Yahoo said on Friday afternoon that a statement from the company’s Australian office on Tuesday, which claimed that all future products would be compatible with both the Firefox and Internet Explorer (IE) browsers, was inaccurate.
In February, Yahoo launched a search toolbar for Firefox, but users of the open source browser were forced to switch back to IE when accessing some Yahoo services. Following communications between Yahoo and ZDNet UK sister site ZDNet Australia , Yahoo issued a statement saying the company would not launch any new products or services in the future without ensuring they work on both IE and Firefox.
However, on Friday, a Yahoo representative from the US admitted that the original statement was 'factually incorrect' because, although Yahoo realises that Firefox-compatibility is important, it is not in a position to promise all future products would be both Internet Explorer and Firefox compatible.
"In the grand scheme of things Firefox is still a new technology. I’m not saying we are not going to be developing and exploring other areas — we are. But there are so many different products on the Yahoo network that there may be some products that are, perhaps, not appropriate for that browser," the representative said.
The representative confirmed that Yahoo Messenger's Avatar customisation service is definitely being extended to Firefox, but could not provide a firm launch date.
Munir Kotadia reported from Sydney for ZDNet Australia. For more ZDNet Australia stories, click here.
Talkback
"In the grand scheme of things Firefox is still a new technology."
Is this some sort of a joke? Web standards are not a new technology. And why are they looking at just firefox, what about all the other browsers?
This is not about supporting 'Firefox', it's about supporting standards. You can either use the open standards that everyone supports, or you can use the Microsoft standard with everything that entails. God help you if you choose the latter.
I used to like Yahoo, but if they can't keep up with the times then they will continue to suffer as they have done.
I,ve always used Yahoo for my personal mail, but now I'm playing with Linux, regularly using Firefox soon most of my Yahoo use will be with Google. Oh dear... What a shame... never mind.
I HAVE USED FIREFOX SINCE IT CAME OUT AND HAVE HAD NO TROUBLE WHAT SO EVER IN USING IT TO OPEN MAIL AND SURF THE NET AND SO FORTH IT HAS BEEN MONTHS SINCE I HAVE USED INTERNET EXPLORER AND HAVE HAD NO TROUBLE AT ALL WITH USING FIREFIX WITH THE YAHOO PROGRAMS WHATSOEVER SO I RECOMEND THAT WE ALL USE FIREFOX AND LET INTERNET EXPLORER FIND A BETTER FIX FOR THE TROUBLES WE HAVE HAD WITH IT IN THE PAST BUT I DO FEEL YAHOO NEED TO UPDATE THE PROGRAMS AND SUCH SO THEY ARE COMPATABLE WITH OTHER BTOWSERS SINCE ALOT OF PEOPLE ARE SWITCHING TO FIREFOX AND THAT WAY ANYONE AND EVERYONE CAN USE THE SERVICES AND NOT HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT DISCONNECTS AND SUCH FROM THEM THANKS
Please correct me if I'm wrong, but since this has to do with some of the functionality between Firefox and Yahoo's plugin/addon/whatever, isn't this less of an issue with web standards and more of an issue with Yahoo's code interacting with Firefox?
If I'm wrong, I plead ignorance. :)
This article and statement refers to Yahoo's site services which doesn't make it an issue of code interaction; rather the actual site is in question.
But that fact aside, Yahoo Music (LaunchCast, whatever...) does NOT work under Firefox. It was a sad day when I discovered this!
I will have my Yahoo Mail account forever, it works fine in Firefox as stated in a previous post. I don't think I'll pay for "premium" services though until ALL of the features work on more free and/or open-source browsers like Firefox.
support Firefox please
In the grand scheme of things, Yahoo is rapidly turning into a non-entity, at least as far as I'm concerned.
They choose not to have their IM work with the open source Linux clients, they prefer not to be Firefox compatable, etc, so, those of us who have had way more than enough of the MS related problems are moving away from any and all things MS related.
I, for one, no longer worry about using any of Yahoo's services. Their online email service totally sucks with Linux and thier lack of support of Firefox just means that I will certainly choose not to use their services here at work where I am still forced to us an MS OS.
This seems to be a very reactive, short sighted comment. Why can't they say that they will support web standards and stop calling out names?
Dear yahoo, don't be like that to firefox, I think firefox is easy, secure, and fun to use. So support it, please. I love this browser sooo much ! go firefox!!!!!
No problem. I wont feel guilty anymore for not using yahoo! all of the time. Firefox is no biggy in the search Arena anymore so they shouldn't pretend to be.