yahoo versus google
By alice | February 2, 2007
I only joined Flickr about a year ago, so am not one of the people being told to change their login details to a yahoo account as a result of their having been bought. It’s an interesting example of business-badness though: “Do what we say, or you will never see your photos again!”
The fact that they are not ordering much doesn’t make it good that they are ordering in the first place. Minor inconveniences are still inconveniences. Customers put a lot of work into their Flickr accounts, and I can’t see why they should be expected to risk losing all that investment unless they perform a task that benefits the company and not themselves. It isn’t right for a company to force customers to do jobs for their own convenience. In personal life, complying with such behaviour is like wearing a placard round your neck saying “Bully me please”. If there is an instance where it is OK, then perhaps I’ve temporarily forgotten, but surely “buying out a company for millions” can’t be it.
Business-badness is a surprisingly grey area for most of us. The public debate has tended to be about whether governments should control businesses, or whether businesses should be allowed to do whatever they like. This leaves the whole area of good business practice;, ie. whether people in business should understand and pursue decent civilised behaviour like other human beings, mainly up to business itself. I think that’s a mistake; customers benefit from empowering themselves with ideas and information. There are more forms of people-power than votes and trades unions, and that’s a good thing.
But as the internet explodes, more and more people are selling things online, and thinking and caring about customer happiness, which means greater awareness in general. Meanwhile, big businesses online have a whole new kind of power and responsibility that old-fashioned shops didn’t have, something closer to that of landlords. And there is a reason why most people prefer owning their home, if they can afford it, and it’s not that landlords are notorious for being excessively kind and generous to tenants. It’s because they own the place where you live.
I hope yahoo realises its mistake soon and does not continue making similar ones. The last thing we all need is a bunch of actual uncivilised brutes that merely look like men running the internet. Shudder.
Google on the other hand, is good.
more information and hat tip: Media Influencer
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