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

This week we have a guest blogger. So let me take a moment to introduce you to Rick Pal. Rick is the Senior Product Manager for our smarter, more social Yahoo! Mail. He’s got some exciting info to share about some changes to your smarter Inbox

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Hello everyone! As you may know, the Yahoo! Mail team has been pretty busy lately – adding Apps, strengthening our anti-spam, integrating IM into Classic Mail – and of course we’ve also been listening intently to you! Of course, not all of you have the new social features, but based on feedback from those that do, I’d like to talk about some upcoming changes we’re making.

You: Updates rock! Keep em coming.
Us: You might notice that your “Welcome” page in Yahoo! Mail has a new look and feel. For those using the social features in Yahoo! Mail, we’ve brought updates to the forefront and we now integrate non-Yahoo! sites directly in Updates — places you regularly visit such as YouTube, Blogger, Yelp, Picasa, and more. And there are many more Yahoo! sites now live, including Yahoo! Sport and Flickr. By adding more places to sites from which you can see Updates, we hope to make it easier for you to stay in the loop with the people that matter.

You: News over Connections Suggestions, please
Us: We’ve moved the entire connections module (invites, suggestions) to the right so you can continue to see the news and weather higher on the page.

You: I want to manage my connections inside of Mail
Us: We’re rolling out a brand new Address Book (what we’re now calling Yahoo! Contacts) that integrates contacts and connections (we’ll do a separate blog post on these features). The new Yahoo! Contacts will only be available to social users for now but it will be made available to all Mail users in the coming months. Stay tuned!

You: Holy Batman! I don’t want this thing!
Us: It is your Mail! Some of you just prefer the old welcome page and don’t want connections features. Here’s how to go back.

You: Holy Batman! I really want this thing!
Us: We are adding several new features that make it even easier to communicate and share before rolling it out to more users. Don’t have it yet? To get to the front of the line when we add more users, please create a profile.

Thanks again for all the helpful feedback.  And thank you for continuing to use Yahoo! Mail!

Rick Pal
Sr. Product Manager

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As you may have heard, we’ve been working on a new smarter inbox to help make your life easier. We’re happy to announce that today, some of you will begin to experience the smarter inbox, and we wanted to give everyone a chance to see what it looks like and what it can do.

The smarter inbox experience features a new Yahoo! Mail Welcome Page which surfaces messages, information and activity updates you care about most, as well as an updated inbox and folder view that filters messages from your personal connections.

The smarter Yahoo! Mail inbox also gives you immediate access to relevant third-party applications like Flickr, Flixster and Xoopit allowing you to do much more, and be more efficient, all from within your inbox. Take a look now and let us know what you think!

- Yahoo! Mail Team

Update: We are conducting a very limited beta test right now of the open applications in Yahoo! Mail. Only our power users, who were invited into the limited beta, can test out the new applications at beta.mail.yahoo.com. We will be extending this beta test to additional users over the coming months.

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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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You didn’t think I would let Halloween pass without showing off some of our favorite costumed Liams did you?  My favorite is Rappin’ Liam, but since Dracula is a more famous character I thought I would give Count Liam the top position.

Hope all of you out there have a happy and safe Halloween!

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Ahoy mateys! Thar be a phenomenon that be takin’ the world by storm today.  Lest ye hadn’t heard, but today be International Talk Like Pirate Day, an’ far be it from me t’ withold one o’ the best costumed Liam’s we be havin’.

If ye haven’t heard, this new “holiday” be pickin’ up steam o’er the last few moons.

The founders conceived o’ it after a painful racquetball game in 1995 prompted some seafarin’-esque exclamations (ARRRRR!!!).

Ye can learn all about it on their official site.

But alas…Liam may be a quiet swabbie, but he does know a thin’ or two about dressin’ up. So on behalf of that scalleywag, an’ the rest o’ the Yahoo! Mail Team, I’d like t’ wish all ye bilge rats a great tide!

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If you’ve ever wanted a place to go to get a quick snapshot of everything about Yahoo! Mail, I have some splendid news for you.  We have just rolled out an all new Product Overview site (overview.mail.yahoo.com) that should (in theory) contain anything and everything you wanted to know about the features and functions of Yahoo! Mail, but didn’t know where to ask.  Here comes the preview, but make sure you read to the end for some additional news about the blog.

As you can see there is an easy to follow navigation bar at the top of every page.  You can drill down within the Products tab to get detailed information about Classic or All-New Mail, and if you’ve ever wanted to know the differences, there is an option for that too.  You get side by side feature comparison of both versions, with some details about Plus features too.

Each main product page also has tab choices that let you see not only the current features, but also a summary list of all of the most recent changes.

But maybe you don’t want just a summary list of the changes.  If that’s the case you needn’t fret because there is another option in the main navigation bar that lets you review detailed descriptions of What’s New with Yahoo! Mail.

Maybe you want to know more about integrated chat or SMS within the All-New Mail.  Perhaps you were living under a rock and never heard that we offer unlimited storage for all users.  No matter your flavor, you can find the latest major product breakdowns under that tab.

Under the enhancements tab you can find a very detailed description of all of the features of Yahoo! Mail Plus, accompanied by one of my favorite Liam incarnations…Super Liam!

And I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the coolest aspect of the overview site…the giant link to this blog!  Sure you are already here now, but I’m all for anything that makes it easier for you to get back, as well as anything that could bring some new readers.

If you happen to be someone who found your way here for the first time thanks to that link, please do subscribe to the RSS feed and come back again.  Here you will find breaking news about both versions of Yahoo! Mail, product demos, screencasts, and news about bugs that may be impacting your Mail experience, all with a healthy dose of lighthearted humor (except on the bug posts, of course).

There’s lots of stuff to check out on the Overview site, so please have a look around.  Also, I want to let you all know (or at least the folks who read all the way to the end of my posts) that I’m going to be out of the office for the next week, so be patient if you don’t see any comment responses from me for a few days.

I’ve queued up some great posts with the pics users submitted of the places they use Yahoo! Mail, and they will be going up while I’m gone.  Enjoy, and I’ll be back soon!

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Believe it or not this was a total coincidence. Shorty after I posted about having seen the Where the Hell is Matt? video (and thus requesting your photo submissions showcasing where you use Yahoo! Mail) we were informed by the Yodel editor that Matt was going to make a speaking appearance at our main campus.

What many on campus DIDN’T know was that when he wasn’t spending that hour speaking he was actually being dragged all over campus to shoot scenes with various Yahoos. If you look really closely at the Mail team clip (0:55, pause if you need to) you will see a contemplative Liam in the center, with Matt just to the left and me wearing a hat just a little further to the left. If you look closely you can also see Mark, the anti-spam Czar.

The video is over on Yodel, so be sure to check it out!

Ryan Knight
Community Manager
Yahoo! Mail

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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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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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