Whoa! Didja get the numbers off that truck?!?

March 04, 2003 - 8:28 p.m.

Yahoo!

If they'd played their cards right, they could have been AOL. They provide a ton of content; they've grown from a little search engine company. Now they've partnered with the company that provides my DSL service.

SBC. The soon to be evil empire (IMHO). They've bought out all the Baby Bells. They're re-combining the entity the Feds sought to break up a long time ago.

So now it's SBC Yahoo!. They bugged me with online ads. They sent me stuff in the mail. "It's easy to upgrade to SBC Yahoo! DSL" they cheerfully implored. "You'll enhance your online experience!" they gleefully crowed. "It's never been easier!"

Okay, I'll bite. I tried it. But I couldn't get far because I didn't have my Master Account info. When I set it up two years ago I never used it.

They had this neat little online chat thing that was supposed to be the alternative to a phone call. I got this bot/guy thing called Raymond. Raymond was very polite and efficient (in an otherworldly sort of way). Raymond helped me reset my password after grilling me for all kinds of information I'd forgotten I'd given away to (then) Ameritech.

It seemed too easy. There had to be a catch. They have their own cute little browser. The web portal for DSL customers is slick looking and pleasing to the eye. The other shoe dropped the next day.

They screwed with my mail server settings. It took awhile to get it figured out. They said "nothing would change", but that's a pretty major change. I could have gotten my mail from the Yahoo! Mail webpage. But I prefer to get my mail and not be bombarded with advertisements. I still have the cute little browser though. It has a nice cartooney look to it.

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