I hate the favoritism people show to companies. Whenever Apple (and normally Google) come out with something, people go crazy just drooling to try it out. However, when Yahoo came out with Axis, I saw people saying things like 'Why doesn't Yahoo just quit trying and go bankrupt already?' etc. When a company comes out with a new product, people shouldn't jump on the company-fanboy/hater bandwagons.
That being said, it's nice to see Yahoo do something well.
I think Yahoo's brand perception differs depending on the audience.
The HN crowd seems to be pretty tired of Yahoo. I know I am. I'm disappointed that they never made a good Flickr mobile app, and sad about what Yahoo did with del.icio.us. A few years ago, those were two of my favorite web services. No longer.
Other issues: the quality of Yahoo Answers is a running joke. Yahoo Groups sorely needs to be remodeled, but their 2010 attempt was a miserable failure. Some people are still sore about what happened to GeoCities.
Issues like these set expectations among a certain audience. I admit I don't expect Yahoo to hit a home run these days.
Yet there are people (non-techy folks) in my family who have used Yahoo for over ten years for their mail, news, and search. When they've had problems, I've tried to talk them into switching to something better, but they like Yahoo. So there you go.
To each their own. But after my recent poor experiences with Yahoo, I don't feel guilty that my expectations are set low. I'm not rooting for them to fail, but I can't help feeling fairly cynical about them.
These days I still find many general knowledge questions (i.e. non-technical) being redirected from Google to an entry in Y! Answers. These are not strongly affected by time, so I suppose it's still playing a role (even if only as an archive)
Though their method of distribution on desktop is not impressive/standard at all. I tried to install it, it downloaded me a .crx file. Now I know how to use it, but a normal user wouldn't. The extension is unavailable on Chrome Web Store and they do not use the right meta tags to allow for one click installation from their own site.
People pick favorites, perhaps at some point in our evolution it aided our survival, but whether its companies, sports teams, sushi restaurants, or even countries people seem to naturally form a we-them relationship. Marketeers exploit that as 'brand loyalty' and it works. Yahoo has had a lot of damage done to its brand through a series of missteps that will take time to heal.
That said, Axis is an interesting strategy for them. I don't know how it will work out but its clear they they are not going to go willingly into receivership. So in that regard I cheer them on, some of the best inventions come out of desperation and it is soooooo much easier to ship something untried in a desperate company than it is in a market leading company.
That being said, it's nice to see Yahoo do something well.