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From the information page on Prodigy's site:
Prodigy Communications, part of the family of SBC Internet Services, has been working hard to improve your membership benefits. Just recently, SBC Internet Services joined forces with Yahoo!® Inc. to bring you a brand new enhanced Internet experience - SBC Yahoo! Dial. We're excited to tell you that the new SBC Yahoo! Dial is replacing your existing Prodigy service.
A number of local ISPs were already integrated into SBC Prodigy a while back, including Pacific Bell, and now Yahoo will have all of those as well. It's starting with dial-up, with broadband to be added some time later in the year.
The current Prodigy start page, which you are literally hijacked into loading when you dial up, will be replaced by a new Yahoo start page. The user ID can be integrated with Yahoo ID, and now instead of the ad-free web pages provided, it will be Geocities pages. Yahoo messenger will also be integrated into the new browser when the new software is installed:
The SBC Yahoo! Dial browser is customizable to suit your specific surfing needs and interests. It comes equipped with an integrated SBC Yahoo! Messenger and lots more.
Seems MSN and AOL will have some stiff competition coming on the scene, with a substantial marketing head-start. This new kid on the block already has a lot of clout with a lot of the same type of market sector.
Prodigy now uses Looksmart (with its Inktomi backfill) as search provider for their internet service subscribers. This could paint a whole new picture with the shuffling around at MSN with guesswork still going on, the recent Google/AOL marriage and the Google/Yahoo renewal looming.
Its interesting to see all these prehistoric names crop up again. Thats not to demean them, they obviously all have a strong group of brand loyal users, but it may suggest we are in a real state of change in the internet indutsry now. Reference also the current thread on Japan and Google's imode service.
Exciting times...
I blinked, checked to see if Sherman-and-I had gone through the Wayback machine, and then realized the world is a wonderous and strange place.
chiyo, I switched from MSN and haven't had a day of trouble since. But I'm not in such a hurry to download the new software. I'll make sure to take usernames and the accompanying web space provided because I can live without Geocities sites. Also, I'm not so sure I want a universal ID with the rest of the Yahoo services, which I use to subscribe to a few groups and email lists. But I'm not looking at it from the personal view, I think it's a major step for a portal like Yahoo to be taking.
Jaze, this is announced in May, and I couldn't find anything on Yahoo's site announcing their ISP service yet, so it's not been announced or marketed to the public yet. There's speculation whether the Yahoo/Google alliance will continue, with the current contract expiration one month away.
What I'm finding most interesting is that MSN competed with AOL with a have-it-all solution, and Yahoo announced several months ago that they were looking to expand into additional types of user services. This seems like a major move to compete against both MSN and AOL in the ISP market by providing the same all-in-one type of easy to use package, emulating AOL's original model.
No doubt they'll market this aggressively, and they already have a base of loyal users. So from their already strong position, who they choose for their search becomes even more significant.
Jaze, this is announced in May, and I couldn't find anything on Yahoo's site announcing their ISP service yet, so it's not been announced or marketed to the public yet. There's speculation whether the Yahoo/Google alliance will continue, with the current contract expiration one month away.
hmmm, you're quite right, there's discussion of this on another thread [webmasterworld.com] which escaped me with all the excitement of having more hits ;). This actually makes me think more seriously that the partnership will not survive between the two... it would certainly add meaning to the phrase 'Google dance' with recent events if it didn't.
Will wait read and see....
I have never stopped using Prodigy over the past 18 years. They offered a web portal before CS or AOHell, and became a full dial-up ISP a couple years later.
Service was never disrupted or declined. The only noticable change was that my prodigy.com email address changed to prodigy.net. Other than that, I have the same experience as any other dial-up ISP can provide, always have, and never experienced "busy signals."
Yahoo!'s got big shoes to fill.
>CD-Rom in every box of Corn Flakes
great quote to start out with :)
Is it just a branded browser, or totally different? How about the start page - do they force-feed you with that?
I haven't installed the software, I just can't bring myself to. It doesn't sound very appealing.
From my point of view I can quite understand why Yahoo might not yet have made a song and dance about it.
There would be rather a lot of training (and sacking) to do before I would let one of those particular companies start talking to any customers of mine :-)
I find vagueness often avoids legal implications :-)
That's what I've done all along, since their start page is apparently hard-coded and you can't change the start page like you normally would. I set up 2 different dial-up numbers and just go into dial-up networking and connect with one of those, which uses the IE start page I designated the usual way.
>How likely is it that most people will ignore the "Just Load Me" instruction?
Not very likely that many won't. I have no intention of installing the new software, I'll continue to use the access I set up by hand. I've also set up the additional 10 usernames so I'll have the email addresses and web space. I don't want Geocities instead of the ad-free Prodigy gave, and I certainly don't want any username@yahoo.com email addresses for regular use. There's so much spam mail coming out of Yahoo daily I'd end up getting blocked, no fault of my own.
If it becomes mandatory to switch I'll change providers.
catfish, I'd set up a connection manually in dialup networking and try to uninstall that software. If there were any trouble doing that, I'd call their tech support for help in uninstalling it. Chances are you'll get a Tier-1 support person who has no idea how so they'll say it can't be done. In that case, I'd insist on talking to a Tier-2 or Tier-3 person or a supervisor.
I used to use Demon as an ISP here in the UK and was always forced to connect using an ugly piece of software called Turnpike. I didn't ask for it to be installed, but it was anyway. If you connected without it, your connetion was refused.
I may be wrong, but I thought Microsoft were taken to court because they bundled IE and Outlook Express with their software, apparently "forcing" users to use IE and Outlook Express, even though Netscape and Eudora could be installed and used very easily indeed.
Shouldn't it be the case that these ISP's are taken to court too? I mean, I use Trillian as my IM software, I don't want Yahoo! Messenger installed on my machine. Although if I sign up with SBC Yahoo Dial, thats exactly what happens.
I don't want MSN Messenger installed either, but a number of ISP's here in the UK install it automatically without asking when you use their cover disc. That, or Netscape, AIM, ICQ, AOL Browser...you see where I'm going. :)
If I'm way off, then I apologise, but it just looks like one rule for Microsoft (however much you hate them) and one rule for everyone else.
