Yahoo! Mail Blog
The latest scoop on Yahoo! Mail product updates, new releases, bug fixes,

A small fraction of Yahoo! Mail users may have experienced intermittent email issues earlier today, October 26, but the problem has now been resolved. We believe this was an isolated incident. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused. If you are still experiencing any problems with Yahoo! Mail, please contact our Customer Care Team.

Today’s post comes from reader suggestion (who will have to remain anonymous, because I seem to have misplaced his email, ping, message from Facebook, LinkedIn etc.), who reminded me that, ‘with all of the fantastic new updates we’ve been releasing lately, like the new social features and Apps in Yahoo! Mail, we sometimes overlook the great features that have been around for ages.’ Features which make Yahoo! Mail the best (not just my opinion) email service around. One such feature is the ability to add an extra mail address to your Yahoo! Mail account.

You’ve got questions, I’ve got answers…

What is it?
An extra mail address is a second Yahoo! email address that is linked to your existing Yahoo! Mail account. It’s another email address, just like your primary one, that you can use to send and receive mail from, while using the exact same Inbox you’re used to. You can even make it the default address that you send email from if you want.

Why do I want one?
I can think of a number of things that you could use the extra mail address for. Here’s just a couple:

• Let’s say you’re looking for a new job. If you originally signed up for a mail address like barry_manilow_fan@yahoo.com, you might think twice about putting that at the top of your resume. You can create an extra mail address that is more appropriate for a job search or other business correspondence.
• Maybe you just want to have a second email address. There’s a great deal of convenience in being able to check for new mail without having to login and out of two separate accounts.

Sounds good, how do I get one?
It’s easy to set up and start using. From your Yahoo! Mail account click ‘Options’ then ‘Mail Options’ in the upper-right part of your Mailbox. From the Mail Options screen click ‘Accounts’ then ‘Add or edit an Account’. At the bottom of the new window click the ‘Get Started’ link under ‘Extra Mail Address’.

That sounds easy, but I’m still not sure. What else?

• You can easily send from this extra email address by selecting it from the pull-down menu when you compose a new message.
• You can sign in to your Yahoo! Mail (or anywhere else on Yahoo!) using the extra email address with your existing password.
• You can even make the extra email address the default for sending new mail. Just set it as the default in the ‘Mail Accounts’ section of Mail Options.

I really hope you try out this feature. If you get stuck, or want to find out more information about extra email addresses in Yahoo! Mail, take a look at our help pages.

Yahoo! web lifestyle editor, Heather Cabot, was a guest on the Martha Stewart show last Friday. You might remember Heather from her appearance on The View from the Bay last year. Martha’s show on social networking and technology featured guests David Pogue from the New York Times and Biz Stone from Twitter. Heather was on to highlight how Yahoo! makes it easy to bring everything that matters to you in one place.

The beginning of Heather’s segment includes a tour of our newly designed Homepage. But I’m probably a little biased in thinking the best part was when Heather and Martha opened up Yahoo! Mail to highlight some of the open and social features that help you to be more productive and stay better connected. I have to agree with Martha that Picnik is a really great Yahoo! Mail App.

Here’s a link to the videos available from the show on Friday. http://www.marthastewart.com/show/the-martha-stewart-show/the-tech-show. Heather’s segment is number 4.

Keeping you safe while you’re online is a top priority for us here at Yahoo!. One important part of your online safety is making sure that nobody else can access your Yahoo! Mail account without your permission, and the best way to do that is to make sure you choose a good password and make sure nobody else knows it or can easily guess it.

I know it can feel like a pain typing out a more detailed password, but none of us want to make it any easier for the bad guys.

My top advice is to be mindful of any Web page that requests your Yahoo! password. The #1 way people get their passwords stolen is by typing them into lookalike “phishing” web sites, pages that pretend to be Yahoo! or another trusted Web site but actually are run by the bad guys. Scrutinize carefully any page that requests your Yahoo! password. In addition:

• Make sure the Web page address doesn’t have any misspellings or extra words (e.g. http://www.yah000.com, http://www.yahoo-members.com, or http://www.yahoo.BadGuyEnterprises.com) in it. When it doubt, go straight to http://www.yahoo.com and log in from there.
• Be vigilant about anything that doesn’t look right on the page, such as typos, outdated content, or broken or missing pictures.
• Best idea: be sure to set up a customized “Sign-In seal” picture — instructions are at https://protect.login.yahoo.com/ — and never enter your password unless you see that picture on the page.

Here are a few more tips to help keep you safe online:

• Don’t use the same password on multiple sites. Your Yahoo! Mail account is important to you, so it deserves its own password. That way, if the unthinkable happens on another site, at least your Yahoo! mailbox remains secure.
• Never send your password over email. Yahoo! will never request your password from you in an e-mail; if you ever receive such a request, you should treat it as fraud. Do not pass “Go!” Instead immediately click the “Spam” button on that message.
• Protect yourself with a virus scanner. Another way passwords get stolen is from a virus that records your keystrokes. Don’t give the bad guys that option: There are a number of anti-virus companies that offer free versions or trial offers, including (in no particular order and with no specific endorsement implied) http://security.symantec.com , http://usa.kaspersky.com/downloads/free-virus-scanner.php, http://us.mcafee.com/root/downloads.asp?id=freeTrials, and http://www.avast.com/eng/avast_4_home.html.

Unfortunately there is no silver bullet against these criminals and con-men, but hopefully these tips will help us all keep the bad guys at bay.

You may have heard or read about email accounts and their passwords being posted online. While I’ve read different versions of how the person(s) responsible was able to get the email account information, it was not a result of any insecurity at Yahoo! It looks to be a result of phishing attacks. Should you feel that one of your email accounts was affected by the recent publication, whether it is a Yahoo!, Hotmail or Gmail account, I would suggest changing your password as well as other account security information like secret questions and alternate email addresses.

We are aware that a limited number of Yahoo! IDs have been made public, it’s uncertain if any of those email/password combinations have resulted in any accounts being compromised. Online scams and phishing attacks are an ongoing and industry-wide issue and Yahoo! takes great effort to protect our users’ security.

We also have the following online resources that provide information and guidelines on email safety:
Our anti-spam site: http://antispam.yahoo.com/
With a phishing prevention sub-section: http://antispam.yahoo.com/phishing
Our help pages: http://help.yahoo.com/l/us/yahoo/mail/yahoomail/abuse/
And of course, I’ve posted a number of articles about online safety to this blog: Spotting phishing emails, how to spot online scams, avoiding the lottery scams, and account recovery help

Here are a couple FAQs that provide additional information:
Have accounts been compromised because of this?
We are unable to confirm whether accounts have been compromised at this time. However, we strongly suggest that consumers take caution in securing their email and other online accounts by regularly changing their passwords, and updating account security information.

What do I do if I think my account has been compromised?
You should change your password immediately. Also, if you are unable to enter your account, you can take steps to recover it here: https://edit.yahoo.com/forgotroot

We take online security seriously at Yahoo! We strive to make you and your Yahoo! account as safe as possible. Of course if you have any questions or issues with your account, please contact our Customer Care team.

You might have noticed that we unveiled our new global marketing campaign yesterday. It includes a new video ad – ‘Anthem’ – that features the many ways that Yahoo! connects our users to the people and things that matter most to them. At the heart of the campaign is YOU and how you use Yahoo! to make the Internet your own.

Of course, as a proud member of the great team at Yahoo! Mail, I think nowhere is the spirit of YOU more personified than with Yahoo! Mail. With our new Mail we are helping you connect, share and do more than ever before right from within your Inbox. Our most recent improvements help you:

• see emails and updates from the people that matter most
• attach and upload files and photos of up to 25MB
• do more with useful apps (like editing photos, sending invitations) right from your Inbox

And we will continue to innovate and enhance Yahoo! Mail to make sure that we provide you with the best Mail experience on the Internet.

It’s a big day for apps in Yahoo! Mail. We first got the low-down on the pingg Invitations app, then the Attach Large Files app, now we have Gabe Huerta from the Evite team to introduce us to the new Evite app that lets you create, send and manage invitations.
Andrew – Yahoo! Mail Team

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Evite is coming together with Yahoo! Mail to make getting friends together even easier! With the Evite application, Yahoo! Mail users can send friends an invitation without having to leave their Yahoo! Inbox.

Yahoo! Mail users will get access to Evite’s exclusive invitation designs, perfect for any and every type of event. Not only is an Evite invitation more festive than just sending an email, users can manage all their friends’ RSVPs in one place without having to juggle dozens of emails.

The Evite application also helps users keep track of all their Evite events with a simple upcoming events tracker right in the application, as well as adding Evite events to their Yahoo! Calendar. Enjoy!

- Gabe Huerta, Evite

From an Invitation app we go to large file attachments… For this post we have Scott Schwanbeck from the drop.io team. He’s going to tell you all about the Attach Large Files app his company developed for Yahoo! Mail. It let’s you send up to 100MB and rich media files with your Yahoo! emails.
Andrew – Yahoo! Mail Team

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Today, we’re pleased to announce that people using Yahoo! Mail now have the ability to attach up to 100MB of files to each email using drop.io’s new Attach Large Files application. Best of all, it only takes one click and there is no sign-up or registration!

Drop.io is the simplest way to privately share exactly what you want with whom you want online – all in real-time and across all platforms (web, mobile and more).
Our application makes it easier to share groups of photos, documents, movies and more, by combining the power of drop.io as a robust media & file sharing platform with Yahoo! Mail, one of the world’s most popular email services.

People can access the Attach Large Files app from the Applications Box in the lower left-hand corner of their Yahoo! Mail inbox and using the app is simple:

1. Click “Attach Large Files” — this brings you to the drop.io welcome page
2. Next click “Select Files” — add as many files from your computer as you want up to 100MB. You’ll recognize drop.io’s distinct upload interface that displays the queued files, their file size and allows you to cancel any of them either before or during upload.
3. Next click “Upload and Compose Email” – users are brought to a new email, populated with thumbnails and links to view and download the attachments.

When your recipient opens the email, they have the option to click to view and download individual files, or the whole group.

The application allows people to save previously sent groups of attached files that can later be viewed or resent. It also integrates several useful drop.io functions like voicemail and conference calling.

The Attach Large Files app was built entirely on drop.io’s robust and open API. We are excited to see our API continue to be used as a springboard for other platforms to leverage drop.io’s powerful, real-time file sharing, collaboration and conversion engine to help power content sharing in the context of communication platforms.

Please check out our video screencast for more details about how the app works.

We hope you enjoy sharing more files using Yahoo! Mail and the drop.io app.

-Scott Schwanbeck, drop.io

As you know from our earlier post, today we’re launching some great new apps in Yahoo! Mail. And who better to tell you about them than the folks who created the app. Let me take a moment to introduce you to Lorien Gabel, the co-Founder & CEO of pingg. He’s going to tell you all about the great new pingg Invitations app his company developed that let’s you easily create, send and manage stylish invitations right from Yahoo! Mail.
Andrew – Yahoo! Mail Team

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Please excuse us while we celebrate a little; we’re a company that’s all about parties and entertaining, so it’s one of the things we do best. Today marks an important and exciting opportunity for us here at pingg. Today’s celebration is all about appreciation for our friends at Yahoo! Mail, who are rolling out the pingg Invitations app, allowing people to plan events with pingg right within Yahoo! Mail. Online invitations are incredibly popular, with at least five million events planned online each month, by our estimate. By all accounts an impressive figure, online invitations will only continue to grow as people look for stylish, eco-conscious and economical ways to entertain and communicate.

Since our launch in March of 2008, we’ve been offering a more stylish way to send and manage online invitations. Our gallery features beautiful, exclusive images contributed by renowned artists and style icons such as Martha Stewart, celebrity, fashion & nightlife photographer Patrick McMullan and groundbreaking graffiti artist Erni Vales, as well as up-and-coming illustrators and painters like Jessica Gonacha and Ashley Mills. We’ve always focused on design and aesthetics for modern hosts who are excited by the idea of being able to send stylish invitations online.

To find the pingg Invitations app, simply log into Yahoo! Mail and click the pingg Invitations icon in your new Applications Box on the left-side column. Once you get started, here are some of the specific activities you select from – all around making the invite process that much easier:

• Choose from pingg’s complete gallery of images, including artwork from our unique Designer Series, to create, personalize and send invitations right from your Yahoo! Mail inbox
• Monitor RSVPs, guest comments and status updates for all of your events in once place via the comprehensive dashboard
• Modify your invitation or send e-mail messages to individual guests with one click; set up reminder messages and thank you notes
• Get tips and other great content from friends of pingg like Martha Stewart, giggle.com, Notes On A Party and Sugar Network to help you entertain in style
• Grab contacts from your Yahoo! Mail address book
• Add events to your Yahoo! Calendar from within the app
• Add a map from Yahoo! Maps

Here is a look at how the pingg Invitations app will work for folks on Yahoo! Mail. We think it’s quite a nice fit.

Over the past year and a half as we’ve established our place within the entertaining industry, we’ve found countless reasons to celebrate and working with Yahoo! Mail is another great excuse to get the champagne flowing again. We are truly flattered to be working with a company who clearly sees the merit in collaborating with smaller, innovative start-ups like ourselves to provide their audience with the best tools for the things they love to do online.

So whether it’s for a milestone birthday, a Tuesday night dinner party, a client-appreciation event or an exotic destination wedding, we invite you to celebrate with pingg, too. That’s certainly what we’ll be doing; that and making sure your invitations are always well sent.

-Lorien Gabel, Co-Founder & CEO, pingg

With the launch of the new and improved Yahoo! Mail a couple of weeks ago, we announced the upcoming addition of a set of apps to help you be more productive and do more within Mail. Well, today is the big day! We’ve added new apps and made improvements to ones you already know and love. And they can all be found right in the handy Applications box on the lower left-hand corner of your Yahoo! Mail inbox.

One of the additions to our app family is pingg Invitations. With pingg Invitations, you can choose from a wide selection of invites featuring a range of designs, including ones created by well known artists and photographers. Even more impressive are the super slick host management (party invite) tools and integration with Yahoo! Maps. If you’re a hostzilla like me, you want to find just the right invitation design for your occasion and keep your eye on invitees that check your invite, but don’t RSVP (party foul). pingg makes it so easy to plan with some serious style!

With the Attach Large Files app, we are once again answering the call of our users to allow sharing of larger files. The folks at drop.io have built this app to allow users to easily upload and share files up to 100MB. They’ve taken collaboration to the next level by adding the ability to comment on files, a number to leave a voicemail for more context and a conference call number if you need to discuss further in real-time. Sometimes asynchronous collaboration is just not enough, right?

Today we are also releasing the Evite app that we demo’ed a couple of weeks ago. Now you can plan events with your friends and family from right within Yahoo! Mail. Start an Evite, make a list of potential partygoers using your Yahoo! Contacts address book and add it to your Calendar.

Finally, we continue to enhance our existing apps by adding features users have been asking for – like the ability to share photo sets in the flickr app. So if you already use apps, go check out the changes!

We are truly excited about what the future holds and we can’t wait to add even more apps for you to choose from! Stay tuned for more apps to further enhance your email experience and make you even more productive within Yahoo! Mail!