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by Lagged2Death 5291 days ago
Microsoft abandoned the "My" prefix in Vista for Documents, Pictures, etc. in the UI.

And then they brought it back in 7. I guess people complained.

I agree that omitting the "My" or "Your" where possible is the right way to go. If the overall context of the web page or application doesn't make it clear whose items are in question, adding "My" isn't always going to help much, or at all.

Consider Facebook, for example. Look at a friend's page. It probably has a "Photos" link. Would "My Photos" be clearer? Would "My Photos" refer to photos belonging to the logged-in user or photos belonging to the person depicted above the link?

It's the context in which the "Photos" link appears that makes its purpose and meaning clear, and that is usually the case.
4 comments
tszyn 5291 days ago
In my version of Windows 7 (International English?), it says "Documents", "Pictures", "Music", etc. There is no "My" prefix.
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brudgers 5291 days ago
"My x" typically sits under library x alongside "shared x" in Windows 7. So I am not sure that the vocabulary was complaint driven.

Regarding Facebook, everything is shared to some degree so I am not sure it is an apt example.

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sapphirecat 5291 days ago
> And then they brought it back in 7.

Mea culpa. I haven't used 7 very much =)

Speaking of context, though, I've also heard "don't use My" as a recommendation for mobile UIs, because they don't have that much space to spend on the word to begin with...

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sp332 5291 days ago
Actually, it took me a while to figure out why "Photos" didn't take my to My photos, but to a photo stream of all of my friends. (Also, Win7 did not add the "My" prefix back to computer, documents, pictures, or anything.)
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Lagged2Death 5291 days ago
Actually, it took me a while to figure out why "Photos" didn't take my to My photos, but to a photo stream of all of my friends.

Me too, but I believe that's a context problem, not a phrasing problem.

Also, Win7 did not add the "My" prefix back to computer, documents, pictures, or anything.

Well then somebody has some explaining to do.

http://i.imgur.com/k9ppY.png

In fairness, there are aliases of some kind set up such that "John\Documents" and "John\My Documents" are synonyms. But the GUI very much puts "My" front and center for me.

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