Yahoo bows to people pressure

1999-07-04

After a not-so-long-running dispute, Yahoo has finally agreed to the demands of its Geocities users. Following Yahoo’s acquisition of Geocities, the organisation attempted to enforce its own terms of service on the many thousands of Geocities homestead owners. It may have expected a backlash, but it certainly didn’t anticipate the scale.

Considering Yahoo’s Web heritage, this lack of foresight on Yahoo’s part is remarkable. First off, Geocities existed (and, indeed, continues to do so) on the back of its user community. To fail to consult the community which is the very reason their for existence might be considered folly. To attempt to take away from this community, what could easily be considered as a online right, starts to defy belief. Secondly, let’s think about what Yahoo were attempting – to gain copyright over the individual Geocities Websites. It is difficult to imagine a scenario where the wealth of site owners would agree to this.

It should be noted that the principles behind the two organisations – Geocities and Yahoo – are very different. Yahoo is a portal organisation, letting its users access services at the cost of enduring banner ads and spam. Geocities is a hosting organisation, providing free facilities to its users with the cost (in advertising) borne by individuals browsing the sites. Clearly, one does not easily map the Geocities model to that of Yahoo. A fact that Yahoo is learning to its cost.

Yahoo is still not giving in, not fully – it has left the door open for more battles in the future. Ultimately, this is a lesson in net power – one which all organisations intending to exploit the Internet would do well to take note of.

(First published 4 July 1999)