I find the latest security feature of Yahoo! Mail annoying. Yes, the gesture of protecting our accounts for malicious surfers out there is appreciated but they could have at least made it easier than what it is now.

Before, when you logout of your mail account, you are taken to a screen where you only need to re-type your password and bob’s your uncle, you’re back into your mailbox.

Now, when you logout, you are still taken to the same screen as above but after you put in your password, you are requested to re-type all your details again including your Yahoo ID!

As a security precaution, please enter your Yahoo! ID and password and type in the code you see in the picture below.

Now, isn’t that annoying?

Working in software development has taught me a lot of things on how people appreciate what you deliver. One fundamental thing is ease of use. And this entails less clicks and keystrokes as users need to achieve their goal as quickly as possible. Software and applications are merely tools for the users to be more efficient. I’ve seen and conducted so many User Acceptance Tests where the most concern is on the number of screens or dialog boxes combined with whether they need to input data twice. And I’ve seen so many applications fail because of that!

I am all for security, don’t get me wrong, but why can’t we simply type that code instead of re-typing our Yahoo! ID and password as well? It defeats that Remember my ID on this computer option. See, for me, that is there so I don’t have to re-type my ID again! If that option were not available, then there is no expectation from the user.

Oh, and I noticed that this is the Standard login mode. I tried the Secure mode and if you are coming from the main Yahoo! page, it will ask you to type in your ID and password. When you click on “Sign In,” you are taken straight to your mailbox! I kid you not! You are not prompted for that security code. But when you sign out, you are taken back to the same screen where your ID is displayed and gives the impression of simply typing back your password to get back in. You type your password back in and …

As a security precaution, please enter your Yahoo! ID and password and type in the code you see in the picture below.

So, what is the difference? NOTHING!

Don’t be fooled by thinking that your mail is now accessed through a secured pages. Fact is, your mail is still on the general pages. Iit is only the login pages that are on secure pages, i.e. https.

I don’t know about you, but I am terribly annoyed. Don’t even get me started on the number of Bulk, which is spam by the way, mails that I get on my inbox! Thanks, but no thanks, Yahoo! For me, it is all about the efficiency.

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