Dear Motley Fool: Please Stop Spamming Yahoo Finance

Dear Motley Fool,

Please stop spamming Yahoo Finance.  For every 5 Motley Fool articles Yahoo links to in the Headlines section, I estimate 2 or 3 of them are a thinly veiled landing page for you to sell a newsletter subscription.  I don’t have a problem with the pitch, just the disguising of that pitch in the form of a fake article and the sheer volume of these offensively stupid links.  Oh, and also the jester motif was never hip or funny.

Sincerely,

Everyone

It had to be said.

How many times have you been browsing the recent news for a stock on Yahoo Finance and come across a a click-baiting headline like this?:

The One Stock You Must Own Now

The Greatest Stocks On Earth

This Sector Will Make You Rich

The Highest Possible Returns Period

Super Stocks You Must Learn About

The Next Home Run Stock

The Next Grand Slam Stock

The Next Hole-In-One Stock

The Next Stock That Cleans Your House and Then Sleeps With You

The Secret Investment Strategy That Always Works

The Stock That Could Change Your Life

Bill Gates’ ATM Card PIN Number

(okay, one or two of those was an exaggeration, but just barely)

So you click one of those links and instead of an article, you’ll get two or three generic sentences about investing that have absolutely zero value,  followed by something like this:

To read more about stocks that meet our criteria, click here for a free 30 Day Trial of the Hidden Gems Newsletter.

In fact, here’s a screen shot from one of their “articles”…

In no way, shape or form do any of these links warrant inclusion under the headlines section of Yahoo Finance as they do not constitute news of any kind.  I can only conclude that either Yahoo is being paid for this placement or is itself being tricked like everyone else who ever clicks one of these links.

This is not to say that Motley Fool doesn’t write real articles, but heaven forbid you should ever actually catch yourself reading one of those!  They are actually worse than the spam.

If I accidentally read one more piece of drivel by Rick Aristotle Munarriz about Krispy Kreme Donuts or Tivo, I’ll scratch my own eyes out one at a time.  I don’t know what this guy’s deal is, he seems to be one of those “buy brands you know” investors.  I’ll give him this – it must take quite a bit of mental fortitude to write so prolifically about Crocs and Netflix every day of the week…my hat is off to you, sir.

I have no opinion about whatever the track record is for Motley Fool’s newsletters, so this discussion is not about anyone’s performance. For all I know, these guys could be Buffett-caliber stock pickers, but frankly, I don’t really care.

Today I’m making a simple request, which will most likely fall on deaf (oops, in their corny vernacular, that would be Foolish) ears. 

These guys with the dopey hats want to sell newsletters, fine.  Everybody’s gotta make a living, I respect that.  But do us all a favor and buy a banner ad, stop spamming the most visited finance portal on the web, you’re wasting all of our time.