Jeff Bonforte trashes Google products’ usability and points to Yahoo’s good business sense in this article on vnunet.com.

That’s quite a discovery, mr. Bonforte, and of course you’re right in your above-mentioned assumption. The easier it gets, the more accessible it becomes to the large public. That holds true for just about anything, from technology to music to literature. But still, isn’t this statement slightly absurd? Or is it just me?

I mean, sure, usability is an important aspect of any product, but does increased usability necessarily force the developer to reduce functionality? Couldn’t they just’ve hidden the advanced features behind an “expert” button or something?

This guy actually brags about the fact that they’ve removed features from their product. What’s that about, anyway? Even if I didn’t know the start button from the mouse button, I guess I’d still be slightly scared off by a company executive displaying this kind of attitude towards their product line. No, I’m with Google here.