Entry Filed under: mail
June 18th, 2009
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I understand that some Yahoo! Mail users may be experiencing some slowness with Yahoo Mail recently. The issue is occurring due to a conflict between Yahoo! Mail and various Symantec (Norton) products including anti-virus/security software. Our engineering team has isolated the issue and is rolling out a fix as I write this blog entry.
In the meantime, if you are currently experiencing an issue with slowness, and have Symantec (Norton) products installed I can suggest disabling your Symantec software while you access Yahoo! Mail to resolve the issue. (Of course, I would not suggest permanently disabling your Symantec software, just do so while checking mail.) If you have to download any e-mail attachments, you can be safe in the knowledge that Yahoo! Mail scans attachments for any viruses before downloading.
The fix is rolling out now and will reach all of our users over the next couple of days.
Andrew – Yahoo Mail Team.
Entry Filed under: classic mail, security, sorting, subject-o-matic, yahoomail
June 10th, 2009
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At Yahoo Mail, we have a lot in store for 2009. We’ve been working hard building new social features as well as adding functionality to make it easier to find the email and information that matters to you most. On top of offering you a really fast webmail with Unlimited Storage, we wanted your Inbox to understand who you really care about, so you can get the important things done quickly.
These new features will reach your Inbox soon (this summer), but before they do, I wanted to give you a sneak preview of what to expect.
A New Welcome Page
The smarter Inbox experience features a new look to the Yahoo! Mail Welcome Page. As part of the new design we will surface the messages of the people you care about most directly on the Welcome Page.
Updates from Your Close Contacts
You will also notice that we will help you see what your friends and family are up to on other Web sites. You’ll get updates on what they share on the Internet as well as sharing your activity with them from the places you regularly visit such as YouTube, Blogger, Yelp, Picasa, and more. For example if your best mate shares new photos on Flickr or a video on YouTube, you’ll be informed about it on your Yahoo! Mail welcome page.
Filtering of Your Important Email
If you get a lot of mail, sometimes you just want a quick way to see the messages that are important to you. With the smarter Inbox you will be able to filter your Inbox (or any folder for that matter) to see just the messages from people in your Addressbook or just your connections.
Check out this video tour that shows you it all in action:
Wait a sec’ – I’m not sure that I want that
These changes will not be turned on by default. But if want to try the new features out and you don’t find these changes to your liking you can turn the features off by editing your Mail Options to disable the social feature.
How do I get it?
We will be adding these features to both Yahoo! Mail Classic and the new Yahoo! Mail version in the UK soon. If think it sounds pretty cool and you would like to get these great new features in your Yahoo! Mail account you only need to quickly create your Yahoo! profile and you will automatically get the update. Once you create the Yahoo Profile you can invite your most to connect with you.
Happy emailing!
Andrew & Gregory - Yahoo! Mail Team
Entry Filed under: anti-spam, security
May 5th, 2009
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You’ve all probably seen some sort of scam email, and by now you probably think you’ll never be fooled by one. But from time to time, I get one that I think is particularly cunning. And it reminds me that it’s never a bad thing to have a little refresher course on how to avoid be the victim of phishing scams. I received this email over the weekend, and thought I’d share it with you as a particularly good example of a phishing email.
Phishing, for those of you unfamiliar with the term, is the act of trying to trick you into revealing your account and login information via a fake email or fake Website. The one pictured above is a prime example of a phishing email, which uses a scare tactic to try to solicit you to send your account details and password. Here I’m being asked for the password for my Yahoo! account, and the email threatens that I could lose my account if I don’t send my info. It could just as easily been my banking information.
The most important thing you need to know is that we will never ask you for your password. NEVER!! And we would certainly never ask you to give us any of your account information unsolicited. Banking sites, like Yahoo!, are the same and you will never be asked for your account details in an email.
So if you receive an email like the one above, don’t fall for it. Just delete it, or better yet, report it using this form.
Find more tips for online safety in this blog post, and this one too.
Happy emailing,
Andrew - Yahoo! Mail Team
Entry Filed under: classic mail tips, yahoo mail tips
April 23rd, 2009
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After tabulating the results of the survey about email pet peeves that we ran last month on this blog, it turns out that your biggest email bugbear is the use of text speak in the body of an email. In fact, more than 1 in 5 of you think so. Here’s a list of the top five email pet peeves as voted by you our loyal blog readers:
- Use of text speak such as LOL and BTW (22%)
- Mass distribution emails to 5 or more recipients (16%)
- Use of ‘shouting’ CAPITAL letters (15%)
- No entry in subject line (12%)
- Read receipts (10%)
With those results in mind, we’ve teamed up with leading etiquette expert Jean Broke-Smith to put together the rules of email engagement. This guide should help you use email more effectively, and show you how you can get the most out of email.
Here it is the definitive guide to email etiquette and don’t forget to share it with your m8s 
Do….create the right impression and banish the BTWs. People react to email within seconds of receiving it. As the Yahoo! research shows, text speak can be very annoying and shows a lack of correct spelling ability and laziness. It won’t impress!
Don’t… offend. Using capitals is the email equivalent of SHOUTING and is perceived as being extremely rude, so make sure your caps lock is switched off.
Do…. include a subject line. You’ve got three seconds to grab attention when an email appears and by not including a subject in the email, the chances of it being read are greatly reduced. Use the subject line for the purpose it was made and tell people what the email is about.
Don’t… use read receipts. Read receipts demonstrate a distinct lack of trust, so avoid where possible. Follow up with a phone call if you want to ensure your message has reached the right person.
Do… remember the recipient. The failsafe method for emailing is to imagine you are writing a succinct letter. Address the recipient in the correct manner and title. You can be light hearted and humorous as in any written communication, it is a just a matter of judgment. But if you don’t know the recipient, don’t be over familiar and sign off with the right degree of formality.
Don’t…. use CC and BCC unnecessarily. The no. 2 email bug bear is mass distribution of emails, so exercise constraint when it comes to copying people in. If the email is important to other people, simply forward to them at the end, rather than them being caught up in a never-ending email trail. Likewise use the BCC button wisely, again forward emails separately rather than ‘hiding’ other recipients.
Do… take your time. Because of the instant nature of emails it is tempting to deal with them immediately, but rushing an email can lead to errors. Deal with them promptly but don’t panic and reply in haste and always check what you have written before you hit send.
Don’t… over use ‘importance’. Before you even consider using a red exclamation mark, ask yourself is this really important? Only use when it is vital that the email is read, otherwise you are drawing unnecessary attention to yourself and it is a quick way of irritating recipients.
Do…save the kisses. Over familiarity towards your boss or work colleagues is bad etiquette, keep the love and kisses for very good friends.
Don’t… email when angry. If you receive a ‘harsh’ email, read it through, then close it and walk away. Consider your response and if necessary ask someone else to read your reply before you send it, don’t fight fire with fire.
Do… choose a sensible email address. Common sense tells you that you are less likely to land a job if you use a frivolous email address, such as, crazychick@yahoo.co.uk. Think about what your email address says about you as it’s an insight into your personality.
Don’t… hide behind email. It is often easier to write something in words than it is to say it out loud, but don’t say something on email that you wouldn’t say in person. Emails have longevity and it can come back to haunt you!
Happy emailing,
Andrew - Yahoo! Mail Team
Entry Filed under: mail
April 9th, 2009
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Dear users,
On April 1st you may have noticed an advertisement from one of our trusted partners, Travelzoo, obscuring important parts of your Mailbox and making it difficult to use Yahoo! Mail. I want to let you know that the placement of the advertisement was a mistake on our end and in no way was Travelzoo responsible for the placement of the ad. We regret the mistake and want to let you know that we have sent the following letter of apology to our partners at Travelzoo:
—
Dear Travelzoo,
On the evening of Wednesday 1st April, there was a human scheduling error at Yahoo! that resulted in showing a large Travelzoo ad in a part of Yahoo! Mail meant for a much smaller ad. This was not something that you – Travelzoo - asked for, nor was it something that Yahoo! would have knowingly approved for Mail, or on any of its properties.
As a result Yahoo! Mail users experienced difficulty accessing their Mail as the wrongly sized ad obscured necessary buttons. They may have thought that Travelzoo was the responsible party. We acknowledge that Travelzoo neither condones that particular ad placement nor had responsibility for the mistake.
As soon as Yahoo! became aware of the mistake, the error was rectified by midday on the 2nd April.
Yahoo! would like to apologise not only to Travelzoo for any negative impact to your brand, but also to the Yahoo! Mail users for the inconvenience caused.
We take responsibility to our advertisers and our users very seriously and will therefore use our best effort to ensure that it does not happen again.
Please do let us know if you have any further questions on this matter.
Best Regards
Yahoo!
—-
Andrew - Yahoo! Mail Team
Entry Filed under: mail, yahoo
March 19th, 2009
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I get a lot of email, and I mean a lot. Every once in a while I receive one that I find very annoying. Today someone sent me one in ALL CAPS. I mean there’s no need to shout, I’m a nice guy.
I’m sure that sometimes people are not aware that there are, in fact, rules when writing an email. And email to friends is usually different from business emails. But just like that old archaic form of communication the hand-written letter, there is a ‘netiquette’ to be followed when you compose an Email.
The email I just received prompted me to think about all the things that have annoyed me in the past. So why don’t you tell me what’s you’re biggest email pet peeve.
Which of the following would you rate as your top email bug bear:
- Use of text speak such as LOL and BTW (22.0%)
- Mass distribution emails to 5 or more recipients (16.0%)
- Use of ‘shouting’ CAPITAL letters (15.0%)
- No entry in subject line (12.0%)
- Read receipts (10.0%)
- Inappropriate flagging of emails as High Importance (7.0%)
- Smiley faces (6.0%)
- Excessive exclamation marks (4.0%)
- Kisses as a sign off from your boss or work colleague (4.0%)
- Formal sign off from a friend (3.0%)
- Informal sign off from a work colleague (Cheers) (1.0%)
Total Votes: 1,321
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Happy emailing!
Andrew - Yahoo! Mail Team
Entry Filed under: Uncategorized
March 11th, 2009
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I want to give a quick heads up that we are conducting maintenance this coming weekend that might impact some of you. The maintenance is part of our ongoing efforts to give you the best Mail service possible.
Beginning the night of March 13 (London, UK time), you may experience problems accessing your Yahoo! Mail account. If you are one of the very few affected, have no fear. It should be available again the mid-morning of March 14. Apologies for any inconvenience this causes you.
As always, please feel free to contact customer care for any concerns or issues. They can be reached via this link: http://help.yahoo.com/l/uk/yahoo/mail/classic/forms_index.html
Thanks for your patience.
Andrew - Yahoo! Mail Team
Entry Filed under: chat, classic mail, messenger
March 6th, 2009
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Our newest feature in Yahoo! Mail Classic has started rolling out to everyone. We’ve integrated instant chat messaging courtesy of our friends at Yahoo! Messenger. This is already a very popular feature in the new Yahoo! Mail, so popular that it seemed only right that Classic Mail users have the same, smarter and social ways to connect.
How does it work, you ask?
Well, when you sign into your Yahoo! Mail Classic account, your Chat contact list will appear on the left of your screen. You’ll see a list of all of your Contacts who are online and available to chat, just click on one of your contacts that is available to start a conversation.
What if I don’t feel like Chatting?
I’ve been reading and listening to all of your comments, and a common question is, “How can I turn chat off?” The answer of course is, “Easily”. Here’s how…
All you have to do is click the drop-down box and select “Sign out of Chat”. Once you do this you will be signed out of Yahoo! Chat and Mobile Text. That’s it - you’re done. And, the next time you sign into mail, we’ll remember your status and you won’t be logged back into Chat until you set your status back to “Available”.
What else can I do?
Don’t forget to check out the ‘Settings’ menu too.
From the settings menu, you can customize some of the Chat & Mobile Text features to suit your preferences. You can change whether a sound should be played when you get a new Chat. And you can even move it down underneath your folders if you’d like your folders to appear above the chat module.
The new chat feature is rolling out to all Yahoo! Mail Classic users over the next couple of months, so please be patient if you don’t see it right away. We’ll get to you soon, I promise.
I encourage everyone to try out this terrific new feature of Yahoo! Mail Classic. It’s already a very popular feature in the All-new Yahoo! Mail. I’m sure that once you start using it, you’ll ask yourself how you lived without it before.
Happy chatting in Yahoo! Mail!!
Andrew - Yahoo! Mail Team
Entry Filed under: anti-spam, quick tips, security
February 6th, 2009
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This month is the Office of Fair Trade’s Scams Awareness Month. According to the OFT at their Consumer Direct site, almost 3 million UK consumers fall victim to Internet, post, email, text and phone, costing in the area of £3.5 billion per year. So, in support of the OFT, I wanted to share some of our top tips to avoid falling victim yourselves.
The first step in helping you to stay scam-free is to recognise the types of scams that are out there. Here are the three most common types that come in email form (which I’m sure some of you have seen before):
- Phishing scams – These are email scams that claim to be from an organisation, like a bank, and they ask you click on a link which takes you to a Website that looks real but is, in fact, fake. When you log in with your account details and password on this fake site, the bad guys gain access to your private information.
- Lottery Scams – These are emails that tell you have won a local or foreign lottery and to get the money you have to pay processing fees and send personal details.
- Advance fee or fund transfer schemes – These are also called Nigerian ‘419’ scams where you receive an email, often times from someone claiming to be in Africa or Asia, and claiming that they have access to huge sums of cash but need your help getting it out of the country. In this scam, the criminal offers to send you a cashier’s cheque for £100.000 and you send him back a personal cheque for £90.000 and keep the difference. The scam is, of course, that the initial cheque is bogus but may take several weeks to clear, by which point the criminal is long gone with your money.
You know what? Your bank will NEVER ask you for a password in an email, you have NOT won the lottery and all you end up with for those huge sums is a ZERO balance in your bank account. I’ve been collaborating with our Spam Czar, Mark, and we’ve come up with these tips to help you avoid the scammers:
- If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is – If someone stopped you on the pavements and said he needed your help smuggling millions of pounds out of the country, you’d be pretty suspicious. We recommend the same type of skepticism when you’re online. If you didn’t enter that Sweepstakes or Lottery, there’s no way that you won. Be extra suspicious if someone offers to send you money up front — as honest as I’m sure you are, that wealthy prince who offers to buy your iPod for 10 times its value isn’t as gullible as he seems.
- Check the FROM line – One big giveaway is when a seemingly official message originates from a generic e-mail address. If your bank has something to say to you, it won’t come from ‘security_services_293@freemail.ru,’ and when the Inland Revenue discovers an tax error in your favor, they won’t write to you from a personal account like ‘charlotte.magnolia@orange.co.uk’ Check the return address and make sure it looks legit (including looking for spelling errors!)
- Beware if someone requests personal information or any payment over e-mail – Yahoo! and other respected Internet companies will never request your username or password over e-mail, and neither will your bank, credit card company, or insurance agency. If a message is asking you to e-mail your sensitive information, that’s an immediate red flag. Likewise, legitimate companies will not request money up front for you to claim a prize you’ve won.
For good measure I’m including some of the choicest scam emails we’ve seen in the recent past. You can see the full-size version by clicking the thumbnail:
By arming with yourselves with the knowledge of what scams are out there and how to avoid them, you’ll be much safer online. As always, if you do see one of these scams, please do your part and click the “Spam” button inside Yahoo! Mail – it’s the single strongest way to let us know so that we can block these terrible messages. Here in the UK, you may also report the message to
reports@banksafeonline.org.uk.
Happy Emailing,
Andrew – Yahoo! Mail Team
Entry Filed under: classic mail, organise, rocketmail, switching, yahoomail
January 22nd, 2009
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I just had a look over at the Lycos mail site today, and it looks like they will be shutting down their service in the next few weeks. I know it’s never easy to change email addresses, but if you are a Lycos mail user, and are looking for a new mail provider, then we have a solution for you.
With one simple solution, you can bring all of your email and contacts from your existing Lycos account directly into a new or existing Yahoo! Mail account. Here’s all you need to do:
- If you haven’t already done so, sign up for a Yahoo! Mail account.
- Use our secure application to transfer over all of your Lycos email and contacts into your Yahoo! Mail account.
Yes!! It’s that easy. If you’re still unsure, watch this video and see that it’s just that easy. (Unfortunately, we’ve made some changes since we made the video, so calendar items are no longer an option)
And with our new email address options, getting the name you want is that much easier. During the sign up process, make sure to check out whether the email address you want is available @ymail.com or @rocketmail.com.
And last but not least, this isn’t just for Lycos users. You can transfer over all of your Hotmail, Gmail, AOL and many other email accounts into Yahoo! Mail.
Happy transferring,
Andrew – Yahoo! Mail Team
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