Ben provides some insight into a new portal. Hmmmm. I'm in agreement about Yahoo. I tend to use my weblog as my main gateway for news, but Yahoo is still the reigning king. Maybe I'll give MyWay a shot too.
I've been frustrated with Yahoo for a long time. I use them for my portal page: news, weather, movie listings, email, bill pay, etc. In the last 6 months, their ads have gotten downright annoying. They pop up. They slide in. They cause my whole machine to sit and wait. They take over my browser. Granted, I'm getting good, free use out of their technology but the intrusions are getting frustrating.
Today, I discovered another portal called MyWay. They bill themselves as “Yahoo without the ads”. I checked them out and sure enough, there are no ads on their site. Not one. Apparently, you can even get rid of their logo at the top of the page.
After using their site for a few minutes, I found myself feeling spooked. Something wasn't right…then it struck me. Nothing was moving. There weren't any cars driving by or servers falling or half-naked people serving beer. There weren't even any offers for cameras to spy on the women that apparently lounge sexily around my house. It was quiet. I could read the news without holding my hand to the screen to block out the blinking ads. I could ponder. I could relax and just enjoy. This is too cool!
So, I'm going to give it a shot. I'm not closing down my Yahoo account. It's just too darn useful. But, for the next week or so, I'm going to try having things MyWay. Hey, if Frank Sinatra did, why can't I?