I remember when I first met Yahoo. It was about 12 years ago, I think. Y! was only about a year old. My folks got a PC, and my brother hooked it up with AOL, which boasted about 5 million members at the time. I’ve been a Y! fan ever since. I loved it then for its simple, low graphics menus. It loaded faster on dial-up than some other stuff.

I’ve used just about everything that Y! has offered, and paid for premium versions in some cases. I still like Y! Finance and News, and my Web site is through Geocities. I remember Geocities before Y! bought them. It was weird and fun.

Google’s e-mail and calendar have caught up and blown Y!’s doors off. They left Y! mail beta almost finished, and have barely touched it in about a year. On Friday, I canceled my Y! Mail Plus account. It wasn’t even worth $19.95 a year anymore.

I could still love Y!, the way a man can love a pickup truck made before power windows, but I have to take a break. I can’t use the vast portal’s almost infinite content, even for the news, until they get rid of the ad that’s appearing on almost every page. You’ve seen it.

It’s insidious. it’s just a poor little moron acting way too happy. Is she dancing because she can refinance at 5.8% adjustable for a few months, then loose her house when the rate jumps? I don’t care. It’s on too many pages, and it makes no sense and it’s distracting and absurd.

Y! has disabled the Ad Feedback links on its pages, saying that survey is not available. Baloney. This ad is crumbling people’s cookies. And I think it’s time that Y! and I took a breather, tried seeing about people for a while. I’ve fallen out of love.