Here’s the scenario: I was setting up a new Yahoo! Mail account for my mum the other day. I KNOW!! She doesn’t already use Yahoo! Mail?!?! Well the answer is no. In fact, she doesn’t really use the Internet at all, until now. My dad got her a new laptop for Christmas and she’s just getting around to using it now.

At the moment, she’s just going to use it for email, and maybe some Web surfing. She wants to be in touch with her book-group and another group she meets up with. So while setting up the account, it got me to thinking what’s the easiest way for my mum to logon to her new email account? And as I was saying, “Click this picture, also known as an icon (BTW – I like Vista for the option to have those huge icons), then go to bookmarks, then click on this one that’s called Yahoo Mail, and then login.” I was thinking there’s got to be easier way, and then I was thinking how do other people logon to their mail?

So I asked around the team, and what I’ve found a large percentage of users do… They open an Internet browser, and then search for Yahoo Mail, and then click the Yahoo Mail search result. I’m going to assume that it’s mostly Internet explorer for the browser and mostly some other search engine I’m not going to name ;). But then that’s probably what my mum would do too, whereas I would never think to do that. But since my mum doesn’t know what a URL is or what http:// stands for, it makes more sense to me now. I’ve been immersed in this stuff for so long now, what seems second nature to me is completely foreign to someone like my mum.

So the next time the next you’re trying to explain something to someone, think about whether or not my Mum would understand it.

So here’s the tip, which is my solution to the “easier way” from above and how my mum gets to her mail each day. I put a shortcut on her desktop that goes directly to Yahoo! Mail. Here’s one way that you can do it for your mum (although I know that there’s a number of ways to do it):

- All you need to do is click and drag this link – Login to Yahoo Mail – onto your mum’s desktop.
- Make sure her desktop is clutter free so that it’s easy to see the shortcut, and if you have Window’s Vista you can turn on those really huge icons, which my mum really likes.
- The shortcut icon you get may look like one of the two shortcuts above. I thought that it has to do with which browser you have set to be the default browser, but my tests have proved inconclusive.

Now this tip is not meant for my mum, it’s meant for people like me who want to help their friends and family get the most out of their Internet experience. But I promise, mum, I’ll get working on some tips just for you!!

Happy emailing!!
Andrew – Yahoo! Mail Team

I wanted to introduce you to the Yahoo! Widget Engine (I’ve been using it since it was called Konfabulator). For those of you who don’t know what a widget is, it’s a small little program on your computer to complete a specified task. There’s an introductory video that explains it better than I can. Of course, I’m sure that you Mac (and now Windows Visa) users know what widgets are already.

After you download and install the widget engine, within the suite of incredibly useful widgets that comes with the application is the Yahoo! Mail Checker. With that widget you can have a notification of when you receive your Yahoo! Mail and you don’t even have to open a browser to find it.

Unfortunately, the Yahoo! Mail Checker is on the second page of the dock. So one really useful suggestion I have is to right click on the widgets that you don’t think you’ll need and delete them from the dock. Keep doing that until the Yahoo! Mail Checker is on the first page of the widget dock (for example, I don’t need the CPU monitor). If anyone on the widget team is reading this, maybe you can let us reorder the default order of the widgets that get installed.

Now that you have the Widget engine installed, I hope you have fun playing around and finding out all the useful widgets that are out there. My all-time personal favorite is widescapeWeather for its simplicity and functionality (exactly what a widget is supposed to be).

Happy emailing!!
Andrew - Yahoo! Mail Team

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

So how does it work?
Simple really. Just log into Flickr with your Yahoo! ID. (If it’s your first time logging into Flickr you get to choose a screen name which can be different from your user ID). At this point you can upload a photo, or if you have a whole bunch of photos you can use one of the Flickr uploading tools. When you’re finished uploading, you can change the title, enter a description or add a tag.

Once you’re finished uploading, find the link on the bottom-right side of the page called “Send to a friend”. Enter an email address, or two, or three. Write a witty message. Then click send. That’s all there is to it.

So why is this good?
This way is an excellent way to share photos for so many reasons it’s going to be hard to list them all here. But what the heck, I’ll give it a go:

• Your photos aren’t constrained by size
• You don’t overstuff your friends’ inboxes (hey, we know not everyone uses Yahoo! with unlimited storage – but you’ll change that right? )
• One link gives them access to all of your photos
• Create groups in Flickr for your friends and family and when you upload new pictures they can be alerted right away.
• Your friends and family can leave comments and everyone can see the comments (sure beats reply-all)
• You can place your photos on a map (how addictive is that?!?!)
• And so much more

A fun way to get started with Flickr is by just exploring. It’s fun, addictive and a great way to share photos with friends, family and a world-wide photo community.

Happy snapping!
Andrew – Yahoo! Mail Beta Team

New Button: Move to Folder
Nestled in between the “Spam” and “Print” buttons there’s a new one called “Move”. Now you can move a message to any folder you want with a couple of mouse clicks. Here’s what it looks like:

It works well with the checkboxes (see Part 1), so that you can move a whole bunch of messages at once. Just put checks next to all the messages you want to move and click the move button. Once you’ve done that you can move them to any of your folders that you’ve set up. Or you can choose to delete them by moving them to the Trash folder or mark them all as Spam by moving them to the Spam folder.

Other ways to move messages
Don’t forget that you can still click and drag messages to move them. And of course there’s the shortcut key. If you don’t feel like reaching for the mouse, just hit the “d” key and use the arrow buttons to highlight the folder where you want to move the message(s).

Happy emailing!
Andrew – Yahoo Mail Beta Team

More space to read
If you look about half-way down the ad on the right-hand side of your Yahoo! Mail Beta mailbox, you will see a small triangle (some might call it an arrow). If you click that triangle, cum arrow, you’ll be able to get more reading space. Here’s a picture:

It won’t hide the ad forever; you’ll have to sign up for Yahoo! Mail Plus for that. But you do get the option for a bigger reading area when you need it.
Happy emailing!
Andrew – Yahoo Mail Beta Team

Checkboxes are back!
I think the first thing you’ll notice is the left-hand column of your Inbox. We heard your feedback loud and clear. And what you told us is that you wanted an easier way to select multiple messages at once. So the new column allows you to select multiple messages (without opening them in the reading pane) and take action on them all together.

Now by checking multiple messages you can delete, move or mark as spam all at once. Of course, if you’re like me and also use email clients like Thunderbird and Outlook, you can still use the Shift-click and Ctrl-click method to select messages.

Stay tuned… There’s more to come.

Happy Emailing.
Andrew – Yahoo Mail Beta Team

The thing to remember is that now you can manage your whole contact list (formerly known as the Address book) right from the comfort of your Yahoo! Mail Beta window. Adding, deleting, creating contact lists, editing lists and emailing contacts can all be done with a click of a mouse button.

Quick tip of the week
And now for your favorite feature… Andrew’s quick tip. Did you know that, if you right click on a name in your inbox, there is a menu option on the shortcut menu that appears (it’s down towards the bottom) labeled “Add Sender to Contacts”. If you click that menu item you can add that name and contact information right to your contact list. How’s that for easy.

Happy emailing!!
Andrew – Yahoo! Mail Beta Team