Comments on: (More) Feedback Needed: Member Search

By: Ray Bob

Ray Bob — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 22:23:34 +0000

Hi Melissa and everyone. I apologize I only read until April and picked back up in June, so this may have already been addressed. Yahoo gave their users the “Private” option. Still, there is some, possibly variable at times, information on that “Private Profile” page. Why could the search not just be stopped at the front door, so to speak? In other words, if the profile is open, then the search engine can parse it. If it hits “Private profile,” it only parses the information on that page. Nobody’s feelings would be hurt and the privacy of those concerned would be respected.

By: jeff

jeff — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 00:13:19 +0000

I read that all this has to do with Yahoo personals. That advanced search was shut down because Yahoo felt they were giving away the same service under Yahoo advanced search. Obviously all the hits you could get from a basic ID search have not been reduced a thousand fold because of members settting thier profiles to private. Certainly technology has not taken a giant leap backwards. If Yahoo has decided it needs to make money on this just have some fee for advanced search but please dont take us for fools. The people that want to use Yahoo personals are not the same as the ones in games and other areas that want to connect but not “date”.

By: Sultan

Sultan — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 22:22:10 +0000

Melissa (and Yahoo staff)
With all due respect, many who are on yahoo or create yahoo profile do want to be discoverable, either by keywords, or location, or demographics, for there are many who want to invite others who share similarities or common interests to connect and build a network, in the same fashion as it has been for years on Yahoo. I understand why many want to stay private and connect only with those who know explicitly their screen names or links. It is their prerogative hence the choice to make it private or not. But that is the key word: choice. If a user chooses not to be private, it goes simply to say they do want to be found. Writing a blog and sharing with others becomes null if no one can read it besides those who know me already, well I’d simply have a newsletter that I’d email with a distribution list or build a Blog in a professional website. But if I am a loyal Yahoo user and wish to stay here I’m constrained and restricted to stay hidden, for not being able to be found by keywords or any other search criteria is indeed the same as being gagged, censored.
Let others search amongst those who don’t mind being discovered. And protect those who wish to be hidden.

Simple as that. The ball in in your court (too bad you just cannot figure out how to handle such privilege)
Too bad. You pushed the term privacy the wrong way.

By: Petra Harris

Petra Harris — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 16:37:33 +0000

How are we supposed to find new contacts, if we cannot search for common interests? I liked the way it was on Yahoo360°.

Will we be able to personalize our pages ? At the moment it looks very sterile. If this new Yahoo won’t improve, I’ll wove elswhere… it’s a shame.

By: Richard

Richard — Wed, 27 May 2009 11:39:55 +0000

now more than ever, with all the people wanting you to add them to your Contacts list, we really need to be able to find out who is asking before accepting or declining. just trying to find a way to search profiles now took too much time.

By: Jeff

Jeff — Wed, 27 May 2009 05:46:30 +0000

Bring back the old style advance member search

By: Joyce

Joyce — Fri, 15 May 2009 16:27:02 +0000

I do not like what you have done to the profiles. I liked the old profiles. The new way sucks

By: Tommi

Tommi — Wed, 13 May 2009 10:58:24 +0000

Search by interest was among the best options yahoo could offer. And very rare too. I could connect with lots of likeminded people with it, so it makes me sad to see it gone. I can’t see why it would be so difficult to make it available again so that people who want to keep their privacy would be able to do so?

By: Brandy

Brandy — Mon, 11 May 2009 05:44:11 +0000

I did not think there was anything wrong with the previous profiles or searching by interest. It seems Yahoo is just like AOL on this one…fixing something that wasnt broken. Privacy is great and should be respected, however there are alot of us who would not mind if someone knew we loved cooking or fishing, etc. If someone searched my interest and sent me an instant message it was my choice to chat with them. I could have put the person on ignore if I wished. I liked the option of searching by interest even if that person wasn’t on my friend list. Yahoo if you want a problem to fix lets start with spamming from bots…not something that helps create friendships and bring people together, which btw is why most of us use Yahoo in the first place. Please bring back the search by interest.

By: Nale

Nale — Sun, 10 May 2009 03:34:25 +0000

I agree with many who stand against this… If a person wishes to remain private, and sets their profile as such, then their profiles should remain unviewable, and they shouldn’t be coming up on searches. But in all honesty people, let’s face it… Yahoo! isn’t the least bit interested in what their customers want… If they were, they wouldn’t have forced this new profile system down our throats, user-created chat rooms would still be around, and all the problems with spammers and BOTs would be non-existant. For Yahoo! it’s easier to just go with their own asinine beliefs on what their customers want, or take whatever ideas customers throw at them and twist them into really bad ideas. I’m sure this post will be deleted soon, but hey… I’m just saying it like it is.