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

Back when I posted about updates to the Yahoo! Zimbra Desktop beta (get the latest version here) many people were intrigued. It was, after all, our first real step into the IMAP world, and it also represented a great way for users with multiple Yahoo! accounts to easily keep track of them without the dreaded logout-login-logout-login.

One of the more frequent comments from users had to do with something that we alluded to but was not yet supported … synchronizing your Yahoo! Contacts and Calendar with Zimbra.  Well the latest version, also dubbed “beta 5″, does just that.

To take advantage of the Calendar sync you will have to be on the new Yahoo! Calendar Beta (CalDav supported), but anyone should be able to sync their Contacts.  That was actually supported with a recent version, but I dropped the ball on announcing it.

After you have installed or updated your Zimbra software, go to the Account Setup link and then look for the link to Edit your account details.  You should see a whole bunch of fun Synchronization Settings to select.  Just like the first time you set up your Zimbra, it should take some time to populate.  But once it finishes the first sync it should be much faster.

If you run into problems you can head over to the Zimbra Desktop forums to give feedback or report issues.

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Due to an unplanned power equipment issue at one of Yahoo’s third-party co-location facilities, a small portion of Yahoo! services and features may be temporarily unavailable. Our provider is working expeditiously to complete the maintenance, which we expect to last a few hours.

What this specifically means for Mail users is that some of you will be unable to access your Yahoo! Mail for several hours this evening, and others will experience delays in email delivery.  Additionally, some users may notice that they are unable to login to the chat feature within the All-New Yahoo! Mail. Overall it is a very small percentage of users who are impacted, but that doesn’t make it any less frustrating for those of you who are, and for that we are sorry.

Once the maintenance is complete, those users that have been affected will have full access to their email accounts. Again, we apologize for the inconvenience and will be working to resolve this as quickly as possible.

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As a kid I was always flummoxed by the idea that the word used to represent immobility was also used to describe the fancy paper used for messages that are inherently mobile.

Perhaps if I had paid more attention to the fact that they were spelled differently it might not have baffled me so. But in my defense…how often do you ever really write the word “stationery?”

I may have spent several occasions sitting stationary while writing on stationery…but I can’t recall a single time I wrote the word stationery (that was fun).

Anyway, it wasn’t too long ago that only Plus users could incorporate stationery into their Yahoo! Mail messages.

Well, not any more. Everyone using the All-New Yahoo! Mail not only has the option to add designs from one of 8 standard categories, but also from a featured section that surfaces several Liam related options that are sprinkled throughout the original categories.

Have a look the options, and if you have any questions you can check out the details in Yahoo! Help for guidance.

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Many of you have probably noticed that all around the Yahoo! network you are being greeted a little differently than you were before.  Gone is the Yahoo! ID (often shortened for space constraints) and it has been replaced with your first name.

It doesn’t stop there, because it is also home to a new menu that provides access to your Profile, Contacts, Applications, and Edit My Account options.

Sure the Contacts one isn’t that revolutionary if you are in your Mail account, but it will likely come in handy if you are out exploring another area of the Y! network.

All you need to do is mouse-over the area where your name is displayed (along with the arrow symbol) and the menu is revealed.

Just about everyone using Yahoo! Mail (Classic or the newer version) should already be seeing it there, as well as on your profiles pages, throughout  Yahoo! Groups, Yahoo! News, and more.  Be sure to keep your eyes peeled.

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I wouldn’t dare try to keep you from your friends, family, and food today.  Just be careful not to end up losing control and bursting that stomach!

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We’ve received reports from some users that they are experiencing problems getting their inbox to load completely in the All-New Yahoo! Mail. Our engineers have been sleuthing around and discovered that if you are running Firefox 2.0.0.18, and have the RealPlayer Browser Record Plugin 1.0 installed as a browser add-on, you may run into this too.

Without getting too deep into the nitty-gritty, it seems that the plugin is preventing certain requests from reaching their intended destination within the browser. Fortunately there are two easy ways to resolve the problem.

1. Go to Tools > Add-ons, find RealPlayer plugin, Disable or Uninstall, restart Firefox.
2. Upgrade to Firefox 3.

Either of those options will do the trick.

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Hopefully you saw that the Calendar team already restored the ability for users to switch back from the beta, but I wanted to make sure the team isn’t stopping there.  The team recently released an update that addresses the most frequently reported issues and tunes up performance (think timezone problems and import URL specs…among other things).

They’re also already hard at work on the next batch of features, including the top-rated requests from users via the Yahoo Calendar Suggestion Board. So be sure to weigh in if you want to get your feature on the roadmap.

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Despite my earlier efforts to share these visionary suggestions with screenshots, it seems that people continue to rely heavily on search engines to get to their Yahoo! Mail account. Now if you simply like that process, more power to you. But if you would like something with fewer steps, do I have the video for you. Please excuse the stuffiness of the voice over. Not only was my voice born for print media, I was fighting off some seasonal allergies.

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We’ve learned that some users may be intermittently encountering errors, or delays, when attempting to attach or download files within Yahoo! Mail.

Our engineers are reviewing the situation, but in the meantime I wanted to confirm with you that we are aware and are on the case.  You should also know that in many cases users have been successful (attaching or downloading) after repeating the initial attempt.

We apologize for any inconvenience this is causing.

***UPDATE – 11/14/08***
Some adjustments have been made, and it appears that the issues should be just about completely resolved.   The engineers made some additional tweaks that are expected to further aid the situation.  We’ll be monitoring closely over the weekend and I should have more detail on Monday.

***UPDATE – 11/20/08***
I’ve confirmed that many users have had their issues completely resolved, but it appears that some of you are still encountering delays.  I am following up with the engineering team to get additional information.

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Just a quick bit of news before the weekend.  While I may write this blog with our US audience in mind, I know that some of you out there are reading my words from places far beyond my local shores.  That is why I wanted to make absolutely sure that any of you reading from the UK are aware of the maintenance scheduled for this weekend.

Starting on Friday evening (November 7th) and continuing throughout the night, we are going to be undertaking extensive but essential work to our mail servers which means that some of you may not be able to access your archived mail folders or your mail overnight.

Please be sure to head over to our sibling blog for more information, and for status updates. And for the others reading … you can rest assured that I will do my best to get back to caring just about America as soon as I can.

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