMMENT::
I’m with you on finding people with similar interests on Groups instead of through profiles as there’s more context in Groups than there is on profiles, but that’s just me!
I’ll pass on your thoughts to the team. Thanks for commenting!
-Melissa
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
OF COURSE WE WANT TO BE ABLE TO LOOK UP PROFILES. YES, I AM SCREAMING.
March 10th, 2009 at 5:20 pm
Tony,
I understand, but that’s not what I was saying… if you go back to where you found my comment you’d see that I was agreeing with Steve about the use of Yahoo! Groups– that Yahoo! Groups provides a much better interest-based portal than profiles ever could– this is because within Yahoo! Groups, users create specific, interest based communities filled with other people interested in the same exact topic. This accomplishes far more in terms of depth than a tag on your profile ever could, as it actually illustrates a coherent conversation around that particular interest.
That’s not to say that interest based search isn’t a good feature or a feature you all want to see and we should look at implementing– but my argument was that the search results in Yahoo! Groups would be much better than the search results in profiles, even if we had THE perfect system. That’s because there’s more context for you to assess before you establish a relationship or connect with another user.
That’s all.
-Melissa
March 10th, 2009 at 5:41 pm
and that is a great point.
I have tested js-kit on my profiles. i like it and i see it works with geocities. it allows a geocities page to be a blog of sorts.
nice going.
March 10th, 2009 at 4:07 pm
TERRA– Letting people search and look at random profiles is dangerous and to my knowledge no other ’social networking’ site lets you look at other peoples profiles that way because of it>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>>
HUH ?? I have to comment on what this member is saying. She’s totally incorrect. In fact, it’s the other way around. I wouldn’t join a site where I couldn’t search for members based on a few criteria— gender, location, currently online, interests.
Obviously, Yahoo Personals is set up this way.
March 10th, 2009 at 4:20 pm
Let me say I definitely applaud you having this comment section. I was skeptical, but it does seem that you are reading these comments,Melissa. Thanks. Keep up the good work.
March 11th, 2009 at 3:53 pm
Q1.
I think the primary search field should be Interests & Location so that those with similar interests can contact likeminded people within a given geographic area.
Q2.
However, I think only the most basic information should be revealed initially, again primarily Interests and Location, with each individual having the opion to include further details if they so wish.
I used to use the old search facility but with so many ofthe services that made Yahoo! what it wa being removed,I drifted away and eventually lost interest in Yahoo altogether. I returned just over a year ago hoping that things had improved only to ind there is even less of the old Yahoo! left.
Using the old Profile Search I was able to find a number of interesting people to correspond with and even indirectly found my fiancee through one such contact. Iwas also contacted directly by a number of individuals based on my interests and location.
I would very much like to see much of the old Yahoo! return, but without the thousands of bogus profiles with nothing but links to pay porn sites,and I am pleased to see that that seems to be the view of the majority here.
So, I now wait to see what you are going to do now that you have so many suggestions and hope that my wait willnot be too long.
March 12th, 2009 at 9:34 pm
Obviously, the easiest things to search for are e-mail address, first name last name and possibly age.
But it’d be nice to have search criteria based on gender, age, location, interests and keywords, and things along those lines.
March 13th, 2009 at 6:20 pm
Hi Zachary L.,
In that case, then we’re halfway there!
You can already search for someone using their email address, first name and last name (not age though, but I do agree, that’s incredibly handy if you’re trying to narrow down search results).
Try it here: http://profiles.yahoo.com/people-search/
I’ll definitely add your criteria to the list. Thanks for commenting!
-Melissa
March 14th, 2009 at 7:38 am
If all you can search for is email address or name, why not add the advanced search option back in. The current options are not enough to narrow down a group of people. Even MySpace offers a much better search option than Yahoo! currently. I would be happy to see the Advanced Search option return with functions to filter “Miles from Location,” “Online Now,” and “Interests.” There is a location search on 360 currently but it filters places people have lived at any time, not very helpful. The old version was a lot more interesting in my opinion.
March 14th, 2009 at 7:20 pm
For someone to expect “privacy” on a “public” profile is just ludicrous.
I’ve read each comment here and it seems to me that Melissa is doing a remarkable job of answering comments in a tactful and diplomatic manner while staying surprisingly cryptic. She reiterates over and over that you CAN still search for members; albeit members you must already know or know of. Gone are the days of anonymously looking for others; gone is the random access of public profiles with explicit pictures on their front pages; gone are the endless listings of adult websites masquerading as members; gone is the random access of public profiles posted by children portraying themselves as older; gone is the access Nigerian scammers have to you.
The apparent answer to the statement about why the change in Member Search is that, apparently, “Yahoo does not wish to respond fully at this time.”
See, Yahoo has to walk a fine line regarding user privacy. They must protect themselves from users who are naive enough to assume that putting personal information on a publicly viewed profile should somehow be protected from those they do not wish to communicate with, while providing a viable service to those who have a sincere interest in being social. Any damages resulting from unwanted communication, and Yahoo could be held liable (well, probably not, but why should Yahoo have to go through all that legal hassle?).
It is my belief that perverts, weirdos, predators, spammers, scammers and flamers abused the member directory so badly that Yahoo had to step in before something “expensive” happened (or something may have already happened that the general public doesn’t know about).
And although Melissa states otherwise, there must be some concern about the impact “Advanced search features” had on Yahoo Presonals. There are MANY lonely people out there who simply cannot afford to join Yahoo personals, so they simply state they are looking for someone on their profiles. With MILLIONS of Yahoo members and only THOUSANDS of Personals members, they may have been losing a substantial amount of possible revenue.
All in all, I believe, that it’s all about for Yahoo is keeping members safe and happy while trying to protect themselves from as much liability as possible.
Let’s face it, we americans are famous for “wanting our cake and eat it, too.” We want a free service (and let’s not forget Yahoo IS free) that protects us as equally as a paid service, while granting us all the options that makes that same protection impossible (or at the very least, extremely difficult). How can Yahoo protect us from ourselves? Well, that’s what they’re trying to do. For FREE.
Hang in there, Yahoo. Keep up the good work.
March 22nd, 2009 at 6:45 am
Do Yahoo employees / contractors get to post too? Just curious.
March 22nd, 2009 at 7:16 pm
I assume so. Why did you post your comment to me specifically?
March 22nd, 2009 at 3:17 am
I think we should be able to do member searches by name, location, and interests.
March 22nd, 2009 at 6:41 am
Classic “If it’s not broken, don’t fix it” logic would have been fine. I’d gladly trade the “upgrade” for the option to access the old directory and search options.
March 22nd, 2009 at 1:46 pm
I’d like to be able to search by a portion of the person’s user name if I can only remember part of it, even if it is not the very beginning of the name. such as if an ID is actually john_doe@yahoo.com, and I can only remember the _doe, I’d like to be able to look up profiles that have any variation of _doe in them, rather than have to have the beginning, john, to actually get any results of any relevance to me.
March 24th, 2009 at 1:53 pm
How would you like to find other members? (ex: search by interests, name, location, etc.) – Location, Gender, Age (e.g. under 18, 18-25, 25-55, etc) Interests and/or keywords. Plus an ONLINE ONLY checkbox **
What information would you want to display in the search results? (ex: full name, nickname, picture, location, etc.) Yahoo ID, picture if available, Full name if OK with user, location age, interests.
** This doesn’t relate to Member Saearch functionaluty but Yahoo Groups used to have a feature that aloowed you to show online members only in the “Member” screen. Some Groups are so big that showing only those currently online would be preferable.
March 24th, 2009 at 1:55 pm
oops, I meant Age (e.g. under 18, 18-25, 25-35, etc.
March 29th, 2009 at 7:11 am
I really liked the way the profiles was before not the way they are now. I t was alot easier to see them . Why can;t we go back to the way they was before?
May 6th, 2009 at 3:07 am
Ok it is all most 2 months later AND we can only search by yahoo ID? Come on, if it is taking a little longer than expected to build a new member directory where we can search by location, interest, school, work, or many of the other categories that we were used to having on yahoo or at any other community site at least give us back the old member directory search! I am just about fed up totally with yahoo, it is not even worth that hassle of trying to find what I am looking, just to find out that it is not there anymore. And more disappointing it is replaced with nothing more than a cheap stand in http://dublin.ebuddy.com/vo7.4.8/main.html
May 17th, 2009 at 4:21 pm
Bring back the old system that was at members.yahoo.com – that was easy to find, easy to use, and very intuitive.
May 18th, 2009 at 9:51 pm
location location location. This includes city state and zip
It is always my highest priority to meet people close by. This worked pretty well before on the member search before it became overrun with spam and was rendered useless.
Interests and usernames are good, as well as books, movies, music. Also possibly religion? and definitely age range.
May 30th, 2009 at 6:37 pm
bamos para hacer coro
un dia de esto
May 31st, 2009 at 12:22 am
Im so sad that 360 is closing down =[[[
my page had like 55,000 page views.
i am going to use Yprofile but there are a few things that i really want it to have cause right now its SO boring!! =[
Okay i really want like a page view thing cuase i like seeing how many page views i get…
*****and i really want to be able to add my personallity to my page like pick the backround and colors and all that stuff.
and also i think it sould have a place on your page for pictures.
thanks please consider these things!
May 31st, 2009 at 6:30 pm
It is sad that you are closing 360 while the new profile system is still a beta version, with lots of problems, aside from being crippled with very limited features, compared with your competitors. Pictures is one big issue. It was a very big mistake to abandon the yahoo albums, in my humble opinion.
Here is one interesting incident with the new profile system:
.
Yesterday I tried the link that Yahoo provided to transfer my 360 blog to my my new Yahoo profile (no suggestion was sent to transfer my 360 connections, though, sadly). Once I made an entry on my blog (in the new profile system), I ended up getting blocked from viewing any profiles on Yahoo, including my own!
As of now, after 24 hours, I still cannot view any profiles at all.
A message pops up telling me that I do not have access to this; that is all it says.
Yahoo profile help replied to tell me that they are aware of this issue, and that the system is still a beta release, and they are working to resolve these issues.
I have never encountered any profile issues with other social networks, and I have never had to re-enter anything all over again, and again, and again!
Closing 360 is your choice of course, but I think you owe it to your customers to make the transition easy, and to make the customers willing to continue with having filled out profiles.
How?
What you can do is to make the transition automatic. In other words, automatically move all the 360 contacts and blog to the new profile.
If the customer approval is needed, then just an email to the customer would do it, with a couple of buttons in the message (something like Yes I approve the automatic transfer, or No I do not wish to transfer).
Closing 360 in the manner you are proposing means every one will have to start all over again adding contacts one by one. Some people have dozens, if not hundreds of family and friends as contacts on their 360. That is a lot of ork to start it all over again.
Now imagine if Facebook, Myspace, and the like had done this to their clients. I bet their client population would drop by at least a half overnight.
Why on earth are you effectively punishing your customers?
Upgrades and enhancements are fine, but don’t let us start all over again from square one every year or so. Get the process automated when the new profile system is stable, not in beta version, and well before closing 360.
Is there anyone hearing us out there on the 50th floor???
Thank you.
June 1st, 2009 at 10:12 am
Why am I getting correspondence in Vietnamese, when I don’t know any Vietnamese and am not in Vietnam?
June 1st, 2009 at 10:17 am
When I try to migrate the 31 pages of my blog, only Page 6 is transferred. Why is that?
June 1st, 2009 at 5:03 pm
ah well I have been on 360 for almost 4 years I love it bec u can meet new ppl been great to share. I am going to miss it I dont understand whyu are closing down though?
June 1st, 2009 at 5:31 pm
cm ne,heee
June 3rd, 2009 at 6:58 am
I have problem with yahoo profile. I liked the way that I was able to make change in my 360 now profile is boring gray I hate this color. Other problem is that my blog is in persian so I write from right to left I can not make that happened in my profile’s blog.What can I do?
June 3rd, 2009 at 11:56 am
Tried to post an entrance on Yahoo blog. Linked images have to be small, or you will see only a part of it. It does not allow music player, it does accept videos, but i never embed videos, anyway.
Garbage.
June 3rd, 2009 at 11:58 am
The question is, how many comments of unhappy people you deleted?
These of mine included?
June 4th, 2009 at 10:07 am
Hi Serafima Glass,
I don’t believe in “masking” the sentiment of our users. If you’re angry, that’s fine. My only requirement is that you don’t attack other users and don’t fill your posts with profanity/obscenities. The only way your comment will be deleted is if you do either of these things– which you haven’t, which is why your other comment is visible.
The answer is none.
-Melissa
June 4th, 2009 at 4:57 pm
I love the new profiles also loves the intergration of the new blooging system you have added to profiles looking great,, its great idea in my eyes at leaste those on our normal360 bloggers can keep intouch with … would be great idea now to allow us all to add nice back grounds as well to our new profiles..
June 4th, 2009 at 5:59 pm
before this I only had problems with my 360.but now thank you guys I also have problem with my profile!!!
June 5th, 2009 at 11:10 pm
WE HAVE TO NEED TO CHANGE THE CRUISE ATMOSPHERE OF THIS WORLD BECAUSE DUE TO SOME ILLEGAL & STRONG COUNTRIES SPREAD THREAT THROUGH THEIR POLICIES AND HARMFULL ARMS ALL OVER THE WORLD.
SO WE NEED TO CREATE SUCH A ENVIRMENT IN WHICH ALL ARE EQUAL AND LEAVE WITH THEIR OWN BEHALFS WITH FREEDOM AND EVERY PERSON MUST HAVE TO SHARE THIER COMMENTS ALL IN ALL.
I INVITE ALL THE PEOPLES WHO WNAT PIECE AND WELFARE IN THE WORLD TO COME AND JOIN MY ” PIECE GROUP ” AND ENHANCE THE PIECE WORLD WIDE.
UMER MURAD KHAN
00 92 300 611 9010
khanbaba96@yahoo.com
June 6th, 2009 at 8:35 am
I want to send some massage to Jerry A but i havent found any adress of her please i request Jerry to send me her email adress by loving me ok hi jerry love me much also i want to connect my yahoo with you please help me ok 6/june /2009
June 6th, 2009 at 8:38 am
just to connect my yahoowith Jerry A
June 28th, 2009 at 12:58 am
I can understand yahoo’s concerns about adult content, however there should be an option like there is on flicker to have a safe search (using all the sections as outlined in the first reply).
Others (whos profiles confirm they are over age) can remove this restriction.
It is essential for groups to be able to attract and find new members, bring back the “interests” sections also.
Allow people to have information they can choose to display (including be searched on). Explain the benefits to them of having this information available to others to see. This will help yahoo as a vibrant group community brings people and raises advertising opportunities.
July 2nd, 2009 at 2:09 pm
Allow people to search under interests and location. Why this has been left off the current build is frankly a mystery. I just moved to a new area and would like to try to get in touch with people around here sharing my interests like with the old yahoo, but now I can only search by real name or user name. It’s ridiculous. Please, PLEASE bring back the old search system. If people don’t want to be searched for then put an option to make their account private, problem solved.
September 6th, 2009 at 2:01 am
Why are we still discussing this? The old version with members.yahoo.com worked just fine. Now I can essentially only look for people I already know…HOW long until you finally fix this? The whole idea behind a directory is to reach out to people you may not know yet…