X

When Web 2.0 (Yahoo Maps) attacks

Yahoo Maps drives Molly batty

Molly Wood Former Executive Editor
Molly Wood was an executive editor at CNET, author of the Molly Rants blog, and host of the tech show, Always On. When she's not enraging fanboys of all stripes, she can be found offering tech opinions on CBS and elsewhere, and offering opinions on everything else to anyone who will listen.
Molly Wood
2 min read
I'll start by confessing my curmudgeon-ness. I can't stand the new "broadband" Yahoo Maps interface. I find it totally clunky, hard to use, and overly graphical--the vast majority of the time I'm using a mapping site, it's to get driving directions that I plan to either print out or send to my phone, and it's usually just to double-check my GPS directions. I'm fine with simple text directions and a nice little map. So it's been fine for me to just click back to the Classic Yahoo Maps interface (since Yahoo frequently forgets my preferences and/or makes me log in half the time I visit anyway). But today, I clicked Classic, and Classic bit back. Witness:

Yahoo Maps' Web 2.0 interface goes horribly wrong
Yahoo Maps' Web 2.0 interface goes horribly wrong Yahoo.com

I don't love that they've made the whole thing all big and clunky and more like the new interface, because I'm sure that it's just an attempt to get me to switch by introducing me, slowly, to parts of the interface. It's the boiling-a-frog approach. But wow. Yeah, I'm really enticed by your fancy new Web 2.0 interface. Especially the part where my saved and recently used addresses pop up all Ajax-awesome underneath your ad. Note: I'm using Firefox, where Yahoo tools have a history of not working properly--which is, of course, even greater incentive to switch to Google. I know, I know, I work at CNET, and I shouldn't cast a lot of stones about interfaces and the like. But seriously, Yahoo. You don't have a lot of edge on Google these days, and free, beloved services like maps and e-mail (and fantasy football) are kind of your only foothold right now. Don't screw 'em up.