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7 Alternatives To Yahoo Groups

Posted on Mar 23, 2023

Taking decisions for the future alternatives to Yahoo Groups

Let’s take a trip down memory lane, and revisit the internet as it was in 2001.

Most of us were using Internet Explorer to browse the web.

Countless hours were spent chatting with friends on MSN Messenger.

If you wanted to search for something you were likely to go and Ask Jeeves.

And if you wanted to join an online discussion group with people who held similar interests, you joined Yahoo Groups.

A lot has changed in the last 22 years.

What happened to Yahoo Groups?

Young professional wondering what happened to Yahoo Groups

Yahoo Groups launched on 30th January 2001.

It combined the technology from a business called egroups.com which Yahoo! had recently acquired, with the active communities of Yahoo! Clubs.

It was an immediate success and provided users with an effective way to engage in online discussion groups. Yahoo Groups allowed users to have group chats, share files, share calendars, set up polls and receive regular updates from group members via email.

It was a great way for users across the world to collaborate and keep up with news and opinions on topics close to their hearts.

At the height of its success, it’s estimated that Yahoo Groups had over 115 million users worldwide.

But the world of digital media moves fast.

Consumers gradually moved away from Yahoo Groups and towards more modern alternatives for connecting with friends and sharing interests online.

In 2020, Yahoo! announced that Yahoo Groups would be discontinued. They cited a number of factors, including the costs of maintaining the platform, declining usage and the rise of newer, more popular social media and group messaging platforms.

The service officially shut down on 15th December 2020.

The Best Alternatives to Yahoo Groups

Right or good decision best alternatives to Yahoo Groups

As one of the earliest platforms for building online communities, Yahoo Groups will always hold a special place in internet history.

The closure of the service was a sad occasion for the remaining loyal users. But it was hardly a surprise.

Many users had already migrated to more modern online community solutions.

Let’s run through some of the modern alternatives to Yahoo Groups and some other email-based solutions for building online communities.

Facebook Groups

Launched in 2010, Facebook Groups was one of the more modern solutions that users began to embrace instead of Yahoo Groups.

Facebook Groups allow any user to create and join groups around a particular interest or topic.

One of the major benefits of the platform is that it uses the standard Facebook interface that many of us are comfortable and familiar with. So there isn’t a huge learning curve to get started.

Facebook Groups also has a wide reach, with it being estimated that more than 1.8 billion people worldwide use the service every month.

But the wide reach and familiarity of the platform create their own disadvantages.

Anyone can set up their own group, and there are often multiple groups for one topic, many of them inactive. Due to the size of the platform, and the wide range of groups available, it can often be challenging for smaller groups to stand out or build a significant following.

Facebook also has an ad-based revenue model, which allows advertisers to target based on interest. So if you’re a member of multiple car enthusiast groups, you can expect to be targeted with more car-related content.

LinkedIn Groups

LinkedIn is a social networking platform that is designed for professionals.

LinkedIn Groups provide a space for people in the same industry or with the same interests to connect, share news and opinion pieces, and engage in discussions.

Participating in LinkedIn groups can be a great way to showcase your expertise and enthusiasm for a particular industry or topic, and can be particularly effective for making connections that are useful for your own professional development.

But some users find that some groups aren’t effectively moderated on LinkedIn, which can lead to spammers and certain members engaging in a one-way promotion.

Simplelists

At Simplelists, we make group email communication easy.

Our mission is to make it simple for anyone within an organisation to set up an effective group email list without any technical knowledge.

Our solution is simple to manage and maintain, with easy ways to import, move and copy contacts between lists. Setting up eye-catching emails is also a breeze.

There is a whole range of intuitive moderation and configuration options for your group email management, to ensure that you have the control you need over your email list and the messages your subscribers receive, and avoid landing in the spam folder.

Simplelists is also ad-free, so you don’t have to worry about your group emails being interrupted by unwanted ads or promotions.

Google Groups

Google Groups is a free service that has valuable functionality for both businesses and individuals.

From an individual perspective, you’re able to use Google Groups to join email groups and meet people with similar hobbies or interests. It’s a great solution for encouraging group discussions.

For businesses, you can embrace Google Groups to organise meetings and events and set up group mailing lists where you can email a number of people from a single email address.

Some organisations have concerns about the amount of data that Google holds on them, so may choose not to embrace Google Groups through worries over privacy.

Groups.io

Groups.io is an email-based group communication service.

It allows organisations to set up their own email lists for recipients to communicate and collaborate.

It also allows the members to access a comprehensive range of features including:

  • Calendars
  • Polls
  • Databases
  • Photos
  • Files

Unlike Facebook, LinkedIn and Google, Groups.io is a paid service, with rates starting from $20 per month based on the number of members within your group.

Groups.io prides itself on having no advertising throughout the platform, and no unnecessary tracking. This should reassure users who are concerned about privacy.

Groups.io also integrates with a lot of commonly used technology such as Zoom, Slack and Trello.

This is really a solution designed for organisations who want their teams or members to collaborate and work together over email. There aren’t currently many public groups.

Gaggle Mail

Another solution that focuses on group communication and collaboration via email, Gaggle Mail is a cloud-based Listserv alternative.

One of the things that makes Gaggle Mail attractive for smaller organisations is that it’s free to set up lists with fewer than 1000 recipients.

So if you’re looking for email-based group communication for your internal teams, you can get up and running with Gaggle Mail quickly and efficiently.

It has all the customisation functionality you’d expect from a comprehensive Listserv solution and seems to have good reports of email deliverability.

The costs do increase quite rapidly after you move past 1000 subscribers, which is something to be mindful of.

With the tool focusing on email group communication, it also doesn’t have chat or supporting functionality like calendars, event planners or polls.

L-Soft Listserv

The original Listserv technology that enables organisations to manage email discussion lists, email newsletters and email marketing campaigns.

L-Soft Listserv is a favourite of Ivy League schools in the USA, who create email groups for students to share information, resources and links when collaborating on a topic or subject.

All email messages are archived, so administrators can see exactly what is being discussed if needed.

With over 35 years of experience in the industry, the team at L-Soft certainly know their stuff about group communication via email.

The one reported downside of L-Soft Listserv is that it can require some technical knowledge to get set up correctly.

Ready to get started with your own groups?

Advertising marketing and targeting start your group with Simplelists

The internet has come a long way since the launch of Yahoo Groups in 2001.

Yahoo! was once the place to go if you wanted to be an active part of an online community, but more modern and effective solutions have emerged over time.

Some of the best modern alternatives to Yahoo Groups include Facebook Groups, LinkedIn Groups, Google Groups, Groups.io, Gaggle Mail, Listserv and Simplelists.

Each platform has its own set of features and benefits. It’s important that you take the time to make the decision that is right for you, based on the specific needs of your organisation.

As Simplelists, our mission is to make group email communication easy. We make it simple for anyone to set up and manage a group email list.

If this sounds like what you’re looking for you’d like to give Simplelists a try for yourself, we have a one-month free trial available.

Start your group email today!
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Tech tips: Keeping your webcam secure

Posted on Aug 19, 2016

Most of the devices we use on a daily basis these days have webcams installed as standard. While this makes keeping in touch with friends and family very easy, it is important to be aware of the potential associated security risks. There have been several stories in the news recently about people who have had their webcams ‘hacked’ and the implications for how this affects personal privacy are significant. In the first of a short series of ‘tech tips’ posts, we explain how webcams can be accessed and suggest some things you can do to avoid someone looking in on you, unwanted.

Webcam security

How can webcams be accessed?

Most hackers use a so-called ‘Trojan horse’ attack to access webcams. By erroneously clicking on an email attachment or downloading a piece of music or video that is infected with malware, the hacker may be able to control your device remotely.

Another technique, known as ‘clickjacking’ occurs when a website is manipulated so that the permission prompt for Flash becomes invisible. In this can, an invisible prompt can be placed over a commonly used area of the page (for example, the ‘Play’ button on a video) so that when you watch the video you inadvertently give permission to Flash to start recording images on your camera. The type of webcam you use may also be an issue, although this is now less common. Nonetheless, a recent article about security risks associated with baby monitors with in-built cameras suggests that there are still vulnerabilities in certain models.

What can you do to protect against this?

There are several things that you can do to avoid your webcam being attacked. The most obvious, and perhaps easiest, is to cover your webcam when it is not in use. However, it is possible that a hacker could still access the device’s audio feed, which is also pretty undesirable.

Make sure your hardware and software are up-to-date. The webcam itself, like most standalone devices, is controlled by its firmware and this is where any vulnerabilities are most likely to occur. Try to stay up-to-date with any firmware updates from the device’s manufacturer. Similarly, make sure your computer virus protection is current. You should run routine malware scans (malware is a popular way for hackers to access your device in other ways as well), and make sure you use a firewall to protect against attacks. A common way for malware to enter your computer is via email attachments so make sure that you don’t click on any suspicious ones. You can also make sure your wireless connection is secure by using a unique password on it, rather than the default one that comes with the router.

If you still wish to do more, there are some programs out there now that offer webcam protection. They work in the background and notify you when your webcam is being used. You can also keep an eye on the indicator light on the webcam, if you have one.

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'Good news' technology stories

Posted on Jul 19, 2016

The past month has been an active and not always very positive one on the news front. At times when politics and events around the world can seem to be broadly negative, it can be nice to remind ourselves of 'good news’ going on in the background. Over the past few months, we have shared quite a lot of positive technological advances on our Twitter and Google+ feeds. In this blog post, we have included some of our favourites for you to enjoy.

 Positive technology news

 

1. Using solar power for air conditioning

A large shopping centre in Victoria, Australia was in the news recently as its owners are using solar-concetrating thermal technology to power the centre’s air conditioning system. The innovative system heats and cools air within the building, without having to introduce external air, using drying wheels to act as dehumidifiers and remove moisture from the air. Heat is captured in the winter to hear the centre’s ambient air, and provides power to cool the centre in the summer. Researchers testing the system believe that it will drastically reduce electricity requirements, while also being about 40% smaller than a comparable air conditioning system.

2. Using lasers to uncover our past

Airborne laser scanners have recently been used to reveal several undiscovered cities hidden in jungles in Cambodia. Using a helicopter equipped with state-of-the-art Lidar technology to survey the landscape, it was possible to generate images of the ground which filter out surface vegetation and reveal hidden details on the surface. In this case, the technology allowed researchers to make great advances in our knowledge of Angkorian civilisation.

3. Transforming disabled people’s lives

Advances have been made in 'assistive technology’, which enables disabled people to do things that would have previously not been possible. Recent examples include 'EyeGaze technology’, which allows people to control the movement of a mouse on a computer screen using just their eyes. Other versions allow users to control the mouse with their head, knee, foot or mouth. Verbal communication technology such as 'Liberator’ also allows disabled people to communicate verbally using just eye movements to send commands to a computer.

4. Helping female refugees

Recognising that half of refugees are women, a groups of coders, designers, NGOs and academics have been working to develop technology that can help to educate and provide information to female refugees. The development of apps is a key activity, with individual projects linked to NGOs to ensure delivery. Hababy, an app that provides prenatal and postnatal information for refugee women, is one example.

5. Driving on solar-powered roadways

An idea initially mooted a while ago, the notion of 'solar roadways’ is starting to become a reality. It was announced this month that the Missouri Department of Transportation in the USA plans to become the first US public highway department to test the technology. By collecting the substantial solar energy that hits surfaces such as roads, the idea would give roads a dual purpose: both a part of modern transport infrastructure and a 'smart’ power grid.

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