YahooMail: Makes Me Want to Yell "Yahoo!"
Written: Oct 03 '01
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Lots of space; Email alerts; No junk mail; Virus scanning; Vacation response; Search.
Cons: Most of the usernames are taken.
The Bottom Line: The overall layout needs to be worked on as it's not that visually appealing at the moment. Other than that, YahooMail is perfect.
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| navinthebean's Full Review: Yahoo! Mail |
I was first made to sign up for YahooMail when Yahoo took over Geocities and all its members were subsequently required to transfer to a new Yahoo account. I found myself liking YahooMail very much, it being a pleasant change from Hotmail, which took ages to load and was down every now and then.
But since it is a popular email service, most of the usernames were already taken. Unless you can think of something really unique, you'll have to contend with some numbers attached. The good thing is that with a single Yahoo email address, you'll have access to all the other services Yahoo offers: eGroups, Geocities, Yahoo!Wallet, etc - no having to sign up again and again.
So anyway, I got my Yahoo email account and immediately went to change the layout of my inbox --- I didn't like the default layout one bit. I had a choice of nine colors, of changing the font size, and of switching to a non-frames/non-javascript version or staying with the version suitable for the latest browser. I didn't find any of the colors to my liking, being the fussy person that I am, but got used to it as time went by. No harm done.
As is usual in trying out all new email services, I tested the speed of email being sent and received:There is no delay in email being sent or received - the other person will receive the email the second it is sent and vice versa. This might seem very natural now, but there are many email providers that do not deliver mail at once --- very annoying, if you ask me.
Junk mail has never, not even once, made its way to my YahooMail inbox, unlike Hotmail, which is the epitome of spam. The amount of junk mail that I receive in my Hotmail account is one of the main reasons why I am so anxious to desert Hotmail.
Other than that, YahooMail is as feature-rich as can be:
• Email Alerts: Just as many Hotmail users can use MSN Messenger to be notified of new mail, YahooMail users can choose to be alerted by YahooMessenger. This way you don't have to bother going all the way to your Inbox only to find that no one has emailed you :(
• Forwarding your email / POP Access: If want to check all your email accounts from one centralized location, your email can be forwarded to another address or downloaded to your computer. There's one catch though: You must agree to receive email advertisements once in a while. But I suppose it's only fair, since you won't be viewing advertisements at the main website.
• You can also retrieve mail from up to 3 POP servers.
• Virus Scanning: Outgoing and incoming attachments are automatically scanned for viruses before they are sent or downloaded.
• The Address Book stores up to 5000 contacts. You can make distribution lists that send email to a hundred people in one go. Email addresses (or entire address books) can be imported or exported to and from YahooMail (Supported clients: Outlook Express; Outlook 95, 98, 2000; Netscape Address Book; Palm Desktop/Pilot/III). Two features I really like are that I can send any of my contacts to another person and I can print all the email addresses in my Address Book very easily, choosing exactly what to print and what not to print --- I haven't seen this anywhere else.
• Signature: Perhaps you have a website and would like to promote it by including its URL (website address) in your outgoing emails. Or maybe you have this really inspiring quote that you just heard and want to tell everyone else about. Whatever it is, signatures are very useful for this purpose because you don't have to type the same things over and over again for every email you write. Like most (but not all) email providers, YahooMail provides this feature.
• Block email addresses: If someone is harassing you through email, is sending junk mail, or if you simply do not wish to receive email from someone, you can block their email address. Henceforth, all email originating from that particular email address will not show up in your account at all. Up to a hundred email addresses can be blocked at a time and these addresses can be unblocked whenever you like. Personally, I feel that there should be no limit to the number of addresses that can be blocked at any one time, but that's the way it is.
• Filters: Email can be sorted into various folders. For example, email coming from a defined address will be delivered directly to a specific folder instead of to the inbox, or an email containing certain keywords will be sent to yet another folder.
• Bulk Mail: This is a form of a filter, where if your email address isn't in the TO: field, or if the email is sent to multiple recipients, it will be classed as mass or bulk mail and will be delivered to this folder. This feature was introduced to cut down on spam (not that there is any) but if you don't want any email going to this folder, you can opt out of this service. Emails that go here are automatically deleted after 30 days so be sure to check it every couple of days or you might lose email you actually want to get.
• Security: YahooMail is firewall protected, mailboxes cannot be bookmarked and the back button will not work most of the time, so if you choose a good password, chances are that your email will be completely safe.
YahooMail gives a lot of space: 6 MB --- 4MB's more that what Hotmail provides. If ever you need more space than the 6MB allocated to free accounts, you may upgrade to 25MB by paying a yearly fee of $19.99.
So if you're looking for a free email provider and still haven't found the one that's just right, you may want to check out YahooMail. It's fast, reliable, free, and easy to use.
http://mail.yahoo.com
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
navinthebean
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Member: Navin
Location: New York, NY
Reviews written: 61
Trusted by: 46 members
About Me:
If ignorance is bliss, why aren't there more happy people?
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