I know I am not a big blog in the Yahoo! 360 world. I have, though, been blogging since November of 2005. I am not concerned with moving to a universal profile. I am absolutely amazed that people have more than one Yahoo! profile. I have one – it works for 360, it works for email, it works for geocities (it is not the original geocities ID I had when I first started there but that plus a dot geo), it works for groups.

I have watched Yahoo! do changes and integration previously. There was little, if any, contact when Geocities became a Yahoo! product. There was slightly more when egroups moved to Yahoo! groups. I believe that the product development community is trying to have even more information on the 360 closing/new universal profile and social networking starting but they are doing so from a product and, basically, an engineering point of view. They are not doing it from a marketing or public relations point of view.

I have a degree in marketing and public relations. The first big mistake was to say the word “close.” Use any of a number of other words in saying things will be different and you are already on better footing – migration, integration. Even culminate and conclude might go over better. Close has way too much of a finality with it to make anyone reading feel secure in what they post here and in what they want to post in the future.

The main thing for anyone contemplating such a huge change is “people don’t like change,” regardless of what the political parties will tell you. Status quo is much easier in most facets of our lives than change is.

Another contemplation is for the product development team to realize this change – whatever format it may be – will be similar to death for many people. There will be all five stages of grief set out by Elizabeth Kubler-Ross – denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. Each 360 user will go through these stages at a different pace. I have seen this happen as I use to moderate a discussion forum that just closed.

Lastly, information is the most important thing that Yahoo! has on its side. By letting all 360 users know what is going on and feeling vested in the change, Yahoo! will have a much easier time in the arena of public opinion.

For those who have not read the various blogs on the 360 change, please see a list below.
Yahoo! 360 Product Blog
Mr E’s Blog
My360MI’s Product Blog
Yes Virginia, 360 is Closing…However…