Screencast: You down with BCC?

Neither rain, nor sleet, nor a persistently congested sounding nose could stop me from bringing to you the latest screencast demonstration.

After reviewing some of the email suggestions, and circling up with some of the folks here, it became clear that not enough users really understand the BCC (Blind Carbon Copy) feature. And while we’re on the subject … what’s with the whole “carbon copy” thing anyway? I’d like to nominate that for inclusion on the list of “things we’ll have to explain to the next generation, because the origin no longer exists”. (Seriously, are today’s children going to intuitively understand why we “roll up” power windows, or why we “rewind” a song on our iPods?)

Anyway, I could go off on that subject forever. In the meantime, check out the video! You can check out the hi-res version here or view the embedded version below.

http://ymailupdates.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2007/10/blogpic4.jpgRyan K.
Community Manager
Yahoo! Mail

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32 comments »

Comment by Anonymous

December 21st, 2007 at 4:47 am

hi

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Comment by Filé

December 21st, 2007 at 7:14 am

Nice! Thanks! I’m glad to see this topic here :)
It’s just too bad that it (still) isn’t possible to send only to “BCC” (there’s got to be at least one address in the “To” field), cause it’s just pointless to put our own addresses in the “To” field each time one of those chain emails are sent. Sure, we may write somebody else’s address in “To” field, but that would make it visible to others (and that’s just the thing we didn’t want to do at first place).
So, I hope this will change ;)

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Comment by zach

December 21st, 2007 at 8:25 am

Those people in new orleans protesting that building destruction are Dumb. Those buildings need to be torn down theyre going to be replaced with modern a better buildings. Housing gave them vouchers to live in New Orleans or anywhere in U.S at the same cost as staying in the housing buildings.

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Comment by dreamcrusher

December 21st, 2007 at 9:03 am

Oddly enough, some archaic tech still has uses. Carbon paper is used a lot in transferring artwork for woodworkers/hobbyists.A lateral use, if you will. It was supplanted in the workplace by NCR (carbonless) paper, which is still used (gotten a traffic ticket lately?). Inkjets and silicon drove it out of the office.

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Comment by dreamcrusher

December 21st, 2007 at 9:06 am

Oddly enough, some archaic tech still has uses. Carbon paper is used a lot in transferring artwork for woodworkers/hobbyists.A lateral use, if you will. It was supplanted in the workplace by NCR (carbonless) paper, which is still used (gotten a traffic ticket lately?). Inkjets and silicon drove it out of the office. On a similar vein, the word album when applied to music is still valid. A CD is the medium, an album is a collection (see single v record album, photo album, etc ad nauseum.

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Comment by dreamcrusher

December 21st, 2007 at 9:08 am

Sorry for the Sorry for the double post double post

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Comment by Joel

December 21st, 2007 at 10:52 am

What is the deal with Firefox 3 support? Yahoo mail currently doesn’t work with the beta. Is it coming? Will yahoo ignore Firefox users?

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Comment by Stephen

December 21st, 2007 at 1:30 pm

The burden of support for Firefox 3 lies with FireFox/Mozilla, not Yahoo. If a site works in Firefox 2, it should work in Firefox 3.

The IE team at Microsoft has a similar dilemma with trying to make IE8 more standards-compliant, but still rendering a site correctly if it worked in a previous version.

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Comment by addie 58

December 21st, 2007 at 5:02 pm

Hi have been with yahoo for a long time and I love it because it give me a lot to read and do so keep the good work up.addie1949

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Comment by Glen

December 21st, 2007 at 5:23 pm

If you could use BCC for all address it would be better. Best soulution would be able to block address from showing. I get email all the time where the To line shows blocked. Is there a way to do that within yahoo email

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Comment by Dave

December 21st, 2007 at 8:35 pm

Why can’t we have an “undisclosed recipient” available for TO when using BCC???

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Comment by Kathy

December 21st, 2007 at 8:58 pm

My gripe about BCC is that I can’t see the recipient list on the message in my Sent folder. I typically use the feature for large lists, because A. some people don’t want their addresses shared with others and B. to avoid any Reply All messes. However, if I want to send a message to the same list again, then I have to recreate it. It would be so much nicer if I could copy and paste the existing list or at least have the option to EASILY create a Contact group list.

P.S. We’ll also have to explain “dial” the phone. But really, don’t we use words and phrases every day that pre-date our generation by sometimes thousands of years? One doesn’t need to know a word’s origin to use it. Finding out the origins of “taping” your favorite TV show will just be another fun trivia tidbit.

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Comment by Marasoiu Marian

December 22nd, 2007 at 5:35 am

HELOO! IT”S no Fear to pay for posted my photo in section photo album because tis is a part entire my blog.But wat thinking a smart gay? We create a site for a photo album for blog for cash of little money(millions) of dollars buy the fulish men. In consequently I cosult the my loyer about this practice if is legal?

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Comment by Tony Singh

December 22nd, 2007 at 5:35 am

Hi Ryan,
I enjoy ‘my yahoo’ page & have set it up as per my need..however,there is hardly anything on ‘autoblog’,'About cars’,'Hybrid cars & vehicles’& even ‘Automotive news’.
Usually,comments like ‘oops’or reviewed 4 months ago,etc appear..
Can you pl look into it?
Also, I want to create my own web site as I am in vehicle sales..any suggestions..i.e thru’ yahoo??
Will apprecite a feedback.
Thanks
Tony

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Comment by jc

December 22nd, 2007 at 9:35 am

Because the world at large doesn’t understand BCC (and unfortunately, probably never will), the problem of users shoving everything into the To or the CC box has to be handled programatically. The programmers of email clients can easily take whatever is in the TO box (after the first entry) and move it to the BCC box (after the user clicks SEND).

Handling the CC box is even easier: default to the BCC box and make the CC box a matter of choice (via button).

The solution is so simple that I can’t believe it hasn’t been implemented yet.

jc

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Comment by AmrJoe47

December 22nd, 2007 at 9:39 am

I am in Yahoo Classic Mail. In the to: line , I put “undisclosed recipient” and all the people I am sending the email to, in the BCC line. Is this feature not in the New Yahoo email???

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Comment by Filé

December 22nd, 2007 at 1:57 pm

There’s one more thing I’d like to add:
I somewhat agree with Kathy (”My gripe about BCC is that I can’t see the recipient list on the message in my Sent folder.”). It’s true it’s not possible to do it in EASY way! :-S
It’s possible to see the list if you check “Full Message Header”. ;)
However, I totally agree it would be way easier just to see list of “BCC” contacts email was sent to in “Compact” or “Standard header” of a message. ;)

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Comment by Trukinugly

December 23rd, 2007 at 5:45 am

I have seen people really embarass themselves using BCC. We had a fellow that would want to send a flaming email to his peers warning them about someting in the office as sort of a warning. He however would BCC the boss and ultimately the boss would forward the mail to everyone with his comments with eceryones addresses in the TO box and the snitches name as the original sender. Becareful how you use BCC

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Comment by E_chin

December 23rd, 2007 at 12:11 pm

why oh why do you use a mac? :[

great screen cast. very informative. now i what i shall do with those rare chain-letters that are actually good. hehe

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Comment by Firefox3Beta2User_TX

December 23rd, 2007 at 4:18 pm

I too would like for Yahoo Mail to become compatible with Firefox 3 Beta 2. Pretty please with sugar on it! Hurry, hurry! Thanks for listening and keep up the good work!

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Comment by sasa

December 23rd, 2007 at 7:20 pm

intrting job

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Comment by Mickey Allums

December 24th, 2007 at 12:19 am

When I try to switch from off line status to online, in the Messenger dialog box, I get a message saying, “You are no longer signed in because you signed in on another computer or device”. I only have one computer, so what do I need to do to get right?
Thanks for your help……. Can you send a reply to my email, in case I can’t track back to here to read what you say.

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Comment by Brad Boswell

December 24th, 2007 at 6:42 pm

yay?

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Comment by Vasanthkumar Mysoremath

December 24th, 2007 at 10:51 pm

Yahoo Mail is becoming slow and slow, Beta version, et al. ‘compose’ screen does not pop up even after pressing N many times, instead,the message tells us to go to ‘classic’ mode.

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Comment by adriana

December 25th, 2007 at 1:56 pm

I,m so upset. I can’t send or receive e-mails on my yahoo address .and I,m automatically told that my account was susspendet for 48 hours for sending or receiving.I wrote to Yahoo but nothing happened an my e-mail is still bloked. And all this over the festive season so because of this I was left isolated over the Christmas and if it continues like that probobily over the New Year as well.Can be done something about it?Please Thank You

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Comment by Robert

December 28th, 2007 at 10:34 pm

Yahoo, Please add a way to display the BCC field with every new email. For people who BCC regularly this would save countless unecessary clicks on the link.

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Comment by Ada

March 18th, 2008 at 11:31 am

Hi File and Glen

If you want to send a message to contacts using BCC column with nothing displaying in the “To” column, type your email address in parenthesis in the “To” column and nothing will be displaced there. Eg. To:(you@address.com)

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Comment by Phil

April 16th, 2008 at 4:30 pm

Ada,

I tried it, yes it works, but when I go to my sent file and open the file marked “undisclosed recipients”, my e-mail address is still there IN the e-mail.

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Comment by Andy

June 20th, 2008 at 6:03 am

What is the Bcc limit for Bcc addresses? At any one time? Over say any hours time? I understand there are two limits. There may also be other limits for those who have Yahoo Email Plus. What are these? I’ve seen in the Google cache questions in Yahoo’s Q&A asking for this info, but the actual links get removed. Essentially it appears that Yahoo doesn’t want their customers to know this information for some wierd reason.

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Comment by Jim Parsons

August 28th, 2008 at 3:41 pm

Not only is bcc itself important, auto bcc is a must for those of us who use Yahoo to collect email from other accounts and need to leave a record of emails supposedly sent from those account ON those accounts.

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Comment by co2dog

September 22nd, 2008 at 1:52 pm

What are the limits on the number of bcc enttries? I get a funny error about the number exceeding some magic limit.

Also, I agree that the requirement to fill the To: field makes no sense.

I started a new Yahoo account trying to move from an AOL account and these limitations are absurd.

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Comment by co2dog

September 22nd, 2008 at 1:54 pm

Do Yahoo mail developers read this blog or are we users just complaining to each other? Is this just a waste of tme?

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