Removed from Yahoo directory

[Postman1]

I paid the $199 to have my site listed in the Yahoo directory. Within 1 week it was listed. Then 1.5 months later, my site was removed from the directory. I have called the Yahoo support line 2x and e-mailed them 2x and it's been 2 months later and I have yet to receive a reply from them. Now I plan to dispute this charge with my credit card company. Does anyone know what I should do or had a similar problem? It's driving me crazy.

[mkaufman]

You don't have a case.

You agreed that it could be removed when you paid.

[Postman1]

Why is that I don't have a case? They did not tell me the reason or any explanation why it was removed. And besides I did not violate any of their rules as far as I know. My site has not changed since it was reviewed by Yahoo. I really don't think they can just remove a site from their directory without them telling you and especially when you paid them $199 just to get your site listed.

[UnitedTec]

I really don't think they can just remove a site from their directory without them telling you and especially when you paid them $199 just to get your site listed.

Actually the $199 just guarantees that your site will be reviewed within 7 days. It does not guarantee that they will list it on the site.

[Postman1]

I agree with you UnitedTec, but my site was listed in the directory. To be more precise, it was listed under Regional>Web directories.
Then 3 weeks later it was removed for no reason. Do you think I still have a case?

[Hierophant]

Maybe if we knew what your site was about we would be able to answer this question. Site Removal most likely has to do with violation of their Terms of Service or perceived violation of the same.

[Nicky]

Yes what is your URL?

[Hierophant]

He sent me his URL in email. Since he didn't post it, I guess he doesn't want any kind of promotion. Too bad because its a good site and could be useful to a lot of people.

There are two reasons that I can think of for it being removed....

1. It was incorrectly added to the wrong category and another editor deleted it instead of removing it.

2. It "rebrands" Yahoo's and other search engines content as its own while being in direct competition with Yahoo.

Yahoo! respects the intellectual property of others, and we ask our users to do the same. Yahoo! may, in appropriate circumstances and at its discretion, terminate the accounts of users who infringe the intellectual property rights of others.

Now if there is a legal agreement to rebrand their content as well as the other search engines listed then I apologize.

[Son Nguyen]

But Yahoo! should email him about that. Did they?

[Dan Grossman]

In my opinion it doesn't matter if his site was completely legal and wasn't in violation of their TOS.. Yahoo! may remove ANY site they want, it's THEIR directory. You only pay to get reviewed, not for a permanent listing.

~~
"Getting a Yahoo! Listing the Easy Way"
http://www.websitegoodies.com/promote/yahoo.shtml
How to get reviewed, for free, in under a week!
~~

[Hierophant]

Originally posted by 123finder.com
But Yahoo! should email him about that. Did they?

Their terms of service say they can terminate service without prior notification. These terms are agreed upon implicitly by using the service. So I would say they have no obligation to notify him about the deletion.

If someone does a search from the Yahoo main page on "metasearch", his site does not show up within the first 120 Google results in fact I didn't even see his site listed. The only way I could find his site in Google even was to search for the domain name itself. The goal should be to get into the top 20 of Google results for dominant keywords.

[Postman1]

Thanks W. Luke for the advice. My site has had the metasearch which includes the yahoo directory, but that has been there since the beginning of time before Yahoo editors listed the site in their directory. And besides 100s of other sites also have them and they were listed in Yahoo. If they felt that it should not be listed, they should have not had listed it in the first place. Unless it was a "rookie editor in training." But again that's another topic.

Have anyone know of someone who have had the same thing happend to them?

I agree that it is their directory and that they can do anything they want with it. But I think having someone pay to get listed and later get deleted and then having them pay again to be relisted is more of a legal issue. This process of them taking website owner's money for profit in an ongoing cycle is not good business. $199 may not be much to Yahoo, but if it happends to many website owners, then it's major problem. Yahoo is a big company, and so is Priceline.com. And look at priceline.com now when people spoke out against them. Priceline lost $900 million in 2 weeks and execs are working OT trying to save this company from being wiped out from the WWW map. But back to my point, it is simply not good business practice by Yahoo.

Anyone agree or disagree.

[Postman1]

"The goal should be to get into the top 20 of Google results for dominant keywords."- I am actually getting tons of traffic from Google in a single day and far more than Yahoo directory will ever bring me in one year. (Thank you Google)
The traffic from Yahoo is nice, but Advertisers use the Yahoo directory to find advertisers.

[Dan Grossman]

Postman1 writes:
<< But I think having someone pay to get listed >>


Once again I say it: You did NOT PAY TO GET LISTED, you paid to be REVIEWED for a listing. The listing was not part of the service you paid for, simply the review. If the review ended in a listing, it's a bonus!

Even SitePoint's sites weren't listed after using the Business Express $199 service, but they can't complain that there's a LEGAL issue there - they can only inquire as to why and ASK to be listed (not demand).

[TWTCommish]

It's more a matter of what SHOULD be...Yahoo gets away with "unfair" things like this because they're so huge...It's not nice, and quite annoying, but unfortunatly nothing can be done about it.

[mjames]

If I paid $199 for my site to be listed in Yahoo! and I found it was later removed, I would darn well be angered. But, as someone already said, make sure you didn't violate any rules before you complain.

[Dan Grossman]

<<If I paid $199 for my site to be listed in Yahoo! >>

I don't want to get rude here but.. Yahoo! does NOT EVEN OFFER a service to pay to get listed. It doesn't exist!

What they DO offer is a pay to get REVIEWED service

[TWTCommish]

Point taken - I'm ticked off nontheless.

[Postman1]

Exactly, point taken.
WebDevPortal how would you feel if you paid $199 to be reviewed in which it is later listed and then you wake up the next day only to find out that it was removed from the directory? At least, according to Yahoo, if you use the biz express and they declined to list it in the Yahoo directory you have one more chance to resubmit without them charging another extra $199. In my case they, should've declined it in the first place and at least I had a chance to re-evaluate and resubmit again.

[Son Nguyen]

Such situation is a big pain in the ***!!!
And they decide/forget to send any notification after that. (though i know they have the right not to do so.)

[Dan Grossman]

Postman1:

You can resubmit as many times as you want!

1) Try emailing them and seeing if you can learn why they removed you

2) Submit the free way to Yahoo! - or, even better, a regional Yahoo! like Yahoo! Canada which accept non-regional sites and add them to the main directory.

(For more info on that:
http://www.websitegoodies.com/promote/yahoo.shtml
)

[Postman1]

<<"It's more a matter of what SHOULD be...Yahoo gets away with "unfair" things like this because they're so huge...It's not nice, and quite annoying, but unfortunatly nothing can be done about it."

Yes they are a huge company, but that doesn't mean I won't do anything about it. I have filed reports to other companies, and all of them went into my favor. A burglar sued the homeowner because he stepped on a knife while he was breaking in the house and a jail inmate sued the government because he got a chicken sandwich instead of the tuna sandwich which he wanted. So if these people have these legal rights, what makes it more legitimate in my case? It's not a physical crime, but it's more corporate/white collar which is more of silent crime and is least likely to be reported. I am not making any accusations on any company here, but if further investigation is to take place then I'll pursue it. Why did you think I didn't list my URL here in the first place?

[freejavahelp]

Okay, here's my opinion

I definitely would be angered if Yahoo! took me off their site........its my main source of traffic.

But what they did WAS legal......

What I did to get into Yahoo was submit to Yahoo! Canada. I was in within a week after this. Maybe you should try it on the off chance that you get listed again.

Jim

[mjames]

Originally posted by WebDevPortal
<<If I paid $199 for my site to be listed in Yahoo! >>

I don't want to get rude here but.. Yahoo! does NOT EVEN OFFER a service to pay to get listed. It doesn't exist!

What they DO offer is a pay to get REVIEWED service

I said "to be listed", but I meant "to be reviewed". Ah, you knew what I meant...

[ronnie]

I think the $199 to be reviewed by Yahoo is a joke. Your paying for some one to say how your site looks? Who's to say they are a good judge. There's 1,000 of places you can get FREE reviews! Sitepoint for one!

In my opinion it is a little deceptive. Yes, it may say "review", and many people may read that, but you know most people are going to think they are going to get listed. I'm sorry, but I don't understand the comcept or why they are doing it, except to make some extra money, and to play off the fact that many people wanting to get in to their directory.

I would rather keep submitting or wait it out, then take a chance for $199 and get nothing.

Like others have said, I don't think it's good business either. I would'nt be surprized if it turned around and bit them on the behind on day soon! A few lawsuits, and I bet they can the idea.

Just my opinion..

ronnie