Text Insertion Issue within Mail

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

Issues with blog

Hi everyone,

I’m aware that some people may be hitting errors when trying to navigate to certain areas of this site. First, let me assure you that this is totally unrelated to Mail. Rather it is totally related to me.

While upgrading the blog platform software last night I may have hit a snag, so I’m in the process of correcting it. In the meantime you may not be able to leave comments, or navigate to older posts. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Ryan K. Community Manager Yahoo! Mail

April is Yahoo! Mail Security Month

That’s right, Yahoo! Mail has claimed April and we have christened it Yahoo! Mail Security Month. Hence the shield-totin’ Liam you see to the right. —>

You may have already noticed that the Mail tips on your main page (Mail tab in Classic, Home tab in All-New Mail) had taken a turn for the security oriented, and now you know that you aren’t seeing things. Well even if some of us are seeing things, at least we know that we aren’t seeing things within Yahoo! Mail.

A variety of tips are there to help you find a ton of useful information over on the Yahoo! Mail Security site. Whether it’s understanding the best ways to prevent spam, how to protect yourself from viruses, or how to make sure you don’t fall for a phishing scam, The Yahoo! Mail team wants you to be smarter online!

Also, when you aren’t reading this blog you may want to keep your eyes and ears open for other security tidbits from Yahoo! Mail.

Ryan K. Community Manager Yahoo! Mail

UPDATE: Postmaster Queue Delays

As reported recently, some bulk senders, ISPs, and commercial emailers have been running into problems getting timely responses to our Postmaster troubleshooting forms. Unfortunately the situation is taking longer to resolve than we had anticipated, so I wanted to let you know that we are still working on it and are concentrating our efforts to get the queues back up to speed as soon as we can.

So … if you have already submitted an inquiry or form please be patient. If you are about to submit a request please be as thorough as possible, to reduce the likelihood that one of our agents will need to follow up for more information.

Ryan K. Community Manager Yahoo! Mail

Answering concerns about Preview Pane

In a recent post several users expressed some concerns about the Preview Pane feature in the All-New Yahoo! Mail. I touched base with the guys from our anti-spam team, as well as those from the team that focuses more on overall security throughout the Yahoo! network, and I think I’m sufficiently equipped to respond.

First I should explain the different types of messages people would typically classify as “spam”, and what risks each kind can pose. Be advised, this is kind of confusing (I know it was for me) … but I think it’s information that, once you wrap your head around it, is VERY useful.

• Unsolicited Marketing messages - probably the most common style, these are messages promoting all types of products or services, from all types of sellers, that are sent out indiscriminately. Some senders can use images within a message to confirm that your address is active, but as long as your spam settings indicate that you block images from unknown/uncertified senders (the default setting if you are in All-New Yahoo! Mail) then previewing isn’t risky. Spammers won’t know you’ve read the message unless you respond.
• Spoof or Phishing messages - these are messages that claim to be from any one of your favorite websites (hoping you’ll click a link and/or provide personal information), or claim to be from a lottery or estate (offering untold fortunes if you send money). These are dangerous if you fall for the rouse ruse, by clicking or responding, but not to preview it. Just be sure not to click on the links, or wire your savings overseas.
• Dangerous Images or Javascript - some nefarious individuals attach or embed images, or include some unfriendly javascript, that if accessed might run some nasty program or take advantage of a security loophole in your browser. The attached or embedded image issue should be covered as long as your spam settings have you blocking images from unknown/uncertified senders (just like I mentioned in the first section). Just don’t open or download the image. Meanwhile, our systems are also scanning for known or suspicious scripting, as well as sniffing out and preventing unwanted scripts from running (kind of like neutering it). Users reduce their risk even further by making sure they have the latest security patches for their browsers (VERY IMPORTANT), which is needed to protect users whether viewing email or simply out surfing the web. An easy way to check for security updates in IE is to access the Tools menu and go to Windows Update.

Identifying spam and phishing/spoof messages typically requires collaboration from our technological defenses and human input (since in many cases it’s a judgment call on the content and many users have differing opinions on what constitutes worthwhile content), but images and Javascript are things we address uniformly (based on your image settings, of course). Just because you see some spam messages sneaking through the net you shouldn’t assume all types of spam are regularly getting through.

Combine all that, and what do you get? While there are always risks in online activity, if you combine our continuing efforts to lower the risk of email scams with your efforts to continually keep your browser up to date, you’ll probably conclude (as we have) that the preview pane is a pretty good deal.

You can close and re-open the pane at any time (using ‘v’), and can also use the checkbox feature to highlight and delete messages directly from your inbox (without opening or previewing). So all things considered, All-New Mail can be every bit as safe as Classic.

Ryan K. Community Manager Yahoo! Mail

ATTN Firebug Users: You may need to update your plugin!

There have been some recent reports of issues that some Firefox users may be experiencing with the All-New Yahoo! Mail, if they are currently using the Firebug plugin (a popular browser tool for debugging or editing website code).

Fortunately there is already a Firebug update that should remedy the situation. Check out the Firebug website and look for the link to install version 1.1 Beta (it’s just below the big orange button).

Once you are running the latest version of the plugin everything should be fine, but we’ll be keeping a close eye on things anyway.

Ryan K. Community Manager Yahoo! Mail

Coming Soon: An Exciting New Feature for Yahoo! Mail

It was clear that many of you really liked some of the recent additions to All-New Mail, but we don’t want you to think the praise has convinced us that there isn’t still some work to be done. We understand that we need to deliver enhancements that ultimately make Yahoo! Mail the only email option you can even imagine wanting to use.

It is with that laser focused goal in mind that I’m delighted to announce the Yahoo! Mail team’s latest attempt to obliterate the competition. In the coming weeks we hope to begin rolling out a pre-pre-Alpha version of Yahoo! Mail (for both Classic and New Mail) that supports telepathy.

You may have already heard some of the buzz around technologically enabled telepathy (also known as “technopathy“) and we feel that we are perfectly positioned to really deliver on that vision.

To help lead these efforts we recently brought in Matt Parkman (formerly of the LAPD and NYPD) to be our new VP of Totally Wireless Mail. Fortunately for us his schedule had been really light when we first approached him with the opportunity. We also understand that many of you are already worried about the various spam problems this might create. While I can’t give too many specifics at this point, we have an offer out to someone to be our Director of Cranial Spam Reduction.

Ryan K. Community Manager Yahoo! Mail

Quick Search for Messages from a Sender

Did you know that you can retrieve all messages FROM a single user with only one click? Longtime readers of this blog already know that the All-New Yahoo! Mail features a very powerful and easy to use Search option that makes it very easy to filter your results by a wide variety of criteria (folder, date, sender, etc.). If you haven’t seen the previous posts with tutorials and screencasts, or if you simply love revisiting my earlier work, you should really check them out.

Anyway, we know that often times people will be reading a message from another user, and realize that you need to track down something from an earlier email with that same person.

Maybe they have selectively forgotten an embarrassing admission. Or maybe you are certain that they included directions in a previous email but you are having trouble tracking down which message. Really, it could be any reason, but we all have times where this comes up.

Of course you can head up to the Search box and type in the user’s name, but that requires typing and accuracy. Instead you can simply click on the user’s name in the message header (name or email address) and a Search runs for all messages from that user. That’s right … only one click needed!

Apologies to the Classic users, but this feature is only part of All-New Mail.

Ryan K. Community Manager Yahoo! Mail

More ways to get to Yahoo! Mail

The response to the Desktop Shortcut tip from last week was so positive, I thought it would be a good idea to share the details on the toolbar tip I described as my personal favorite. Just like the desktop solution, this should work for users on windows or Mac, and on just about any browser option for either.

Just about everyone should be familiar with the idea of adding a page to a Favorites or Bookmarks list. Something that many people may not be aware of (except, of course, for Tint and Mark who also suggested this within Comments) is that you can have a customizable toolbar near the top of your browser with quick access to your favorite sites.

Depending on your browser you may have to enable (or reveal) the Toolbar option. To do this you’ll need to access the View menu for your browser and navigate into the Toolbars area (it’s usually at the top). Then mouse over and make sure that the Links or Bookmarks option is enabled (or checked). After doing this you should see a new toolbar in your browser. Each browser usually comes with a few pre-selected sites, but those can be easily deleted.

Now that you have your toolbar available, you can start populating it with buttons to your favorite Yahoo! sites. You can add other sites as well, but really … why would you need to?

Just like when you added the shortcut to your desktop, you will want to mouse up the the Y! icon in your browser’s address bar. Simply click and drag it to the toolbar and that’s it.

Depending on which browser you are using, you may want to rename the link to something shorter, or more recognizable (I usually make mine “Y!Mail” to maximize space) … but that is entirely up to you.

Ryan K. Community Manager Yahoo! Mail

Creating a desktop shortcut for Yahoo! Mail

I saw this tip on the UK blog, and at first thought that Andrew must be out of his head … but I checked with folks from this side of the pond and found that this behavior isn’t all that unusual.

It turns out that a decent portion of users don’t actually bookmark Yahoo! Mail, but instead carry out a few simple steps every time they want to login.

Open a Browser > Search for Yahoo! Mail > Click on Yahoo! Mail in the Search results > Login

This sounds like a lot of work (which is why I use the bookmarks toolbar in all of my browsers), and there are several easier ways. Andrew’s suggestion for his ‘mum’ (as well as for the UK blog readers) was to create a desktop icon to launch Yahoo! Mail. All you need to do is get to the Yahoo! Mail sign-in page any way you prefer. Once there don’t sign-in just yet. Then mouse up to the browser’s address bar (the part with the http:// stuff) and drag the little Y! icon from your browser to your desktop.

Depending on which browser you have, as well as whether you are on a Mac or PC, you’ll get a little shortcut graphic representing your browser. On the left you will see an example of Firefox on Windows XP.

You can also see that the name of the shortcut is based on the name of the page it is pointing to (apologies to Mac users who will have to settle for the URL). You can rename it with a good ol’ slow double click, and have it say whatever you like.

Ryan K. Community Manager Yahoo! Mail