Yahoo! Testing IM Spam

from the or-are-they? dept

Yahoo instant messenger began testing "system alert" messages this week. Basically, it pops up a little instant messenger box telling you about new features available from the instant messaging software. The News.com article, however, suggests this is Yahoo's way of testing the system to start sending unsolicited ads over messenger. My feelings on this are mixed. I have no problem with the occasional alert that a new version of messenger is available (and I'm pretty sure they've been doing that for years), but if it gets to be ads, then I (and I'm sure tons of others) will get very annoyed. Plus, these particular messages were extremely poorly targeted. They told me about the new webcam feature that is available from Yahoo IM - which I already knew about and had already downloaded the latest version to use. The system should at least recognize that I have the latest version and/or that I've made use of the feature so as not to bug me by telling me about a feature I already know about. Plus, there's no reason that I should have received two of the exact same "system alerts".

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