How to remove the Avatar from Yahoo Mail
I’ve been getting more than a few emails and comments from people looking to remove to their Avatar from their Yahoo email account. A few people want to start a letter-writing campain to get it removed. If you’d like it removed, post a comment here, and link to this blog to help give us some exposure.
Again here are the steps to turn off the Avatar from Yahoo Mail:
Visit the Yahoo Avatars page.
Click the “Preferences” link -- it’s tiny and on the upper-right of the page.
Click the Delete option, then confirm.
Remember, you still won’t be able to get rid of the placeholder box once this is done. The Avatar, and even the little ghost icon you get if you haven’t enabled Avatars, are quite juvinile. I’m sure there is a whole demographic of people who love Avatars, and that’s fine, except over the last seven-plus years Yahoo has targeted Yahoo Mail at just about everyone, including business users, professionals, grandparents, and millions of others who aren’t the target market for Avatars. So adding the Avatar to Yahoo Mail has made it feel like I’m using a Fisher-Price email application. The look of Yahoo Avatars is shamelessly styled after the Bratz dolls and the Avatar page itself is all about dressing-up and accessorizing your Avatar, like I’m playing dollhouse. When I had an Avatar enabled it made me cringe and it made yahoo mail feel like a cheap marketing ploy rather than a real mail app. There must be millions of mail users who are’nt into this.
More on Yahoo Mail’s Bad User Interface
It’s easy to think that people who don’t want an Avatar in Yahoo Mail can simply turn it off. But let’s take a look at the problem that crops up from making that assumption.1. If a user has their Yahoo Avatar turned off, which undoubtedly millions of users do, they get a placeholder image in their mail program that features an agressive javascript tooltip that (a.) pops up without a “hover” and (b.) covers up the Unread Messages status and (c.) doesn’t go away immediately when you roll off the placeholder. The result is I see this popup virtually every time and it covers valuable information -- that’s some Bad UI right there but it’s not my point. The tooltip says “Your Avatar goes here! Click here to create the virtual you”.
2. A curious user will click the placeholder and visit the Avatar site where they’re promoted to create an Avatar. There’s not much on the site to let you know what’s going to happen. Yes, there’s a graphic that shows some Avatars, but unless the user is familiar with the Avatar look-and-feel, s/he may mistake this graphic for simple marketing graphics, not realizing it’s an actual preview of what’s to come.
3. Once the user has created their Avatar on the Avatar site, they’ll see their Avatar face in Yahoo Mail and only then will they decide if they like it and want to keep it. But the option to delete it is burried -- not in Yahoo Mail, but in the Avatar pages. In essence, the “off switch” is placed in a totally different location than the “on switch” was. This makes it difficult and frustrating to a user who wants to get rid of their Avatar or experiment.
4. A search for Avatar in Yahoo Mail’s Help pages reveals nothing about how to turn it off, so people end up googling for it and end up on my page here.
A simple fix for Yahoo to implement would be to put a close button on the Avatar graphic. Oh yeah, and to put some information about it in their help pages.
I'm Hanford Lemoore. My parking skills are unparalleled.
December 8th, 2005 at 7:32 pm
[...] On a related note: Does Yahoo’s Help Section need an overhaul, or what?! Still having help for a service that disappeared in 2002 isn’t a good sign, Yahoo. I’ve been finding Bad User Experiences left and right with Yahoo’s Help these days. Just see my previous blogs on Yahoo Mail for more. I’m don’t want to write about Bad UI all the time, honestly … [...]
December 9th, 2005 at 4:59 pm
I want it gone! I pay for the service, i shouldn’t have to see an ad for another yahoo service. Atleast an option to remove the thing would do! I guess thats just to easy
December 13th, 2005 at 11:55 am
You’re so right… I hate the thing. I created an avatar because I couldn’t delete it until I’d created it, but I was left with the placeholder. I wouldn’t mind it so much if it didn’t obscure with the bubble help. yahoo is really pushing me toward gmail.
December 16th, 2005 at 10:33 pm
[...] I’ve been ranting for the last few weeks about the functionless and Yahoo Avatar and how to remove it. [...]
January 6th, 2006 at 10:50 am
thanks for the tips on how to remove it!
i completely agree with you about the whole interface seeming childish now. hopefully that will change soon or gmail might become my preferred webmail site.
thanks again,
marc
January 9th, 2006 at 8:56 am
God dam hate the thing, shouldnt have to see it especially as I am a Yahoo Mail Plus user….
January 12th, 2006 at 8:28 am
Agree totally: its infantile, stupid and interfering. Please someone ask Yahoo to delete this childish Avatar placeholder.
Vinnie
January 18th, 2006 at 12:47 pm
I came as well looking for a way to get rid of the placeholder, it is right in the way. I even tried to create a blank avatar, but no dice. Wake up Yahoo and get rid of the placeholed at least.
January 18th, 2006 at 1:40 pm
I’m trying to find an email address for some ivory tower staff person at Yahoo and then send him repeated emails requesting that Yahoo do something to stop this unwanted, unsolicited and annoying pop up
January 18th, 2006 at 2:02 pm
Aha! I just solved the Avatar unwanted popup by having Yahoo forward all my emails to my gmail account. Now I do not have to tell everyone about the change and I no longer get that annoying Avatar pop up covering my email info.
January 18th, 2006 at 2:11 pm
Gmail is an option, but personally I dislike Gmail more than Yahoo mail -- it seems to break every single convention in the book and isn’t very forgiving to new users (I spent 5 minutes trying to find a way to change the subject line to a reply in Gmail before giving up).
I got the Yahoo Mail 2.0 Beta and it does NOT have the avatar and it’s much better than Gmail. You can try this link to get on the Beta list:
http://surveylink.yahoo.com/wix/p0473306.aspx
~Hanford
January 19th, 2006 at 11:00 am
Unfortunately I cannot get the Beta version because I live in Canada. However after some trials I was able to send an email to Danr@Yahoo-inc.com. Dan is the Chief Operating Officer of Yahoo. After an hour, the email has not bounced back as several earlier trys to Terry Semel the Chief Executive Officer of Yahoo did.
It remains to be seen if my email gets any attention at Yahoo.
January 19th, 2006 at 11:09 am
How about that! I just recieved a reply from Dan at Yahoo saying that he will check on the matter of the annoying popup. A copy of my email to him is included here.
Dear Mr. Rosensweig,
In an effort to attract the attention of a decision maker at Yahoo, I am writing to express my objection to an annoying popup that appears on my screen everytime I check my Rogers-Yahoo email.
Emanating from Yahoo, this popup covers up key information about my emails. The popup says “Your Avatar goes here. Click to create the “virtual” you.”
While I understand that the Yahoo Terms of Service permit Yahoo to put this popup wherever it pleases, I can assure you that at age 67 I am not interested in creating the “virtual” me.
I urge you to check the blogs that many of your customers are using to express their anger about this popup. I urge Yahoo to either get rid of this popup or at least have it appear in a less conspicuous place.
January 31st, 2006 at 5:25 pm
Here’s the latest from Yahoo on the Avatar placeholder.
Hello Sid,
Thank you for writing to Yahoo! Customer Care.
We have received your email regarding the popup for Yahoo! Avatars
while
utilizing Yahoo! Mail that you sent to Mr. Rosensweig. This popup
message will only appear when you move your mouse over the Avatar icon
on your mail page and will automatically disapear after 4 seconds.
We have requested that this message be moved so as to not obstruct the
users view of how many messages are unread within Yahoo! Mail.
Thank you for bringing this to our attention. It is through user
comments and feedback that we are able to continue to develop and
improve our service. We always have something on the drawing board, and
many of our best new features have been suggested directly by users
like
you.
Thank you again for contacting Yahoo! Customer Care.
Regards,
Kain
Yahoo! Customer Care
February 4th, 2006 at 2:31 pm
It’s horrible (unless you are 14, I guess).
And what’s worse? You can’t turn it off. Which you should be able to with the click of a button… its not chiseled in stone, it’s a programmatic “feature” and so the failure of the option to turn it the eff off is “virtually” inexcusable.
February 24th, 2006 at 11:46 am
Dude, what is WITH Yahoo? From those stupid pictures of people sticking their tongues out and putting their fingers in their eyes at login, to the idiotic avatar, I can only imagine that they are expecting to attract a much younger crowd. But who pays for this? Teenagers? No, those of us over 25 do.
The only reason I haven’t completely made the switch to Gmail is because I can’t stand having my conversations clumped together like that.
March 22nd, 2006 at 2:14 am
Thanks I don’t want to see that Nasty Avatar thing thanks for helping me to remove it.
April 1st, 2006 at 10:10 pm
Yahoo! Your avatar sucks dog’s penis! When the mouse cursor scrolls over it, which is too close to the email tabs—by the fucking way, a text popup shows up and is there for ever and a day. What the fuck is the matter with you idiots?
Yahoo, go to fucking hell… or at least, got your heads out of the thing you crap with! Got that, you stinky bastards?
April 24th, 2006 at 4:06 am
If this in anyway can help remove the placeholder for “My Avatar”, I’m all in. Users should have the choice of whether or not they wish to have something like that included in their user interface. Opinions aside as to how immature it is or whatever, it is annoying to have the the pop-up display over your inbox count- and the pop-up displays too long! I hope this gets the attention it deserves and Yahoo does something about it. It could eventually be a “deal killer” for me.
May 9th, 2006 at 8:12 am
I have found a solution, but only if you use Firefox. You’ll need to download and install an extension called ketjap (https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/680/)
Then you’ll need to create a new rule for the extension. Follow these steps:
1) Open Ketjap configuration
2) Click “Make a rule”
3) Click Next >
4) Type “div id” in the box and click Next >
5) Type “swf_alt” in the box and click Next > (this is the id of the annoying pop up.)
6) Type “Anything” in the box and click Next > (you don’t have to use the word “Anything.” You can use any word you like other than “swf_alt”
7) Type in a description if you like and click Finish
Effectively you’re re-naming the popup so that when your mouse rolls over the image, the browser will not be able to find the pop up and display it.
May 16th, 2006 at 5:53 pm
For me if you need to use an ‘avatar’ better be going in a forum or a friendster community, and should never be forced on every Yahoo! mail…
June 6th, 2006 at 2:02 am
U should have an option to remove the avatar! Tell me as soon as you can..
June 11th, 2006 at 1:42 am
One way to remove the avatar completely in Firefox is to use the extension AdBlock or AdBlockPlus. Install either one:
AdBlock from https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/10/
or
AdBlockPlus from https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/1865/
Once you have the add-on installed, right click on the avatar and select AdBlock Image. The avatar is gone! It’s that simple.
July 11th, 2006 at 10:31 am
Thanks. I needed the help getting rid of the annoying thing. Another person benefited from your web page.
July 13th, 2006 at 6:42 pm
Thank you, thank you, thank you to everyone with instructions to get rid of the Avatar
I opened it in a moment of boredome and curiosity, and it’s been a source of embarassment ever since. Is it my imagination that my computer has been running slower after the Avatar was installed?
Thanks again!
July 26th, 2006 at 7:58 am
Thanks, I made one once when I was bored, but it has been bugging me for weeks since and I hadn’t found a way to get rid of it. Too bad it still has that “ghost box.”
Thank you!
September 12th, 2006 at 4:52 am
As soon as I switched from Hotmail to Yahoo, I immediately began searching for another email provider. The ads are obtrusive and annoying. Yes, it is a free service, but, seriously, they cover half of the page.
The avatar is extremely annoying. I don’t feel like I’m using “my” email. I can’t get rid of the stupid shadow box. Trying to find ways of removing the avatar was very annoying. It’s as if yahoo is forcing it down my throatl
November 8th, 2006 at 2:18 pm
A few things:
I think it would be best to have the option of removing it and replacing it at will—this would be ideal for all users, whether young or old at heart. If I’m in the mood, I like it…Like for Answers…But if I just want to email, I’d rather not have it.
All you (Yahoo!) need is someone incredibly analytical, intelligent, critical and observant, such as myself, to go through your available services such as personals, games, etc., and help you sort it out. It seems as though your marketing and advertising as well as your programming are all very sophomoric and even a little desperate in nature. You are successful and the public likes you for all you have to offer; don’t cheapen it by minimizing your styles and formats. You arelosing a market (or ten). By the way, there are some major flaws with the programming (choices) on Personals as well. It is a very sensitive subject and you must be way more careful in your security and safety for your users. When a user chooses not to be seen or searched, YOU HAVE TO HONOR THAT. You will lose those customers as well. Thank you. I hope that you fix everything.
November 30th, 2006 at 10:12 am
Yahoo 屌你老母！
January 4th, 2007 at 2:57 pm
Many thanks for help me to get rid of the avatar. I could not remove this rubbish long time. I am sure this is so strange and childish for Yahoo. Looks like chat forum tools for teens.
February 6th, 2007 at 12:33 am
thanks for the info about the preferences link. i think the yahoo avatars are stupid looking (i wouldn’t mind if i could upload my own). but yahoo’s heavy handed placement (and confusing javascript alert—to save the avatar upon logging-out, when all i wanted to do was NOT save it) is the sign of a company who has lost any touch with their users. yahoo is floundering. behavior like this is the sign of a desperate company who are trying to force feed their customers (are they trying to monetize this?)—gmail would never do such a thing, i.e. google talk—although a little difficult to find the link to turn off, you could—and, it disappeared. yahoo—please take some more lessons from google—their interface is miles ahead. especially in that read messages don’t appear so, even after reading—they seem unvisited. gmail’s turn a different color immediately upon reading.
thanks again,
s. special monkey
March 7th, 2007 at 1:55 pm
Thanks. What jerks they are at Yahoo. I only put in an avatar in the first place in the hopes of eliminating there annoying “Do you want an avatar” message that kept blocking me from seeing how many messages there were—or some other nonesence. Then when I got the POS, the damn pop-ups continued. Thankfully a quick google search got me to http://blog.hanfordlemoore.com/2005/12/08/how-to-remove-the-avatar-from-yahoo-mail
May 26th, 2007 at 10:51 pm
i still didnt find how to remove the yahoo avatar
can you be more specific about it ….............................
June 5th, 2007 at 7:36 pm
Thanks for that. Those avatars seem a good idea at the time, then they pop up everywhere
July 18th, 2007 at 12:52 pm
Thank you, thank you, thank you! Just as you say, I was curious and clicked on the button. Bad news! Spent an hour trying to get rid of the dang thing.
July 31st, 2007 at 8:54 am
Is there a way to replace the avatars with a picture that we can upload. I wouldn’t mind it then.
October 14th, 2007 at 10:43 am
Yes it shouldn’t be require for mail. I only use Yahoo for chess with a coworker, and I got nothing against Hispanics, but every single cartoony face makes me feel like I’m staring at Dora the Explorer’s brother. Come on!
It says nothing serious about anyone who uses Yahoo. Oh look a mean face. This guy means business as you can tell.
January 5th, 2008 at 5:22 am
my sister hacked into my account and made a girl avatar. i’m a male! now there’s no way to change it back, or even get rid of it! f*** yourself in the a** yahoo!
January 30th, 2008 at 6:21 pm
Thank God! I could get rid of them after a long long time
March 5th, 2008 at 9:26 am
If you have Firefox and Adblock Plus, you can right click the ghosted avatar icon and telll Adblock Plus to block it from being displayed by selecting “Adblock Image…”. Great way to eliminate ugly avatars on ANY site.
April 17th, 2008 at 9:03 am
HATE IT! and HATE companies who do this kind of crap. jesus!
July 10th, 2008 at 12:06 am
Robert is right, to remove the Avatar, use firefox and install adblock plus. Then you can right click on the dumb blank avatar placeholder and ITS TOTALLY GONE
!