Flutterby™! : Yahoo survey

While I'm ranting on stuff. Yesterday I went to Yahoo Maps to check directions. I use three Yahoo services, Maps, People Search, and whatever their email list service is, but I only ever use the email interface, so I don't know.

I use Yahoo Maps when I'm in a hurry, because I don't have to jiggle the zoom bar when portions of the map fail to load like I do on Google Maps. That is, I did, but I tried pulling it up on a browser where my cookie to use the old style maps wasn't in place, and by the time their new-fangled Flash-based player had finished loading, I'd checked with other sources, gotten everything together to get out the door to my destination, and was shutting down the computer.

So this morning there's a little pop-up (and people using DHTML to break my browser interface, like those stupid psuedo-windowing image zoom pop-ups that are trendy right now, is another rant, but I'll let that slide for a moment) asking if I want to take a survey to improve my Yahoo experience. Sure! It's my chance to maybe tell them why they're fucking up their mapping service, could improve their people search, and could make me give a damn about their web search.

No dice. It's all about what sort of products I'm looking to buy when I'm using their web site.

This is why I snicker at the Cluetrain guys, not because I don't want the world to be that way, but because if smart companies are still treating me like a stupid commodity, then most consumers must be stupid commodities, to be passed from shill to shill while cheap crap is foisted upon them.

Or maybe the Cluetrain really doesn't stop at Yahoo, and their business would be improved by caring how they can improve my experience at their site, not just the experiences of their advertisers. I guess time will tell.