What a rough year it's been for anal retentive geeks who like the Internet just the way is, thank you very much. Still flabbergasted over Ikea's decision to switch its font from a customized version of Futura to Verdana, members of the Defenders of Things That Don't Matter organization (which doesn't really exist, but should) found themselves reeling once again, this time over Yahoo branding Flickr so that it reads "Flicker from Yahoo!"

How could Yahoo be so callous to the dozens, maybe even hundreds of Internet users who would predictably be taken aback by the insignificant change? According to company CEO Carol Bartz, techy hipsters and "middle America Yahoo" just don't go hand-in-hand.

"When you get outside New York and Silicon Valley, everyone loves Yahoo," Bartz said to a roomful of journalists and bloggers a few days ago at the unveiling of Yahoo's $100 million marketing campaign 'It's Y!ou.' "I just want to transplant all of you guys out of your cynicism. What is wrong with you guys? Go be cynical about frickin' Google. You got me pissed off."

Some Flickr users are pissed off too. As one commenter in Flickr's forums put it, "it really does feel like Yahoo is kidnapping the once awesome Flickr name by forcing itself on the logo." Others have called the logo change "stale" and "very ugly." Makes you wonder how Flickr user shhexycorin could possibly be "indifferent" when so many others are obviously perturbed.