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

Greetings from Yahoo! HQ. Josh here.

Since I’m on the Yahoo! Mail team, I’ve been using the Beta for quite some time. And when I say I use it, I mean I use it for ALL my mail (and believe me, it’s a bunch). One of my favorite “hidden” features happens to be a search shortcut. Did you know that you can Ctrl-click on the Subject line in the message header to automatically trigger a mail search for all the pieces of mail with that subject? For all you new folks, the message header I’m referring to is that purple-colored area at the top of each message when you open it. Go ahead, open a message, hold down the Ctrl button and click on the Subject line in that purple section… I know you want to try it.

That’s my favorite. But there are others, too. Like to find messages from Gwen, all I have to do is just type “From:gwen” (no spaces) in the search window. To find messages with “Thursday” in the subject, I type “Subject:thursday”. And how about this: to find messages about pretzels, which do not contain the word “twist,” I type “pretzel -twist”. That’s (pretzel)(space)(hyphen)(twist). The minus sign (the hyphen) is a handy way to exclude items from a search. Type what you’re looking for, then a space, then a hyphen before the term you want to exclude, with no space in between.

I’m actually delighted with how well this search tool works, since it gives me great ways to maneuver around in my very busy Mail account.

Happy searching,

Josh

Read more »

OK, this qualifies as something that improves your email quality of life…but isn’t as visible as, say, a new button. You wanted a new button? There aren’t any new buttons this time around. But check out the enhanced speed at the heart of this release. We’ve heard your calls for faster! – and we’re continuing to soup up the Yahoo! Mail Beta’s performance.

The latest Beta version is currently splashing down on all remaining farms (check the previous post for info on farms and how we release new versions). This one’s twice as fast when you first launch it, and (on average) four times faster on subsequent launches.* Why the difference? When you first launch, our code is uncached and needs to be loaded fresh. After that, the code is cached. It’s right there for the taking, like clothes you can just grab out of your closet instead of having to go buy at the store.

Also, you may notice that it’s now a lot faster switching between folders and that you can keep the Beta open for longer periods without any compromise in performance.

To everyone out there enjoying the fruits of these labors, we just want to say thank you! The next release will see performance improvements across all aspects of the Beta, so fasten your seatbelts…

Happy Travels,
The Yahoo! Mail team

* Mac launch performance is a story unto itself. It goes like this: Once upon a time…we knew we had a ways to go optimizing the Beta for the Mac. So we set to work on it. And we’re working on it now! The End.

Read more »

Ever notice that the URL of your Yahoo! Mail account looks something like http://us.f348.mail.yahoo.com… when you log in? And did you ever wonder what that ‘f’ meant? Or the number next to it?

Well…we know you’ve been wondering. Because many have asked! So here it is, straight from the horse’s mouth.

Your email is stored on a server, and a collection of servers is called a “farm” – which is what the “f” stands for. And farms have numbers. “f348” means your account is on farm 348. Now, f348 is a great farm! They’re all great farms. But we regularly move accounts from farm to farm to balance the load on our servers. So there’s no guarantee your account will be on any specific farm for any amount of time.

When we’ve got a new version of the Beta ready, we release it to just a few farms at first, and if your account happens to be on one of those “first” farms at that time, you’ll be among the first to enjoy the new version. If all goes well with the release to those few farms, we roll it out to the rest.

Cheers,

The Yahoo! Mail Team

Read more »

Yahoo! Mail Beta now “speaks” UK-English (right then), Canadian English (colour us maple), French (joie de clic), German (ja!… und?), and Korean (재미). Many Yahoo! Mail users in these countries are already enjoying the Beta, and the rest will have it within the next two weeks. With lots more countries on the way, things are heating up!

For those already using the Beta, thanks for all the kind words!

Your feedback is a key part of developing the new Yahoo! Mail, so keep it coming and tell your friends to get on the waiting list! We’re letting folks into the Beta much faster now – by the tens of thousands each week – so new sign ups won’t have long to wait!

With appreciation,

The Yahoo! Mail Team

Read more »