Does reading my blog affect your perception of Yahoo?

I've been a reader for awhile.. over a year. dunno how long exactly.

You have helped my perception of yahoo for the better. You provide a view into what's going on behind the curtain, and show that there are people that think and care there (not that I wouldn't have believed that before, but you make it more tangible).

1. Yes
2. No
3. No

Though it may add a very slight human edge to a corp. Im in favor of that generally speaking, blogs are a good way to remind people that behind companies are..... PEOPLE heh heh..

So maybe no.2 *could* be Yes, but I dont really think so..

I've become a regular reader of your blog. However, it's only been for about 2-3 weeks now, and only recently did I realize you were an employee of Yahoo's. I use BlogLines (online RSS reader), and it suggested your blog. I saw the most recent post and enjoyed it, so I subscribed.

So to truthfully answer, no, it hasn't changed my viewpoint. Give me a few more months and ask again, I may have a different answer ;)

1. I am a regular reader. I read it via RSS.
2. I think reading it has changed my perception of Yahoo!. I have gone several times to the yahoo site after reading about a new feature on your blog that I wouldn't have known about before.
3. I think it's changed for the better. For me the blog posts about yahoo let me know about new things, and have a point of view that I would not have without it.
4. You're not paid to say the things you say, that's not to say that you're going to trash them, but you don't have to say anything at all, so when you do say something it's worth investigating, since you have an inside track...sorry if this sounds rambly.

1. I've been reading for a long while (multiple years, unsure how long exactly). I used to read by bookmark, now I read by RSS.

2. Yes!

3. I no longer view Yahoo as a big dotcom vault of soul-less programmers.

4. You provide honest commentary on all sorts of things, including your employer. I actually look forward to your new posts and ideas and even the personal stuff like house purchasing. It's a little weird.

1: Yes. I read via RSS and then the full articles if they sound interesting. The Web 2.0 Coverage rocked.

2: Yes

3: It's changed Yahoo from being 'just' a web frontend to an unknown black box into a company that actually has goals, does things and has someone who actually cares working there. It rehumanises the services.

4: You talk about ideas, developments and listen to (and seemingly seek out) feedback. I don't use Yahoo on a daily basis for anything except yahoo groups but just having you talk about the company, in between other great content, keeps in my mind. It makes it an option in a way that MSN, despite all the MS bloggers who don't actually talk about MSN, just isn't.

I've read it for a long time now, and it has changed my opinion of Yahoo. Now I know there are not a few moronic people working there! :-P

Seriously, it made me think Y might actually be a fun and exciting and cool place to work. You give an impression of important debates happening within the company, and individuals striving to "bore from within" despite the fact they work in the boiler room of a large passenger liner. That's an important counterweight to Yahoo's general reputation for stodginess, and I think an important reason for larger companies to accept employee blogs. Oh, and your blog gives me reason to believe Yahoo does not fire people for blogging. :-)

Yes, I've come to think of yahoo as more of a "good place to work" for Americans.

1. Yes (began with your post on logging Apache to MySQL)
2. No - This is only one viewpoint into Yahoo. While it is interesting and educational, it is only one opinion. I come here more for the occassional MySQL tidbit and general interest from a technology perspective. MS blogs, on the other hand, have changed my perception of Microsoft due to the shear number of people openly blogging about the internals of Microsoft. Whereas MS is generally seen as the "evil empire", I always saw Yahoo as more of a friendlier entity for some reason...

1. Yes, I've been reading you at least through RSS for awhile now.
2. Why would it change my perspective of Yahoo!? The fact that you work for Yahoo! isn't even apparent in 90+% of what I've been reading/remembering. Scoble hasn't change my perspective of MS (except for reinforcing the fact that it's a cool company to work for, but I already knew that. :-P )
3. N/A
4. Well, reading your blog doesn't associate _in my mind_ _with the company of Yahoo!_. But that's me. Then again, comparing you to the counterpart for MS of Scoble, again, I'm not making a direct association of Scoble to MS.

Do I have issues with Yahoo!? Certainly. Is it Jeremy's fault? Nope.

Do I have issues with MS? Certainly. Is it Scoble's fault? Nope.

I take your feed. Your coverage is excellent. No it does not change the prespective of Yahoo.
As part of HUMANITYv2.0, I am all for Peeps like you and other Evangelists to keep blogging away. It is impreative that Yahoo encourages and treats the human voice (yes...yours, mine, otherS who commented here, as value added propositions). How Yahoo uses it, is best driven from the community. We will react, whether it be good or bad, We'll Talk. Yahoo needs to understand that, get down from that ivory tower and listen. Our Grasp is well over Yahoo's reach. Deal with it !! The faster they Impower users like you (et al) and listen to US, will you and Yahoo be able to sustain true value alignment with its users. If you want more on my thoughts, read my ClueTrain Manifesto.

I've also only recently started reading, but my perceptions of yahoo have changed a little. I hadn't visited yahoo (other than groups) for at least two years before starting to read here, but lately I've been exploring some of the new features, particularly of search.

1. Yes, little over a year, web page and/or RSS depending on location
2. Yes
3. A little human interest "behind the scenes". Granted, I don't work for Yahoo! or anything, so in all reality this may be a massive Yahoo! "scheme" to provide that look, but overall I very much so doubt that ;)
4. Why...is hard to phrase. Before I knew nothing, and to this day I don't really frequent Yahoo. I don't like the clutter... but in the same sense, this is coming from a guy with a black/white homepage with a bunch of frequented links and a few things that pull data from other places, not a full-fledged web portal.

I started reading your blog when you were quoted on mysql.com a while back. Not the last recent quoting, but further back. I browsed around a bit, and overall enjoyed it. It's all to the point, and at times "agressive" enough to prove that you're not catering to your employer here. The fact that you ignored anything election-related were bonus points for me to.

I guess I keep coming back because of A) unique job, unique postings that not many others can post about B) general honesty (from my view) C) things that spike my interest.

How it changed my perception of Yahoo? Well, not really, other than I now think it might be worth visiting despite the obscene amounts of clutter around.

1. Yes, I read your blog daily.

2. Yes.

3. I didn't think much of the company before reading your notes. Now, I feel that there are some serious thinkers and Love Cats over at the Yahoo camp.

4. The information here is insightful. There's isn't much thinking going on in most I.T. shops. I hear the thinking.

1. Are you a regular reader of my blog?

Yes.

2. Has reading it changed your perception of Yahoo?

Yes.

3. If you answered yes to question #2, how has it changed?

I think what you've been able to help me learn is that Yahoo isn't just a big USCorp™ that's out to just make money. You make it seem like a great place to work, in spite of the fact that it has become more like a USCorp™ than it was back 'in the day'.

4. If you answered yes to question #2, why does reading this affect your perception of Yahoo? If you answered no, why not?

Plain, simple comments. Insightful comments on industry wide interests, as well as internal issues. Transparency.

Thanks, keep it up.

I would say it hasn't changed my preferences either way. It may be something to do with your style of writing. For instance, my perception of Microsoft has changed a LOT in comparision by reading Scoble. But then I guess that is Scoble's job.

So, unless your function at Yahoo is to change/affect their perception, I guess it makes no difference. I still read your blog for the general tech stuff.

1. Yes, don't recall for how long. I generally read via RSS and click through on summaries that look interesting (which is most posts).

2. Not really.

3. NA

4. I suppose your blog has not changed my perception because much of what you describe (about your work) occurs at most large companies to varying degrees. I find the detail related to Y! very interesting but it doesn't (or hasn't yet) drive my opinion.

It's important to note that reading your blog has provided an opportunity to build a perception of you, starting pretty darn high on the "good" scale and steadily moving up over time. Most large companies have a few smokin' workers and I would have expected the same of Y!. If you ever get fired for blogging, that will change my perception of Y!. ;-)

1) Yes
2) Yes
3) I generally ignore Yahoo, but occassionally learn about Yahoo is doing something interesting here. Generally speaking, I have a more informed and more favorable opinion of Yahoo as a result.
4) Information

1. Yes (even though you're NOT a regular publisher).
2. Yes.
3. For the worse.
4. Other companies keep a "leash" on their bloggers. Not here. Does Yahoo really think that a prima donna self-righteous know-it-all who routinely spews insults is an asset to their company?

1. I've been reading this blog regularly since the introduction of RSS for MyYahoo It was the first feed I added to my page, before that I knew about it but read it infrequently.

2. It has changed my perception of Yahoo significantly.

3. I do not use yahoo for search. Nor finance, news, or shopping. I use MyYahoo, TV and movie listings, email, and RSS. The addition of RSS to MyYahoo is the biggest change I've noticed at Yahoo in years, and I think it is a pretty big deal, but without reading this blog I would think that with that exception Yahoo was really stagnating. From this users perspective there have been few significant changes or innovations coming out of Yahoo for ages.

4. This blog lets me know otherwise. The picture you paint of Yahoo is much more dynamic than the view from my angle. That's not really the reason I read, but it is an effect of my reading.

1. Regular for about a year now
2. Yes
3. My previous view of Yahoo! was that it was a fading star going without so much as a sound. Now I can see there is actually some innovation going on over there.
4. The comments about upcoming changes, or ideas from within the company provide great insight into the "behind the scenes" work that we don't see. I would have never even heard about many of the changes and additions at Yahoo! if it weren't for this blog.

Are you a regular reader of my blog?
- Somewhat regular, yes

Has reading it changed your perception of Yahoo?
- no.

If you answered yes to question #2, why does reading this affect your perception of Yahoo? If you answered no, why not?
- you are not Yahoo, you are just someone working there. I see this blog as Jeremy Zawodny, not a reflection of the company Jeremy Zawodny works for. Although, when you talk specifically about stuff at Yahoo! it makes me a little uncomfortable (not sure that's the right word) for your employer because it doesn't really seem clear exactly how cool they are (or are *not*) with you doing this. Might be nice to spell out those parameters a little better someday for your readers.

You mentioned recently here I believe that part of your new job was blogging, so one must presume Yahoo! is cool with everything (or at least most things) happening here.

1. Regular for 2+ years
2. Yes
3. Given me a more favorable view of Yahoo due to the increased transparency to the various changes happening on the various portal pages.
4. Also, increased goodwill in my mind to see the freedom & flexibility they offer employees like you to explore new directions.

1. Yes, RSS.
2. Yes.
3. Hard to say. Yahoo! got a more personal touch. I feel like I know more of what goes on at Yahoo! getting to know the company better.
4. Maybe the cluetrain manifesto was right after all ;) This is a conversation, this is a real voice. This is somebody I can related to. Maybe that's why I "trust" you.

1.) Yes
2.) No
4.) Not that big a yahoo user.

1. Are you a regular reader of my blog?
Yes

2. Has reading it changed your perception of Yahoo?
Yes

3. If you answered yes to question #2, how has it changed?
For the better. In fact, quite a few times, the comments have helped more than the posts themselves in lending a different view of Yahoo.

4. If you answered yes to question #2, why does reading this affect your perception of Yahoo? If you answered no, why not?
Like Oliver says, maybe because we "trust" you :-)

1. Yes
2. No
3. N/A
4. I don't really associate people with the companies they work for. Besides, you don't seem to do much corporate cheerleading. If you did, it would probably negatively influence my view of yahoo.

By the way, before believing anything you read here, you might want to listen to this presentation in which the speaker basically says that the way you have asked this question is going to drastically affect the responses you get.

1. Yes, I'm a subscriber.

2. Yes.

3. Before, it was much more like a dinosaur to me, slow-moving and therefore uncool. Now, it seems like Yahoo! is doing some interesting stuff. I'm not sure this is only because of my reading you, might also be because of perspective I've picked up in other places.

4. Hard to say. For one thing, transparency is a good thing. Let us know you are thinking about things. Also, honest criticism of yourself and others is a good thing.

"Are you a regular reader of my blog?"
Yes , every day.

"Has reading it changed your perception of Yahoo?"
Yes

"If you answered yes to question #2, how has it changed?"

It's made Yahoo cool again (and more human).

"If you answered yes to question #2, why does reading this affect your perception of Yahoo? If you answered no, why not?"

Late 90s, Yahoo looked like it was turning into yet another faceless corporate media company, like AOL. The blog puts a human side on things, and made me realise that a serious amount of really cool stuff is going on at Yahoo. In pure "i'd love to work there" stakes , it's now a toss up between Google and Yahoo for me. Previously, it was just Google.

1. Yes
2. Yes
3. Definitely in a good way :-)
4. It's always cool to know there are people behind all that staff. It's nice to see somebody is thinking very seriously about services he offers. As somebody above mentioned, yahoo became more "human" for me.

1) obviously yes.
2) yes it does
3) well, I would say it gives me the insight of a major corporate webcompany and possibly makes it policies more readable and sensible. It gives me the feeling Y! is not some sort of obscure evil company disconnected from its users. Thanks for that. You might be one reason why I prefer Yahoo over Google in many way, feedback/insight is definitly a good thing when you intend to provide lambda users (like I am) tools for their iLife. And in an other hand, I think it greatly increase my will to work for a company like Y!.

1. Yes.
2. Yes.
3 & 4. Yahoo! for a while seemed like it was just going to be another dot com, and wasn't going to be special. You've been able to present some insight into the company, as well as put a face on Yahoo!. All in all, I appreciate more what Yahoo! does, and where it's going, and as for me, the company is that much cooler. For these reasons, I am happy using Yahoo! for various services, and will continue to keep happy with using Yahoo!.

1. Yes
2. Yes
3. I now think of Yahoo as a leading tech company, and one that has a lot of smart people at it. I never thought that before. I'm not sure how I thought of them before.
4. Like other people said, it humanizes everything. Where before you saw just a big corporation, now you see people. That makes a big difference. I now view Yahoo as a company I might like to work for. I'll have to get the courage to move to california first though.

1: Yes

2/3/4: Yes -- I thought of Yahoo as Internet-lite, and you've pointed out some great features and some really smart people working there.

1) Yes.
2) Yes.
3) It makes me think of Yahoo as more of a cutting-edge company, and not just a relic of the 90's.
4) I see that they are involved in new and interesting work, like what Jeremy talks about.

I don't think that your writing here affects my perception of Yahoo in a negative way whatsoever. In fact, I rather enjoy it when I read your complaints about how something is not right at your company. But it's your job that you're writing about. Sure, you happen to be employed by Yahoo, but I seem to forget that when I'm reading one of your Yahoo rants.

On the flip side, I absolutely love it when you share with us some of the new products and features on the horizon at Yahoo. Getting an insider's perspective on that type of thing is priceless.

So to sum it all up, I suppose that this blog only makes Yahoo look better in my eyes.

1. Yes
2. Yes
3 and 4. I think it has improved my opinion of Yahoo as a whole. For a while I considered Yahoo as the place where advertisements go to annoy me. Now there of course are still annoying advertisements there, but somehow I feel more tolerant of them knowing that someone I am familiar with and has some knowledge which I respect works there. You have mentioned your work there often and I obviously don't know you, but I can't think of Yahoo any longer without thinking, hmm, that's where Jeremy works. So your willingness to share your personal and professional life on this page has made me think of yahoo in a new light, as a place where someone might want to spend a good portion of their waking hours.

Jeremy--

I'm a grad student in a non-CS science (well, sort of... I am doing some computational lingustics now, but that's not _really_ what I do). I've always been a tech-y alpha geek type, and my social circles include many of the same. My passion for language won out over my various tech loves, though, and so I do psycholinguistics professionally while I live the bleeding-edge-of-the-good-bits-of-tech life vicariously through blogs like yours.

I've taken to writing to friends who are still undergrads and exhorting them to do all of the cool things that I sort of wish I could do (but not enough to have done them instead of what I do now).

The point of the exposition is that, until recently, I've been telling my friends "go work for the ximian guys at novell" and "I bet google would be alright". As a result of reading your blog (and, to be fair, the kickass rss integration you guys are rolling out) I recently wrote to my friend Tao (the best-potential-hire and my favorite of the lot), simply saying

"Apply to Yahoo. They are cool again, and worthy of your time."

If you're lucky enough to get him, one of you is flying me out to vist ;)

/au

(originally posted to the wrong thread... sorry!)

1. Yes

2. Yes

3. My perception of Yahoo! has improved.

4. Because I believe there is at least one very cool person who works at Yahoo! (Though probably more than one.)

1.yes
2.no

(forgive me if I repeat anything; I've deliberately not read the other comments)

1: Yes.
2: Yes.
3: For the better. I would now consider using Yahoo services.
4: Before reading your blog, Yahoo seemed to be a big clueless portal with little technology of their own - search outsourced to Google, Altavista, or something, but rebranded and filled with spammy links that I'd never click. In short, it seemed aimed solely at management types who needed a starting point, rather than technical people who were really only there for that edit box and 'search' button.

1. Yes, I'm a regular reader, through an aggregator.
2, I wouldn't say that I had any particularly strong ideas about Yahoo before I started reading your blog (which I started reading after buying your book)... but it's definitely given me a positive impression of Yahoo.
3. As I said, I've changed from little-to-no perception to positive :)
4. It's changed my perception because it provides some insight into at least some of the inner workings. I think the biggest factor is that I can see from the outside that there are people inside who really are working hard and creatively to produce something good, to make something that is truly useful to us users (having been a developer for years, I know how much work it takes to make something that is really useful).

1. Yes

2. Yes

3. It made me reconsider whether Yahoo might have added interesting enough functions/simplified its interface enough that I might want to go there (which I hadn't for years, basically since Google launched). I found that things had improved in both areas, but the interface is still to complex to make it worth my time. My impression frankly is that it's complexity is there to suit Yahoo more than me.

4. Hey, if I know that someone is there, is trying to get it right and cares about improving the service I'm happy to come back from time to time and see if it meets my needs. No amount of official corporate language, through whatever channel, is ever likely to achieve that. Canned phrases like "We are very excited about these enhancements and we look forward to continuing to leverage the Yahoo! Network to provide compelling integrated features" just convince me that the audience for the Yahoo search blog is not me.

1) Yes
2) Yes
3) A better insight into what Yahoo is up to and offering.
4) A better impression of Yahoo; a willingness to re-evaluate Yahoo products and services.

PS Paging up through the earlier comments I guess I see a theme to the effect that Yahoo needs to be represented by/benefits from being represented by a personality. Once upon a time that might have been Jerry Yang, but I heard him speak recently and while he came across as a really, really nice guy he also seemed at that moment like a really nice mostly retired guy.

1. Yes
2. Yes
3/4. My impression of Yahoo had been a company that transformed from an internet startup into a "consumer entertainment" company, with all of the old metaphors of feeding mass-produced content to passive consumers. Your coverage of RSS, blogging, and web services leads me to think that Yahoo might be open to more interesting and innovative work.

1. Are you a regular reader of my blog?
Yes

2. Has reading it changed your perception of Yahoo?
Yes

3. If you answered yes to question #2, how has it changed?
I get a more human face/screen to Yahoo as a complete organisation. You also give us a an insight into some of the thoughts, ideas and reasons behind what Yahoo does.

4. If you answered yes to question #2, why does reading this affect your perception of Yahoo? If you answered no, why not?
Hmm, I think I answered that one.

1) yes
2) yes
3) I have a more positive outlook on yahoo because of your weblog and the Yahoo searchblog.
4) An observation: The Yahoo searchblog links to your website (that's what caused me to visit your website regularly) and a variety of other sites including Google's weblog. Google doesn't link to the competition like searchblog does. One conclusion: Yahoo is more open than Google.

On a personal level. Your article about Ubiquity and the reasons for Google, eBay, and Amazon's success inspired me to come up with my own ideas about how one website I'm working on could succeed. I emailed a friend the link to your article and his company's content filter blocked the article. The filter must have had a problem with "kicking a--"

After reading the article about Ubiquity, I have thought about what possible ideas you are probably pitching at Yahoo for spreading the wealth and opening up databases. I can speculate where Yahoo is headed.

One idea: movie trailers available as RSS enclosures. No more waiting in front of screen for them to download.

One last thing: thanks for the Friday Savings Time idea.

1. No

so, no, no and no! But I will read on :)

1. Yes
2. No
Why Not: What you tell me as a person is interesting. I'm reading your opinion and your stories. Yahoo is just part of the context.

Long time reader:

2) It hasn't changed my perception of Yahoo!
3) n/a
4) I always thing of references to Yahoo! as references to "the company that I work for"--in other words, I view them as relevant, but not germane.

I started surfing Yahoo! in 1994 with Mosaic to check "what is new on the Internet today?"

It didn't take long until it was impossible to keep track of EVERYTHING new, so it had to do to check everything new just in the categories that interested me most.

Of course it didn't take long until I couldn't keep track of even everything new that interested me most. About then was the time I loved Yahoo! most. It's pretty much been a decline since then as Yahoo has grown thus becoming more and more impersonal and less and less "homy".

Enter your weblog.

It's reintroduced a human face association to the company which I've missed since the days when I associated Yahoo with Jerry Yang's bedroom.

Getting an insight to what is going on behind the curtains strengthens the bonds with the company, and is always a good thing. I think you should get a pay raise from Yahoo because you help building the Yahoo spirit. :-)

1 no-- i read your books, and come across this occasionally when looking for mysql stuff

2 no

4 because my main image of yahoo is due to it's seeming unwillingness to support Macs.

1:Yes; 2:Yes; 3:Improved; 4:
I don't use Yahoo for search (because I think the other option is better). I hate reading Yahoo news stories because I know the links won't last (why?!?!). At a previous job, I had extensive dealings with Yahoo!Store that were.. unsatisfactory to say the least. Yahoo Messenger? Crap. I generally don't like Yahoo. The fact they let you write the things you write on your blog is one of the few redeeming facts about the company, in my opinion.

Improved, and it's all your fault!

B-)

Your blog often changes my perception of Y! (mostly positively :), even though i've worked there for over three years. Thank you, and keep up the good work.

1. Yes
2. Yes and No
3 + 4. Yes, perception of Yahoo as a company is now more personable. We, the users, have an "in". No, perception of Yahoo, the search engine, has not changed. I still use both it and Google to correlate loosely or vaguely linked items in searching for things/people.

1) yes
2) yes
3) For me yahoo changed from a site to a product of humans. Though it might be logical that it's made by humans of course i never really realized it till i read about humans working there ;) (i still don't use yahoo though, because i don't really care about search engine choice, they're all quite similar)
4) computers don't write blogs ;)

1) Somewhat. I often come across your blog when I search for things.
2) Definitely, in a positive way.
3) I like Yahoo more. Yahoo feels more like a group of cool people doing cool things, rather than some faceless corporation.
4) Reading your blog helps me peer inside Yahoo and understand what's going on. Your blog also shows me ways that Yahoo is really trying to improve its services. Finally, I LOVE seeing how the technical aspects of Yahoo work. As a fellow developer, seeing how you do things really helps me empathize with and like what Yahoo does.

Best wishes!