Wow! Yahoo!
A little less than two months ago, I wrote a post about the trap Yahoo! had set for us on their homepage. In “Access Liability on the Internet” (December 1, 2009), I discussed the new dynamic Yahoo! page with roll-over features which automatically display “quickviews” of different subjects. While flashy and exciting webdesign, I was troubled by disclaimers that appeared on the QuickView panes (“This content may come from external websites and may not conform to your laws. You are fully responsible for your access to and use of this application and content.”). It worried me that it was so easy to access difficult to avoid accessing information that Yahoo! then disclaimed, placing the liability on the user.
But I worry no more! I visited the Yahoo! homepage today and discovered that they have changed the functionality somewhat. Now instead of automatically opening the QuickView pane, hovering your mouse over the topic causes the site to offer the option of opening the QuickView, which you then have to click to accept. You may read about how this works by clicking here, or just go to Yahoo! to see for yourself. Also, for those of you who enjoyed the automatic QuickView display, never fear: you can change your default setting to automatically display the QuickView pane if you’d like.
It’s not often that I am impressed by a company’s response, but Yahoo! has done it. Cheers!
Yes, I know, Erica: I’m a lawyer.
