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

We all get some unwelcome emails from time to time. You probably do what I do and just press delete, but sometimes you need a bit more muscle on your side to deal with them.

That’s where the Address Blocker comes in handy. It stops emails from addresses you don’t want to hear from. Just what you need? Then here’s how to do it.

All-new Yahoo! Mail users:
Click Options, then on the list on the left click Spam. Right in the middle of the page you’ll find a space in the “Blocked Addresses” section. All you’ve got to do is put any email addresses you don’t want to get mail from in here, then click Add. There you go. Told you it was easy. Here’s what it should look like:

Classic version of Yahoo! Mail users:
Click Options, then find the link for “Block Addresses“. Click the link for “Block Addresses” and enter any email addresses or domains you want to block. Then click Add Block. Just as easy for the classic mail users as the all-new mail users. Here’s what it looks like:

Happy emailing!
Andrew – Yahoo! Mail Team

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Welcome to the Yahoo! Mail Blog.  If you are reading this post now there is a reasonable chance that this is your first visit to this blog, so please do take a look around, bookmark it, and come back often for news about Yahoo! Mail!

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If you are like me, you first noticed the charming, yet goofy, ambassador for Yahoo! Mail almost two years ago, bouncing and pogo-ing around the beta version of what is now the All-New Yahoo! Mail. Of course, back then I was in the same non-employee boat that most of you are right now. But times have changed and I find myself with the unique opportunity to not only get the skinny on our bespectacled friend, but share that skinny with those folks who don’t have the same insider access that I do.

It all began back in 1973. Born to a rocket-scientist mother and mailman father, Liam began perfecting the Chaplin-esque pratfalls we’ve come to love while establishing himself as the class clown of his elementary school. During his teen years he tried his hand at commercials, as well as music, but ultimately found his place working with his father at the post office.

It wasn’t long though before he had an epiphany. Liam wanted to be a part of the latest evolution of mail…email. As luck would have it, his mom had friends at RocketMail (the email engine that would become the foundation for Yahoo! Mail), and got him a job in the Yahoo! email room. As the product of a rocket-scientist and a mailman, Liam was perfectly suited to advancing communication technology, and emerged as the perfect advocate for Yahoo! Mail.

Though he has found great success in his role with the Yahoo! Mail team, all is not bliss for Liam outside of work…which is where you come in. Soon many of you will have an opportunity to help Liam find similar happiness outside of his job.

Be on the lookout for Liam on the front page of Classic Mail, as well as the Home tab of the All-New Mail. He’ll be mixed in where you probably noticed all of those security themed tips for Yahoo! Security Month. You’ll be able to feed him, exercise him, and try your hand at keeping Liam happy … but you’ll only get the chance for a limited time!

Ryan K.
Community Manager
Yahoo! Mail

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In the interest of practicing what we preach, earlier today Yahoo! had a Free is Good Fair in honor of Earth Day.

Hopefully you saw the post last week encouraging users to participate in Freecycle and Reuse groups that enable people in local communities to give and receive “free” goods from their neighbors. Yahoo! gave employees a chance to do the same earlier today.

Staffers brought in personal items, as well as various Yahoo! gear to pass along to others. Perhaps I didn’t really need another Yahoo! coffee mug, but I wanted to do my part to help!

Ryan K.
Community Manager
Yahoo! Mail

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That’s right all you Classic enthusiasts. The much ballyhooed update to our Classic Mail offering was postponed over the holidays, but I can confirm that it is back underway.

Many of you have already noticed some of the changes (auto-save to draft, anyone!?!?), and the rest of you should be seeing them soon. I’ll be back in the coming weeks with more details (how does flagging messages or downloading attachments with only one click grab you?!?!).

Stay tuned!

***UPDATE***
I’ve been closely monitoring comments on this post, and would like to thank everyone who has shared their thoughts. Two of the most common issues reported involved default font sizes and Compose Message links from areas outside of Mail. In order to troubleshoot these issues further it would be very helpful if folks experiencing them could email me directly (ymailblog1[at]yahoo.com) with their details.

If you feel your fonts are displaying too large please provide:

• complete URL displayed in your browser after clicking “Inbox”
• operating system (Windows NT, 2003, Vista, Mac OS 10.5.3, etc.)
• browser and browser version (IE7, Firefox 2, Safari 3.1.1, etc.)

If you are clicking compose links but are instead landing on the Home screen of Mail please provide:

• The location you are clicking FROM (MyYahoo, Toolbar, etc.)
• complete URL displayed in your browser after clicking “Inbox”
• operating system (Windows NT, 2003, Vista, Mac OS 10.5.3, etc.)
• browser and browser version (IE7, Firefox 2, Safari 3.1.1, etc.)

As I’ve mentioned before, I can only really be helpful to all of you if you help me by providing complete detail when you find some sort of issue.
***END UPDATE***

Ryan K.
Community Manager
Yahoo! Mail

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One of my colleagues in the states was on TV the other day talking about how to be safer and smarter online. Take a look at this video where Yahoo! Web Life Editor Heather Cabot offers up several security tips to keep your online experience and mailbox safer and more secure.

Yes, yes, yes – I know that it sounds very American in tone, but if you get beyond that, Heather talks about some very, very useful stuff in the interview. Oh – and FYI – even though Heather mentions the Addressguard being a feature of Mail Plus, all users with a @yahoo.co.uk account can take advantage of that feature free of charge.

Happy emailing,
Andrew – Yahoo! Mail Team

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No matter which side of the Global Warming discussion you fall, I think one thing that just about everyone can agree on is that getting something you want, for free, is way cool. Especially if it is something that you want (and were about to spend money to get), or it’s something you want to get rid of (and can’t sell or might even have to pay to get taken away). Sounds to me like a win-win. Throw in a little something I like to call ‘good for the environment’ … and what we have, ladies and gents, is the trifecta!

So, in celebration of Earth Day this year, Yahoo! is focusing on one of the most important themes of environmentalism: Reuse. Yesterday we began spotlighting a “Free is Good” microsite (green.yahoo.com/earth-day) that features Freecycle and other Reuse groups. These organizations use the Yahoo! Groups platform to enable people in local communities to give and receive “free” goods from their neighbors.

To give all of you even more incentive (and potentially even more stuff to Freecycle) from April 20 – May 4th we will “hide” special prizes in randomly selected Freecycle and other reuse groups. These prizes are specifically eco-friendly in nature (e.g. a Smart car, organic food delivery, eco-resort trip, concert tickets to Sheryl Crow, other locally relevant cool prizes and a fan favorite – toilet paper (as long as you don’t try to recycle it, too). We are also featuring real stories from real people who have found “treasures” on Freecycle.

There’s no time like the present. Fire up that Yahoo! Mail and start cranking out messages to people in your local Reuse Group. After all, Yahoo! Mail messages represent more than half of all Yahoo! Groups email (and you wondered what this had to do with Yahoo! Mail), so there’s a pretty good chance that if something is Freecycled through these Groups … Yahoo! Mail was in on the fun.

Ryan K.
Community Manager
Yahoo! Mail

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In the spirit of Yahoo! Security Month, I wanted to put up a quick post so you all can check out this recent clip from KGO-TVs The View from the Bay. Yahoo! Web Life Editor Heather Cabot breaks down several tips to help everyone be smarter online!

Ryan K Community Manager Yahoo! Mail

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It may seem like a relatively minor development for all of you, but today marks a big day for the Yahoo! Mail blog.

I’m sure that most of you already noticed, given that you are all very security conscious net wanderers and always keep an eye on the browser address (after all it is Yahoo! Security Month), but just to be on the safe side I wanted to let everyone know that the blog is now officially at www.ymailblog.com. Not only is that FOUR whole characters (and one syllable) shorter than the ymailupdates.com address, but it is much more in line with most of the other Yahoo! Property blogs, is more intuitive, and I think just sounds better. All things that make me very happy.

It really is true what my mom always told me … it’s the little things in life that often bring the most joy. Granted I’ve always assumed that she was trying to sneak by some sort of subtle plug for having babies, but anyway, she was right!

If you shared the old URL with your friends don’t worry, all of the links containing ymailupdates will still work fine. The same goes for all of you who have subscribed to the RSS feed. Noone will have to change anything to continue visiting this blog, however you should all be aware that the URL that will display will now read www.ymailblog.com/…

Ryan K Community Manager Yahoo! Mail

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Just last month I wrote about the auto-save feature of the all-new Yahoo! Mail. I think you’ll agree that is a great feature. Some emails went around the office just recently with a great tip for using the ‘save to draft feature’, that I didn’t even know existed.

This tip is great for anyone who sends the same form letter to a whole bunch of people. (Note to you spammers out there – stop reading) Saving an email message as a draft is an excellent way to keep a single template for form letters.

Here’s all you have to do:

• Write your message, and click Save Draft to save it to your Drafts folder.
• Now, when you’re ready to use it, click Drafts in the folder list, highlight the message and click ‘Edit Draft’ (or just double-click the message to open it).



• With the message open, now you can add a new “To:” or “Cc:” address.
• Ready to send it? IMPORTANT: Hold down the shift key and click Send. (If you don’t hold down the Shift key, the message is removed from your Drafts folder when you send it.)

There you have it. Now, if you go back to your Drafts folder, you’ll find that the message is still there just waiting for the next time you have to send it out.

Sorry, but this feature is only available to users of the all-new Yahoo! Mail. So if you’re using the Classic version of mail, and would like to try this feature out, you can always switch to the new mail.

Happy emailing
Andrew – Yahoo Mail Team

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We are aware that some users have noticed small amounts of text added to the footer of some messages after sending.

Impacted messages will display text that reads “between 0000-00-00 and 9999-99-99” only after a message has been sent. The text is then visible to the sender (via the Sent folder) as well as to the recipient. We believe we have identified the root cause of the issue and hope to have it resolved within the next day or so. Please note that this should have no impact on your ability to send or receive mail.

We apologize for any inconvenience or confusion this has caused you.

Ryan K. Community Manager Yahoo! Mail

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