Yahoo Mail adds SMS, drops beta tag
The new version of Yahoo Mail comes out of beta on Monday, and it sports some spiffy new features, like the ability to send text messages to a cell phone--the first free Web-based mail provider to offer that function.
A button at the top of the page gives you the option to choose between sending an e-mail, chatting over IM or sending a text, or SMS, message, for free. You enter a contact's name, type in the mobile phone number, and send a message. It appears in a talk bubble next to your avatar in the Yahoo Mail window. The person receiving the text message can simply respond via text.
Yahoo Mail now lets you send a text message to a mobile phone.
(Credit: Yahoo)This feature will be useful for reaching people when you know they aren't online but likely have their cell phones with them. It is also appealing for those of us who are SMS-phobic.
Yahoo Mail also has a new shortcuts feature that enables you to quickly add an address to your contacts list or view it on a map, add an event to the calendar, and even conduct a Web search on certain terms. When items in a message have blue dash underlines, you can hover over them with the cursor and right-click to call up the short-cut action.
Now you can send instant messages not only to Yahoo Mail and Messenger customers but also to people using Windows Live Messenger.
The new Yahoo Mail is faster than the beta versions and offers six colors to choose from to customize the interface. It also offers the ability to refine e-mail search results by searching specifically by sender, folder, date, attachment type and message status.
Unfortunately, Yahoo Mail still brings up a default Welcome Tab page, with links to news and other items, and forces me to click on the in-box link before I can get to my e-mail. Paying customers of Yahoo Mail Plus go directly to the in-box.
The new version of Yahoo Mail will roll out globally over the next six weeks, says John Kremer, vice president of Yahoo Mail.
Elinor Mills covers Internet security and privacy. She joined CNET News in 2005 after working as a foreign correspondent for Reuters in Portugal and writing for The Industry Standard, the IDG News Service, and the Associated Press. E-mail Elinor.
1) Block email originating from foreign country domains at user discretion
2) Increase filter limit from 50 to unlimited
3) Increase blocked list from 100 to unlimited
I agree with increasing filter limit and blocked list for those who get a lot of spam.
I don't visit shady sites or subscribe to all kinds of garbage groups. And, that works for me. I have seen only 15 messages in last 6 months that were able to fool yahoo spam filters. It seems unluckily your id has become part of some database that is shared by spammers. Good luck.
or Apple Mail?
If not they can sing "new features" till their ass bleeds but that's not
going to make me want to switch from Gmail!
I suspect GMail will follow suit at some point in the future. Right now, they're just trying to hook users.
It's the only possible way to make easy money out of email for these companies.
Of course, this is the reason I don't like using ATT/Yahoo and use Firefox/Google/Thunderbird.
I don't actually still use my Yahoo! Mail account, but just in case I want to, I go in every 8-10 to clear it out. It was always a secondary address that I didn't really give out to more than a few people and certainly not in the last 3 years.
Yet in any given 8 days period, it can amass 10 new pieces of spam in the inbox and 300-600 in the spam folder.
It's nice to think they're trapping spam, but at that rate, some of it ought to be so obvious that it doesn't even really need to be delivered to my spam folder.
That makes looking for any "false positives" a pointless task.
300-400 messages in 8 days does not cause me to be impressed at their spam-identifying ability, it makes me frustrated at their inability to block legitimate and obvious spam from even getting this close to me.
It's even more annoying because I know a lot of people do use Yahoo! Mail and I work for a non-profit. We send emails about our work to those who request them. And we're often blocked or have our email delivered to the spam folder by Yahoo! despite following all kinds of best practices and employing one of the larger ESPs who have an ISP-relationship with Yahoo!
I believe that if more were even dropped before it hit the spam folder, less spam would be aimed at Yahoo!
Because right now, even in the spam folder, people can open, view images and click. And as cheap as email is, they only need a few people to do that in order for it to be worth it to the spammers.
Here is what I DON'T do.
- Click on "you've won an iPod" ad.
- Post my emails on webpages with "@" sign. Always use "my.name""at""yahoo"."com".
- Visit porn sites
- Use unsecured wi-fi
WWW is still wild wild west. It is very easy to spoof email due to lack of standardization. Gmail is spammed less because it is relatively new and not all spammers have built databases that contain them.
good day
Who in the world thought that I want to see a news page when I want to check my email???
And that apparently can't be switched off.
Before they can become relevant again, they need to lose the attitude of showing things down the users' throat. Until then, I use Gmail and keep my Yahoo account pretty much dormant.
- Get Yahoo Plus
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by WileySkier
August 27, 2007 12:36 PM PDT
- Want POP access, no ads, unlimited storage, go directly to your inbox, etc.? Upgrade to Yahoo plus...it's only $20 / year.
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- Why pay?
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by gsmiller88
August 27, 2007 6:15 PM PDT
- If you're like me the ads aren't much of a problem because I use
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- Gmail has these things for free
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by JoeF2
August 27, 2007 7:35 PM PDT
- Gmail has free POP3, and only unobtrusive ads.
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See all 52 Comments >>If I had to gripe, you got more for your money over the standard mail service a couple of years ago, so hopefully they'll add some additional features. This interface is much better than it used to be (IMO) and just getting rid of the ads alone is worth it to me.
Apple Mail all the time with my free POP access provided by Gmail.
You practically get all those features with Gmail (they only display
text ads) and it doesn't cost you a dime.
I block the Yahoo ads anyway, with Adblocker in Firefox. Google's text ads are ok, since they don't scream at me and don't distract from reading mail. They are just there when I want them. Google got this right, Yahoo is still way behind the curve.