Hey Yahoo! 99.9% Uptime Isn’t Good Enough

For nearly an hour this morning I tried accessing my Yahoo! Mail account without success. I thought my iPhone, and then my laptop was the cause. But I was able to get into GMail easily. Hotmail was ready. AOL was as simple as tapping my mobile screen. Sadly, Yahoo failed.


A quick social search on Google and Twitter revealed it wasn't just me having issues accessing the website. The comments were pouring in by the tons about the problem. Perhaps this tweet said it best:





That's right folks, Yahoo, Inc. is laying off nearly 700 employees today from the US locations (Washington Post 12/14/2010). Two weeks before Christmas. Employees will be notified upon arriving at work and will be asked to leave the premises immediately (D: All Things Digital 12/13/2010).

happy holidays from Yahoo!

Please note: this comes just weeks after reports of Google planning 10% pay raises across the board in the new year (ComputerWorld 11/11/2010).


Look, I know business is just that - business. Nothing personal. And without knowing the details of the severance package, I really can't hold a grudge against the iconic company. But I can be ticked off that my Yahoo Mail was down!


What happened? Did you fire the guy who's in charge of the server when he walked into the door? Bad things can happen that way. Next time, wait until the end of the day and buy him flowers, give him chocolates, present a bottle of wine and a box for his belongings. Then send him a boat load of money and tell him bon voyage only after you've hired and trained his less experienced but cheaper replacement.


When the site finally loaded in my browser window, here's what they had on the homepage:

Were you trying to tell us something? C'mon people! Please say the editor was asleep at his desk when this was approved for today's news banner. 

its good to see you runningman

Layoffs happen. I volunteered for one last year at AOL. I loved working at AOL for six years and I still have immense respect for my former colleagues. Also, CEO Tim Armstrong DOES look like superman! AOL was upfront and communicated to their employees that layoffs were coming. They offered a pretty good package as incentive to voluntarily leave.  Or employees could take their chances on having a job in the New Year.  Good move, AOL.


Yahoo, what are the lessons learned today?  This, if you are a major public corporation and big time player in the online search, portal and global internet service business, 99.9% uptime isn’t good enough. Yahoo is now my text book example that the .1% chance of your services going offline could occur at the worse possible moment.


Or perhaps they themselves had too much egg nog at last night’s party?

was this posted before or after your announcement?

Best,
Parker