Yahoo! Crap, It's Time To Move Your Yahoo Domains!

Pssst! Here's a secret that you'll probably, unfortunately find out the hard way. Effective July 2008, Yahoo Domains (a Yahoo Small Business service) will cost you $34.95 to renew!

Ahem, time to start your moving plans. I'm not sure who's at the helm of this section of the Yahoo morass of services, but it sure seems like an episode of "Lost".

Sorry, my beloved Y! if you didn't get it, I'll point it out to you. Your domain services have nothing, zippo, zilch, nada, better to offer than other Registrars, except your great pricing. We all know there are cheaper ones, but I didn't really like the idea of my credit card details sitting on some server from God knows where..yeah, Y! had some trusted name going for it too.

So it was really just great pricing...until July 2008 of course. After which, you're up in the Network Solutions price range, which I'm also a longtime customer of. I can tell you this, as far as domain management and customer service goes, Netsol blows you out of the water. Fact is, I suffered through that really simplistic and difficult Yahoo Small Business interface...once again, only because I got what I paid for. Bargain price = bargain features and service. So I bit my lip and kept those words that can't be uttered here sealed.

You know, there's another utterly crapola aspect of this. You won't find this information anywhere...all you see is that carrot stick number of $9.95....then wham! An email notifying you of an upcoming renewal, with a slap in the face price increase note in it....Sigh, I'm no lawyer, but is this shell game legal? It's like one of those credit card offers...low APR, and absolutely no mention of that ridiculous standard APR after your "introductory rate"! ....and BTW, this is on top of an increase earlier this year...if memory serves, it was around February 2008, from $9.95 to $12.95 or was it $13.95? So in July it's $34.95! Crapola! and I thought gas price increases were ridiculous! I'm aghast that Y! has sunk this low....

My guess/theory? Yahoo's probably dumping this service. They're just reselling this service anyway. Must be part of that secret new plan to miraculously add shareholder value after rejecting Microsoft's bid. Ergo, "refocusing" on core Y! services before they get sued to oblivion...