I’ve been interested in starting a blog for months now. When I happened upon Yahoo!’s new 360 approach earlier this week. I decided to jump in. After messing around with 360, I soon became dissatisified with it – no custom url’s, and the typical cartoon-y Yahoo! look and feel. My dissatification was compounded by the fact that I really like to interact with as few internet and computer companies as possible. You see, I currently use Yahoo! a lot. I use them as my default home page. I find phone #’s, and directions with them. I do all my internet searches with them. I choose movies and restaurants by on Yahoo! pages. The thruth is, I honestly believe I am most efficient when I work closely with one site/company/product.
I would say that this is not the norm compared to many. I, for instance, like Microsoft products for the same reason. Many people though, would rather be a little edgy – buck the establishment if you will – going to many different sources for their various needs. Is this better or worse?
It’s all really a second-order-effect, the primary effect should be performance and/or cost. But our decisions are often muddled by some commitment to companies we’ve used in the past. Why should we care commit our affections to such companies?
Perhaps to confirm our past decisions. Or for those of you who have antiestablishment leanings, it more about being unique in supporting the little guy, and avoiding being a contributer to big corporations which have all been evil in America for the last 50 years or more (the facetiousness is intentional here).
So in summary. I’ve defected from Yahoo! on this one, and went with blogger.com. Such instances can be sources of important self-reflection. Now hopefully I can apply this to other things. But I must say that I’m still anxiously waiting at the “gates of microsoft” for whatever slightly-clunky-but-extremely-useful product they let out next.