Yahoo recently purchased a stake in a number of the most popular chat rooms on the internet, and the result is that you won't be able to use these rooms any more. What is happening is that Yahoo is scrambling to put out a statement claiming that all chat rooms are back up and running as normal, but customers are not so happy with this situation. If you're looking to use Yahoo chat rooms, you might like to know what's going on right now.
You see, in late August, Yahoo announced that it was canceling millions of its accounts for violating the terms of service of its Instant Messenger service. This caused a panic among those who used chat rooms regularly, since many were worried that their accounts would be closed as a result of Yahoo's new policy. Yahoo later released an explanation that it had not actually closed the rooms, and that it was only moving them to a more appropriate place. This didn't satisfy members of Yahoo's user community, who worried that their free service was going to come to an end.
So, how is Yahoo standing? In recent months, there have been reports of Yahoo chat rooms still being live. In some cases, this is true. But in other cases, the chat rooms are down, and there are no clear explanations as to why. To make matters worse, at least one person has filed a class-action lawsuit against Yahoo over this matter, and that case is currently pending. In the meantime, Yahoo is apparently working to make things better, and it says it is going to start offering free services to those who use chat rooms on Yahoo.
While Yahoo's statement indicates that the shuttering is only temporary, it is also hinting that there could be more to it than that. For now, you can still use Yahoo chat rooms if you're willing to put in a little work. Simply go to the Yahoo! Chat home page, sign up for an account, and you will be able to access your chat rooms--if you want to. The message says that Yahoo is "working hard" to bring the "Yahoo chat rooms experience" to users, but it's not clear when that will happen.
Yahoo's decision to shut down chat rooms marks yet another move by Yahoo towards trying to improve its image and standing in the online community. With the recent revelations in regard to the shady deals struck between Yahoo co-workers and attorneys, and the huge data breach that took place at the hands of executives, Yahoo clearly needs to do whatever it can to regain the confidence of customers. If Yahoo can accomplish that, it will gain a lot of positive PR and reputation in the online community, which is important when you consider that many people rely on online reviews and feedback to make up their minds about something. A clean reputation goes a long way these days.
Unfortunately, as of this writing, there is no new information on when or if Yahoo will start offering this kind of service again. Right now, it appears that they are focusing all of their efforts on getting their search engine ranking up so that they can continue on their long journey into the future--while everyone else has continued to lose business. No one wants to play second fiddle to Google, and if Yahoo is going to try and pick up where Google left off, they'd better come up with some innovative ideas to replace the much-loved Yahoo chat service. In the mean time, however, they've offered an experimental chat service that only certain groups are able to use. It's unclear whether that will stick or not, but for now, at least Yahoo chat rooms are alive and well.
Add paragraph text here.
