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

This might seem a little second nature to some of you, but based on some of the feedback we’ve been receiving, I wanted to take a minute to show you how you can quickly and easily sort messages based on a number of different criteria. 7 criteria to be exact.

Use the sort bar
You can use the handy sort bar to group and sort messages quickly and easily. Here’s what it looks like:

All you need to do to sort your messages is to click on the column heading with your mouse button. There are 7 columns to click if you want (which I’ve conveniently put red dots over), and here’s what they do:

1. Attachment – this groups all messages together that have attachments.
2. Read/Unread – this moves all unread emails to the top, and if you click it again, it moves them to the bottom (yes that’s what that ‘i’ means).
3. From – groups and orders alphabetically all your messages by the sender
4. Subject – groups and orders alphabetically by subject line
5. Date – sorts your messages by date (ascending or descending)
6. Size – sorts your messages by how big they are
7. Flag – groups all the messages you’ve flagged for follow up (what that means is for another post)

Ups and Downs, Ins and Outs
I’ve also heard through the grapevine, that sometimes people can’t see all the columns. So if you don’t see all the columns in the image above, you probably need to make a column or two a bit smaller. You can change the size of the “From”, “Subject” and “Date” columns by clicking and dragging the line in between the columns. Move your mouse over the column until it has two arrows then click and drag to resize. Just like this:

That other circle around the downward facing arrow shows you how the column is being sorted. If it’s facing down then it’s descending (that’s most recent to oldest or a to z). Click it once and it will sort ascending.

Andrew – Yahoo! Mail Beta Team

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I hope you don’t mind, but I just wanted to take a minute to give you a sneak peak on a new Yahoo! Mail Beta feature that I’m really excited about. Usually I don’t like to talk about things until they’re available to all of you, but this one I just couldn’t keep under wraps.

Coming soon to a browser near you…
…it’s text chat (or instant messaging if you prefer to call it) right from your Yahoo! Mail Beta mailbox!

Huh?!?! Well, in short, we’re integrating Yahoo! Mail Beta and Yahoo! Messenger. It’s a feature that allows you to have a conversation with another Yahoo! Mail or Messenger user right from within your Yahoo! Mail Beta mailbox. When you log into your mailbox you will see, at the top of the window, a status message (Available or Offline) and a drop down arrow. When you click that icon, here’s what it’s going to look like…

Once you set yourself Available, your contact list will show all of your contacts that have set themselves Available too. When you click that arrow next to the contacts that are online, you will be able to select anyone on that list and start a conversation with them right from the comfort of your own Mailbox window. Here’s what it’s going to look like when your engrossed in a conversation with one of your friends:

Our friends and colleagures in the US have created a “screencast” of how the new Mail and Messenger integration will look. You can view it here: http://ymailupdates.com/screencasts/mail_messenger_integration/.

That looks pretty cool, when can I get it?
Right now, the new instant messaging feature will roll out to Yahoo! Mail beta users over the next 3 months.

Keep your eyes peeled to this blog and to your mailbox. Instant messaging in Yahoo! Mail Beta is coming soon.

Happy emailing!
Andrew – Yahoo! Mail Beta Team

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Ever get the feeling that someone’s taken your email the wrong way? I have. That’s why emoticons are such handy little things to drop into an email. Trying to be funny? Then better flag it up with a smiley face. Trying to be serious? Then let everyone know you mean business. It’s easy to do, takes seconds and whether you’re having a laugh or having a cry, it can really help you get your message across.

Dropping an emoticon into your email is easy. Just select them from the emoticon menu or type them in using your keyboard shortcuts. You’ll find how to do that here.

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I don’t know about you, but my decision on what to wear to work usually involves looking out the window and maybe sticking a hand outside to judge the temperature. Needless to say, that’s not proven to be too successful at predicting what’s to come, especially since London’s weather changes so frequently.

Checking the weather just got a whole lot easier
Perhaps you’ve noticed in the upper right corner of your Yahoo! Mail Beta welcome page, there’s a new area that shows you the weather. It looks a bit like this:

Brrrr!! It’s cold outside. The location displayed is taken directly from your Yahoo! location preference.

Change locations
As for me, I’m more of a warm weather person. And I’m thinking about going on holiday soon. So let’s go ahead and check what’s happening (weather wise) in some possible holiday destinations. Go ahead and click the triangle next to the city name:

Maldives?!? I can dream can’t I? So you’re not going to see those red circles, they’re just for illustration. But this is what you can do with the weather module.

1. It’s that triangle that pulls up the menu you see above.
2. Enter the town or city and country or a postcode into this box and click “Go”.
3. This will override your default location and set the location in #2 to be your default location. The next time you log into mail this is the location that will show in the weather module.
4. Shows you your default location, in case you forgot what you did in step 3.

So now you have your mail and weather all in one place. What more could you ask for?

Andrew – Yahoo! Mail Beta Team

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At the Web 2.0 conference in November, we took the wraps off of one of our newest, coolest features: Yahoo! Messenger integrated with Yahoo! Mail Beta. But, that was just a preview of what was to come. Today, we will start to release this exciting new feature. But, we’ll be rolling out the feature gradually, so, unfortunately, not everyone will have access immediately.

As part of this release, I’ve put together a screencast that runs through how the integration works and what you can do now that Messenger and Mail are sitting side by side in your browser. Aside from the obvious of being able to instantly connect with 73 million Yahoo! Messenger users worldwide (according to comScore, 12/2006), you also get a seamless experience melding instant messaging with email.

This is the first screencast I’ve done on the blog, so don’t be too harsh. ;)

Update: Some people have been asking for higher resolution versions of the screencast so they can read my witty banter in the chat sessions. So I’ve put up a higher resolution screencast for your viewing enjoyment. You may want to stick with the embedded video below if you’re on a slower internet connection or if you’re running a screen resolution lower than 1024×768.

Ryan Kennedy (rckenned AT yahoo-inc.com)
Yahoo! Mail Beta Evangelist

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Thinking about upgrading to Vista? Just thought I’d let you know that the Yahoo! Mail Beta is compatible with the new Microsoft Vista operating system. I’m ready, how about you?

Andrew – Yahoo! Mail Beta Team

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