Yahoo to Drop Fee on Enhanced Personal Ads

Citing customer complaints, Yahoo Inc. will soon drop a fee it began charging in October to people who want to place enhanced personal advertisements on its online dating service. The Sunnyvale, Calif., Web portal will continue to charge a separate $19.95 monthly fee to people who want to respond to ads.

Yahoo’s decision to drop the $4.95 fee counters the trend among Internet firms of charging for services that used to be free. Yahoo has unveiled paid services in the last year to try to reduce its dependence on revenue from banner advertising, a market that’s in a severe slump.