Yahoo! Mail Blog, UK and Ireland

Hot off the presses…. We’ve just added two new domains to the Yahoo! Mail family. Now you can get that same top-notch Yahoo! Mail experience but with “@ymail.com” or “@rocketmail.com”.

What that means is that you have more opportunity to get the email address that you’ve always wanted. I’m sure you might be happy with bob1123322@yahoo.co.uk, but wouldn’t you prefer just plain bobby@ymail.com? Well, now you have the chance to get the name that you want.

Just go to www.yahoo.co.uk/ymail and register your new email address. I’m going to get mine right now.

Happy registering!
Andrew – Yahoo! Mail Team

p.s. For you history buffs out there, Rocketmail was the creation of Four 11, the company that Yahoo! bought in 1997 that launched Yahoo! Mail.

You may have 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 (and of course pictured here on this blog as the caped crusader). Today I wanted to take the 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. Now you have the opportunity to help Liam find similar happiness outside of his job. Make Liam happy!

Happy emailing,
Andrew

Some of you are reporting that you are having difficulty sending email via SMTP. Our engineers are looking into the issue and will have a fix soon. But while you’re waiting, don’t fret, because I have 2 - yes two - work-arounds for you. (A work-around being tech-speak for an alternate way of doing something.)

1. The simplest way is to use the Web version of mail here: http://uk.mail.yahoo.com
2. Not so simple, but still effective is to change your outgoing SMTP port. Our help pages can tell you how, just click here to find the help page you need.

If you’re using Outlook - and it appears that the majority of you are - go to Tools -> E-mail Accounts -> View or Change existing email accounts -> Highlight the account and click change -> then look at this screenshot and make sure your settings match the ones below…

Hope that helps.
Andrew - Yahoo! Mail Team

Wow, what a year!! I for one had a great 2007 and am certainly looking forward to 2008. Last year, I celebrated 8 years of marriage and because of my birthday this year I now put a 0 (zero) as the second digit. I’m not saying how old, let’s just say I’m older than 10 and younger than 100. 

For all of us here on the Yahoo! Mail team, this was a great year too. Some fantastic innovations came through; I thought I’d just recap some of the amazing things that we achieved.

Instant Chat within Mail – I announced this amazing feature in March with this post that gave you a sneak peek, told you how to turn it off in June, and then in October we integrated the ability to chat with Windows Live Messenger. To me, this is one of the greatest things to come along since sliced bread, and if you haven’t tried it yet I definitely encourage you to do so.

Unlimited Storage – What more is there to say? I told you that you no longer have to worry about being over the limit in March. But I thought it bears repeating, so here goes… With Yahoo Mail you get unlimited storage!! You never again have to worry about filling up your inbox to the limit.

The All-new Yahoo! Mail – On the surface, it doesn’t seem big. But dig a little deeper and this is huge. In September, we took the word “beta” off and now it’s just the all-new Yahoo! Mail. And shortly after that Yahoo! Mail turned 10 years old! (I’m still just a little bit older).

This Blog – I hope you’ve enjoyed reading my posts over the past year. I’ve tried to keep it fun, fresh and informative. This year, I changed the look, added a mail tips section here and here, and in the New Year, I hope to be able to post some tips from you the reader.

All-in-all, I think you have to admit, it’s been a pretty good year. Oh, and watch this space in 2008, there’s plenty more to come!!!

Happy emailing and Happy New Year!!!
Andrew – Yahoo! Mail Team

If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you’ll have noticed that I’ve added a couple of sections for tips to get the most from Yahoo! Mail. There’s a section for Yahoo! Mail Classic as well as the all-new Yahoo! Mail. Right now, it’s just a few, but over the coming weeks, I’ll be adding more.

But I don’t want these tips to be a one way street. And since I know that everyone reading this blog is a Yahoo! Mail power user ;), I bet you have some tips that could help your fellow Yahoo’s. So in a “by the users, for the users” spirit, I’d like to call on some (or all) of you to share some of the features and functions that help you use Yahoo! Mail better.

I’ve created a form for you to share your tips with other readers of the blog. So if you feel like putting pen to paper, and maybe even getting your name in print, fill out this form. Your tip can be about the all-new Yahoo! Mail or Classic Mail or both. It’s up to you.

Our crack editorial team (read me) will go through all the submitted tips and pick out some to feature on the blog. But you’re not doing this just for fame, but for fortune too. So if your tip is featured on the Blog, we might even have some small token of appreciation for your efforts.

Happy emailing.
Andrew – Yahoo! Mail Team

We regret to inform you that you did not win the Yahoo! lottery. Because there is no Yahoo! lottery. Please don’t send us money to claim your “winnings.”

Like other highly-visible brands, ours is a tempting one for fraudsters to hitch their wagons to. You probably have received an email or maybe even a text message on your mobile notifying you of a fabulous windfall you’ve won in a Yahoo! lottery. It usually tells you to send money or your account details. Don’t fall for it!!!!

We will never send you an email about a lottery or contest you never entered. And even though the email might look like it’s from Yahoo!, it’s not. Anyone with a Yahoo! account has a Yahoo! email address. These are unsolicited emails that should be ignored and deleted. They are usually poorly written with lots of grammatical and spelling mistakes. For example, take a look at this excerpt from the one of the most recent scams I’ve seen:

“So we appeal to you to have a bite patients to enable our Account Department carryout their works more effectively for smooth and sucessful tansfer of your winning prize $ 0ne million us dollars without any delay…”

And as more folks are getting wise to the scams, the scammers are getting more and more creative. They are employing more tricks like using pictures of the Yahoo! campus and even our logo (they get these from pictures that are available to anyone online).

As ridiculous as some of these cons may seem, we take them very seriously. Our Yahoo! Mail Abuse team looks into all reports of these scams and takes appropriate action. Plus, we are currently evaluating new filtering technology that may be effective in catching scams like this.

In the meantime, if you receive a message claiming to be from Yahoo! notifying you of a cash prize, please let us know! Just forward the message to mail-spoof@cc.yahoo-inc.com. Include the full email header (info on how to do that is here). The full header shows us the route the email took to get to your Inbox and helps us track down the culprits.

Our team really hates these scams — maybe even more than you. So help us knock them out before they hit someone else’s inbox.

Happy emailing!
Andrew – Yahoo Mail Team

This time I’m not talking about unlimited storage. I’m talking about our mascot Liam – and boy he’s a big one. Think New York’s Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade big.

see more pics on Flickr

To celebrate the fact that we’re removing beta from Yahoo! Mail Beta, the team at Yahoo!’s campus in Sunnyvale celebrated with an enormous, inflatable Liam. Over 40 feet tall and able to float over tall buildings in a single bound, the celebration was meant to be as big as all the features we’ve been able to pack into the new Yahoo! Mail.

Consider these features:

• Unlimited storage
• Drag and drop
• Preview pane
• Select multiple messages
• Right-click
• Keyboard shortcuts
• And more….

Coming soon
The term “beta” will be removed from Yahoo! Mail Beta in a short while. We’ve all worked very hard to bring you the best mail product available, and will continue to work hard to keep it the best.

Why’s he called Liam?
Well, he’s actually based on a real person on the Yahoo! Mail team. But his name was chosen for a good reason. Can you guess it? Read it backwards…

Happy emailing
Andrew – Yahoo! Mail Beta Team (soon to be just Yahoo! Mail Team )

Sun, sand and surf. How on earth are you going to check your email when on holiday? I figure you probably fall into one of 2 categories:

You are either:

1. No work, no computers, no technology. You want to get away from it all and not be contactable. But if you’re going to be off globe-trotting around the world or just lazing on the beach for two to three weeks, why don’t you let your friends and family know that you’re away. Just use the “Holiday Response” in the Options menu of Yahoo Mail and respond to everyone when you get back. And now that you have unlimited storage, you don’t have to worry about pesky limits again.

or…

2. An email junkie. You’re so connected that you check your mail everyday whether from your laptop, your friends’ laptop, a cyber-café or the hotel lobby. You just can’t go a day without checking your email.

Mail just got mobile
If you fall into the #2 camp, why don’t you take your mail with you? Use your mobile phone to check your mail. It’s easy and free (of course your provider might charge you for internet access). You can check it out if you have a WAP compatible mobile phone. Just type http://uk.m.yahoo.com into your phone’s browser and you can get your email, contacts, and even Yahoo! Messenger.

For a more enhanced experience, why not try Yahoo! Go. It’s a feature rich java application that makes it easy and fun to access the Internet. If you’re a true email junkie, then Yahoo! Go is for you. Check it out. All your emails are there when you want them. Email is automatically pushed to your phone and syncs with your Web account (for example: delete a message on your mobile and it is reflected on Webmail).

Believe it or not, I’m a #1 kind of guy.
Have a great summer!!
Andrew – Yahoo! Mail Beta Team

The next time you compose keep your eyes peeled for a little “present” from the Mail Beta team. Every once in a while, when you are composing an email you might see an ad that looks a little like this:

If you click and drag that Liam from the ad over to the email you’re composing it will add that Liam to your message.

There are three Liam’s to collect and share with your friends at the moment. There’s the boxer Liam pictured above and two others you’ll have to find on your own. So send a load of emails and see if you can find them all.

Happy Emailing
Andrew - Yahoo! Mail Beta Team

Back in February I posted about integrating Yahoo! Messenger and Yahoo! Mail Beta. It’s a feature that allows you to have an instant message (aka chat) conversation right from within your mailbox. Back then, it was just a sneak peak. Now you should all have the ability to chat directly from within your Yahoo! Mail Beta mailbox.

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…

From the top of the Mail Beta window you should see a status message next to your @yahoo.co.uk ID. Just click on the down arrow and then click on “Sign out of chat”. 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”.

Happy emailing!
Andrew – Yahoo! Mail Beta Team