Dubai: UAE residents who use Yahoo services have mixed reactions on hearing of the multinational technology giant being sold to Verizon. Some say they are sad while other believe that it would further improve online services.
The email and multi-purpose online service has spread from its roots in Sunnyvale, California across the world, including the UAE.
On July 25, 2016, Yahoo!, an internet way-post guiding many into the age of internet just over 20 years ago in 1995, was purchased and signed into a deal with American telecommunication giant Verizon, making the first quarter of 2017 the 21-year old site’s last.
Gulf News spoke to UAE residents who have been using Yahoo! over the past few years and asked them what they thought of this change.
Ana Rivera-Ismael
Ana, 40, who works in protocol at a Dubai-based hotel said she has been a Yahoo user for almost 20 years.
When she first saw the email from Yahoo! requesting an account update, which was made with the merger in mind, she “thought it was spam, but later learned it was real”.
Having used it for just about everything, up to and including its utilities as a news provider, mail delivery system and even as a messenger, Ismael had a history with Yahoo! “It was all done with that email” she said; Ismael believes that moving on would be both “inconvenient” and “difficult after using it for so long”.
Monica Hany, Egyptian-Canadian
Monica, 18, and a future finance student, has had her Yahoo account for five years.
“I’ve had it since I was 13, and it was only for email and messenger use at the time” Hany said.
“It was a very user-friendly site, and I really liked it”.
Having only recently lost her password, Hany moved on to G-mail for her needs; however, she still thinks that the Verizon integration could be considered a “very welcome upgrade”.
Airin Ellazar, Philippines
Airin, 32, is an accountant who has been using Yahoo! since 2005.
It was a common enough beginning: Ellazar used Yahoo!’s messenger system, bringing together people in a way that, for the time, was as good as it gets; what was essentially her first and only go-to online service, Ellazar said that even when other services like Outlook and G-mail came along, she “never moved away”.
“When I started, it was just a messenger I could use to speak to my friends, then, before I knew it, I was using it for email, transactions and daily life.”
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Salma Ali, Pakistan
Salma, 31, is a creative designer who has had a Yahoo! account for over 15 years.
“I find it very easy to use, even on mobile; it’s great for email and has good storage space,” Ali said, “I’ll be sad to see it go.”
Ali said that she’ll miss the news service most of all, saying that she loved the news notification system. “It kept me grounded in real-world events and rooted in reality, which is nice to do without having to go social media diving,” she said.
When all of them were asked what service they’d move on to with Yahoo! gone, most answered that G-mail would be their fall-back, with some consideration for Outlook.
