Yoono Sidebar
It was love at first sight. The first time that I saw the slick design and features of Yoono social integrator for browsers, I fell in love. Yoono is a collapsible side bar extension for Firefox and Internet Explorer. It was quick and easy to install. Within minutes, I had email updates from Gmail, my Twitter stream and Facebook updates, ever so handy to my left. Not only could I view these streams. I could also tweet and send Facebook updates, all from the sidebar. I was head over heels in love. Yoono comes with widgets for:
- Social networking
- Web Notes
- Web Radio
- RSS Feedreader
- Shopping
- Discovering Similar Sites
- Discovering Similar Video
- Discovering Similar Pictures
But, will the love last?
I teach online classes in Web Development and Blogging. I have my Gmail set up to notify me whenever a student posts a question to the message boards or requests an assignment review. I loved that I could set up Yoono so I could see me emails as they came in AND monitor my Twitter stream. I loved that it was so easy to collapse. Whenever I needed more screen real estate, I clicked the arrows at the top left to collapse the Yoono sidebar. I also did this when I really needed to concentrate on what I was doing on screen and didn’t want the distraction. A simple click on the arrow icon brings it back to its expanded view. This was really important on my netbook. I was so excited that I finally found something that worked equally well on small and large screens.
Now my Yoono side bar spends a lot more time collapsed than expanded because it has a new distraction built in. On January 29, 2009, Yoono announced that they were going to be adding ads to their side bar. I understand the necessity of making money, we all need to eat. The issue straining this love affair, is that these advertisements tend to be animated and annoying. Immediately after upgrading my Yoono side bar, I began experiencing headaches. It took me a couple of days to trace the headbacks to the proliferation of animated, sparkly advertisements that are now residing at the bottom on my Yoono side bar. As soon as one of them appears, I have to collapse the sidebar. I complained via their blog and Todd Pringle has vowed to re-evaluate the ads. The last couple of days it has been much better. I have only collapsed the Yoono side bar a couple of times.
Yoono Facebook Panel
But, I also use my Yoono side bar much less than I did a few short weeks ago. Another change in the upgrade was that by default only one panel shows at a time. I tend to keep the email up on Yoono. I rely on Tweetdeck for my Twitter stream now. I will sometimes toggle to Facebook on Yoono when a message comes in via Gmail and I want write on a wall or check on an update. I will also open up the Facebook panel when I want to post a quick update without opening up Facebook proper. You can see some of the other Facebook features that I can access via Yoono, simply by clicking on a friend’s name. I can’t imagine trying to manage more widgets than I have running in the new limited space.
I gave up on Yoono on the small lap top. In the screenshot to the right, the American Express advertisement takes minimal space and is static. It is unobtrusive and I really can’t complain about it. On the tiny 10″ laptop the advertising space takes up over 25% of the sidebar. I used to be able open two panels at once there, but now Yoono can only display a single email and social update. Although I don’t use the tiny laptop as my main machine, I use it when I am out and about and need to stay connected. I really miss Yoono’s features there.
Is this a doomed love affair?
I hope not. I found it so useful in the past, that I would gladly pay a small monthly fee to be able to use the service and turn the ads completely off. Although it is getting better, I still shut down Yoono when a Glitter text and dancing show girl advertisement for a genealogy site came on while writing this post. As frustrated as I am about the annoying ads and reduction in usuable space, I still see the benefit.
Yoono is great for:
People that spend a lot of time online and need to stay on top of their contacts via email, instant messaging and social networks
People that use large screens with few toolbars running in their browsers
People that want to discover multimedia on the web
Are Yoono and I still a match? We will have to wait and see.
Thanks for the info – it looks like a great app – but like you, I don’t want blinkies. Don’t you hate it when they mess with a great product?
Yes I do! This was such a great app for LVS instructors. It made keeping track of multiple classes while researching so much easier. I was already to write this up for the Blogging for Fun, Fame and Fortune students, but took it out of the lesson plan after the upgrade
Thanks for the praise (and critical feedback) Bean. As mentioned on the Yoono blog we want to make Yoono an indispensable tool for our users and part of that process involves listening to everyone. The other part is of course making sure Yoono the company is still around, hence the ads. As I also mentioned in the blog, we’ll be experimenting with several monetization ideas in 2009 and trying to figure out what works best for us and our users. A paid option that is ad free could potentially be part of that experimentation if there is enough interest. I’m glad you are seeing some improvement in ad quality – this will be an area that we continually focus on improving (along with many others).
I hope you stick with us because we’ve got some great improvements coming in the next couple months!
Best,
Todd Pringle
VP, Product Marketing @Yoono
Todd,
I do see the potential in Yoono, even if my enthusiasm has dimmed. I did remove Yoono from my curriculum this last session, but I continue to keeping trying to use it myself. I appreciate your responsiveness to your clients’ feedback. I do feel heard and I am hoping to regain the spark in my Yoono love affair. But please, there is no room in this love affair for the sparkly, blinking text advertisement!
This is very interesting. I want to know what happens! It’s a little like the bridge to Bell’s Bend, if you happen to remember Three Dog’s post on that subject.
Editor’s note- The Bell’s Bend post link is now added to Karol’s name.
I like the way that I am able to have a conversation with the company and with potential customers at the same time. I am betting dollars to donuts that Todd from Yoono found out about this post because I put #yoono in the tweet about this post. Being a responsive business, concerned about people are saying about Yoono, he probably has a search running on Tweetdeck that lets him know when and what people are saying about Yoono. As I said in my comment to Todd, I do feel heard and isn’t communication what a relationship is all about?
Bean,
One other thing I forgot to mention based on your post is that you can still display multiple widgets if you prefer to – simply hold the control key on your keyboard (command key if on a Mac) and click on the widgets you’d like to display together in the thin bar on the far left (i.e. where you normally select widgets to switch “tabs).
Best,
Todd