My Yahoo vs Your Pointcast October 17, 1996January 30, 2017 I recognize many of you are internexperts, while I barely know which end of the surfboard faces front. But for those of you who, like me, are just beginning to get the hang of it, I have a suggestion. Go to http://my.yahoo.com/ and set up your personal Yahoo page. It’s really easy, free, and allows you to put on one “page” all the stuff that really interests you. Up to 30 stock symbols (including some really obscure ones that not all stock-quote services handle); the weather for cities that interest you; stupid sports stuff; and headlines in various fields, which you can then click to see the full story. It’s similar to Pointcast, which is also amazing, but which makes me nervous. It keeps popping up as a screensaver, a feature some people love but I don’t. Pointcast requires that you click to get the particular page — news, sports, weather — you want, whereas My Yahoo has it all there on one page. What’s more, Pointcast has a team of Wells Fargo horses, or some other 30-second animated ad, running across the top right frame of the screen to attract your attention — i.e., distract you. This is great for advertisers but not necessarily for you and me. (I suppose Yahoo will follow soon, but so far it’s peace and quiet by comparison.) Would you like ads in the middle of your movies? How about an ad that sprang into motion as you were reading an article in the newspaper? It’s amazing to watch the web develop. This month, My Yahoo is a hoot. (The other way to get there is to go to the Yahoo home page and then, way at the bottom, at the left, click on the little blue “My Yahoo.”) Who knows what it will be next month? Come to think of it, many of you probably know — and I trust won’t be shy in cluing me in to.