This site, one of the largest and most popular, is about comparable to other plans - free to browse, and you can email those who write to you - but you cannot respond to ads without purchasing a membership.
My interviewees called the interface "simple and idiot-resistant," but not without the occasional bug. Features include a link to Yahoo chat, and to record a voice message. It will also display profiles similar to a particular one that you like.
In terms of prospects, my female interviewees found they tended to be "the least common denominator." One reason might be that Yahoo is so well known and easy to use. This means that people of advanced education levels might go elsewhere (such as Spring Street Networks sites like Nerve and TheOnion.com).
Everyone was disappointed in the matching criteria, noting that it seemed to be based on age and proximity to location -- not interest. Alternately, matches were returned that lived hundreds of miles away.
Be forewarned: You can respond to a Yahoo personals ad without actually having a profile up there yourself (you do have to purchase a membership), which means that this site tends to attract a fair amount of spammers. They send fake responses asking you to check out their profile on another dating site, and it turns out to be a lure to get you to join that dating site (and if you respond to their email, you get a bulk response back with more spam). Or the person who emails you may just be a loser with no profile. (Not much better)
Polyamorous people, take note: I've heard that Yahoo is not "poly-friendly." A het male friend of mine told me, "From the last time I used Yahoo personals, there were very few entries that specified a poly relationship. In fact, 'polyamory' is not found as a search parameter. Regardless of orientation, it's one person seeking another single person."
J.K., a 33-year-old het woman in DE, says, "I only met one person off of the Yahoo personals, and we dated for about 3 months. He was a good egg."
A.D., a 36-year-old het woman in MA, says, "Some of the responses I got were from men I would be afraid to talk to in the grocery store (their photos and responses were so "sketchy"). She found the site "not at all useful. I never came across an ad in there that I wanted to purchase a membership so that I could respond to them. I only corresponded with one person who responded to my ad - and even then I never wanted to meet him in person. Of all the personals sites I used, Yahoo was the worst.”
J.T.B., the one male I interviewed, had a completely different experience. The women rated the prospects 2 and 1; Jim gave them a 5. "This site included definitely the best prospects (for me anyway). The search engine is fairly good as well. It isn't organized very well, so you end up going through a lot of pages. It does have some very nice features though. You can also see all of an individual's pictures." This tells me that the problems with Yahoo may be pretty gender-specific, so women should skip it and men should give it a try.
