Normally we use this space to chat about everything and anything colocation, data center or Cloud. Today though, we need to address a major change taking place over at the once mighty, Yahoo!
Announced on March 5, 2014, Yahoo! has plans in the next 12 months to reverse course on how users sign up for and utilize Yahoo! services like the Yahoo! Fantasy Sports League and the massive photo platform, Flickr. For the past few years, like the majority of online companies, Yahoo! allowed consumers to access Yahoo! based applications through their Facebook or Google ID. The idea is simple: allows users to sign in to an application using the authentication process they wanted.
The announcement on March 5, 2014 changes all this. Coming straight from the head of Yahoo!, CEO Marissa Mayer, will force users to sign into Yahoo! based applications with a Yahoo! ID. On its head, the idea seems pretty straight forward. To use Yahoo! based applications, users will need to be signed up for Yahoo! services through a Yahoo! email account.
On its head, the idea seems pretty straight forward.
And yet, overall, the idea is a bad one. Why? The answer, as Neo so eloquently noted, is choice.
Provide Users with What They Want
The Architect of The Matrix knew the answer. Neo knew the answer. The problem is choice. Choice is the reason the choice by Ms. Mayer to eventually make Yahoo! services open to only Yahoo! users will fail. Let’s get down to this. If you want to use Facebook, you sign up for Facebook. If you want to use Gmail, you sign up for Gmail. If you want to use Linkedin, you sign up for Linkedin.
If you want to use a particular service, you sign up for it. The qualifier is, when you sign up for that service, you give that service access to certain details of your online persona. The reason why Yahoo! forcing users to use a Yahoo! ID will fail is because unless users want to sign up for a Yahoo! email account – unless users want to utilize Yahoo! solutions – they have no need to sign up for a Yahoo! ID account. By denying choice to consumers, Yahoo! is effectively drawing a line in the sand stating either you are with us, or you are against us. There is no way around it. By eventually eliminating the option to use Yahoo! services via Facebook or Google authentication, Yahoo! is forcing users to make a choice for Yahoo! or against Yahoo!
Not only is Yahoo! choosing to make users sign up for a Yahoo! account based on the thought that their solutions are popular enough to make users want to sign up, it is also a choice to turn users against Google and Facebook. The main gamble isn’t if users will sign up for Yahoo! accounts. The main roll of the dice is if users will actively sign up for Yahoo! accounts when they already have Google or Facebook accounts. The gamble is a line in the sand against industry standard authentication.
Will it work? We don’t think so. Like everything Yahoo! touches, nothing ever seems to work out. Is it smart to bet against Facebook and Google? Maybe Facebook. Google though, not a chance.
Good luck Ms. Mayer. We hope you land another cushy job in 2015.