Yahoo! Mail Blog, UK and Ireland

So, were you successful in getting the email name that you’ve always wanted? That’s great news!! Now, are you trying to decide how to let everyone know that you’ve got a terrific new email address? And maybe you’re wondering if you can move all your mail and contacts over to that new ymail or rocketmail account. Well have I got a tool for!!!

How can I let people know that I have a new email address?
Whether you are coming from hotmail (yuck), gmail (blech) or even another yahoo (hooray!) email account, we’ve got tool that automatically moves everything from your old email address to your new ymail, rocketmail and/or yahoo.co.uk email address. It couldn’t be easier.

A little while back, my colleagues and I created a video that shows just how easy it is. I’ve included it on this post. But before you hit the play button, I just want to point out a couple of small differences from when we made the video (and believe me they are small).
1. You now have a choice to move everything to @ymail.com and @rocketmail.com
2. You can no longer move calendar items.
3. It can take up to 24 hours to move everything over (so keep checking)

Just take a look at this video (or click here for a full screen version)…

See how easy that was? Check it out for yourself

If you that can’t place where you know the music from… It’s “Maybe Tomorrow” by Terry Bush the theme song from the TV series “The Littlest Hobo”

Happy Switching!
Andrew - Yahoo! Mai Team

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.

Just a quickie (in more ways than one)…

We never stop reading your feedback and we couldn’t help notice that some of you were concerned about the speed Yahoo! Mail at times. We passed it onto our engineers, here’s what they did about it…

Installed *brand new hardware* with *double the performance memory* and *double the processing power*

…all of which mean a faster Yahoo! Mail for you. And please note, when we refer to “memory” we’re not talking about the storage space for messages (that’s unlimited, remember). We’re talking about the memory on the hardware at Yahoo! HQ. The more there is, the faster Yahoo! Mail can perform for you.

Here’s what the improvements look like in graphical form - Green is good!!!

The work’s just been completed so now you can tackle your email with even greater speed and efficiency than before.

And don’t worry, we’re not resting on our laurels - speed and performance are something we’re committed to optimising on an ongoing basis.

Happy emailing
Andrew - Yahoo! Mail Team

P.S. - I hope that you enjoyed this post. There’s lot’s of other great information on this blog, so make sure you come back often to read about all the latest updates, tips and useful information about Yahoo! Mail.

Update: The issue outlined below has been fixed by our engineers and has been rolled out to all mail users. If you get your mail from an external client (Outlook, Thunderbird, etc.) you should no longer experience this issue. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Some of you are reporting that you are getting the following error when trying to get your mail from external accounts: “Server XXX is busy. Another POP session may be active. Please try again later.”

Our engineers have investigated the issue and found the root cause of the problem. A fix will be rolling out shortly. When it has finished rolling out I will update this post to let you know. It takes a little while to get the fix out since it has to be pushed to so many different servers, so some of you may find the problem is fixed right away, while others may find it takes a bit longer.

Sorry you are experiencing the issue. You can always use the Web version until the issue is fully fixed.

Thanks,
Andrew - Yahoo! Mail Team

I don’t know about you, but I have this funny feeling that this summer is shaping up to be a repeat of last summer (not in a good way). Well, at least here in London, things have been grey as all get out. So to brighten your day, I thought I’d share with you, a new feature that’s recently launched in the all-new version of Yahoo Mail.

If you use the all-new version of Yahoo! Mail, and if you email a lot of photos, you probably have already seen this feature, but just in case you haven’t come across it, there is a new feature that was added that allows you to view the photos that are attached to your yahoo mail directly from your Inbox.

Here’s how it works (easy as 1-2-3):
For this example, I’m working with an email that includes three photos, but the same applies whether there are 2 or 200 photos attached. When I open up the message that has photos attached to it, the bottom of the message is going to look like this (without those crazy red boxes and numbers):

1. If you click ‘1’ you will be able to view the image directly from within the all-new Yahoo! Mail interface.
2. If you click ‘2’ you’ll start a slideshow that will allow you to scroll through all the images attached, which is very similar behavior to number ‘1’. (For more detail on ‘1’ and ‘2’, have a look further down this post to the next image where I’ll talk about the image viewer.)
3. But, after all the oohs and ahhs have worn off, this is what I REALLY like about this new feature… If you liked the download all feature, you’re really going to love this. ‘3’ allows you select from the attached pictures and only download the ones that you choose. All you have to do is put a check in the box of the pictures you want to download and then click the “download selected”. Of course you can still download all, but let’s face it I’m not that good of a photographer.

So what’s this image viewer all about?
If you’re still reading, let’s take a look at what happens when you click ‘1’ or ‘2’ from above. A sort of window pops up (it’s really an overlay) with the image you just clicked:

So here’s what you can do with the photo-viewer when it pops up (staying with the easy as 1-2-3 theme):

1. Whether you click on a picture or the slideshow link, you can scroll through the pictures that are attached to the image. So what’s the difference? Well if you click the slideshow link, then it starts with the first image, and if you click a specific image, you’ll then go to the next image.
2. Clicking ‘2’ will stop and start the slide show. If the slideshow is playing the text in the red box above will say “pause” instead of “play”.
3. Clicking ‘3’ does exactly what it says on the tin. To close your photo-preview or slideshow, just click the “close” button.

So that’s it. The beauty is in the simplicity, and I still think the ability to download selected photos is fantastic!! Unfortunately, this feature is only available to users of the all-new mail, so if you’re a classic mail user, feel free to switch.

Happy Photo Viewing!
Andrew – Yahoo Mail! Team

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

Not too long ago, we celebrated the birthday of Yahoo! Mail. I still can’t believe that it’s already been 10 years. And as you read through that previous post, you’ll notice as time has passed, we’ve been improving and updating the Classic version of Yahoo! Mail in order to give you the best experience and most popular Web-mail in the world.

More changes on the way…
With the recent focus on all of the great features of the all-new Yahoo! Mail, quite a number of you have been asking “what’s the future of Yahoo! Mail Classic?”, and asking whether or not you’ll be forced to switch to the new version. Let me first say that we have no intention of retiring Yahoo! Mail Classic, and you will always have the choice of which version you want to use.

That being said, the Classic team has been working tirelessly to tune the technology behind Yahoo! Mail Classic as well as working on new features that will go a long way to - if I can use the term – ‘improve on a Classic’.

So what’s changing?
There’s a lot happening with Yahoo! Mail Classic. Some new features are being added, some changed and some removed. Over the years, we’ve been listening to your comments and what to you’ve been requesting as well as taking a look at some of the stuff you just don’t ever use. So I wanted to list here just some of the highlights that you’ll be seeing over the coming weeks:

- Auto-save to Draft - Yahoo! Mail Classic now automatically saves a copy of the message you’re working on in your Drafts folder in case you lose your internet connection or your computer malfunctions.
- Simpler uploading and downloading attachments - In most cases, downloading now requires just one click!
- One-Click Flagging - The new Flag column (just one column to the right of the check-boxes) makes it super easy to flag messages.
- Folder Renaming - Rename and delete your personal folders directly within the folder view.
- More Intuitive Names - References to “Address Book” have been changed to “Contacts”, and your “Bulk” folder will instead be called “Spam” (since that’s what it is).

There’s even more than what I’ve listed here. For the full list of changes, check out the “What’s different…” page within the help pages of the new Classic version.

When will these changes happen?
To be honest, some of you may already be seeing these new Classic Mail features. But most of you will see these changes arrive in Classic over the next few weeks. You can tell if you’ve got the updates by looking at the image above. If you see the features outlined in red, then you have the updates.

As always, happy emailing!!
Andrew – Yahoo! Mail Team

We all get some unwelcome emails from time to time. You probably do what I do and just press delete, but sometimes you need a bit more muscle on your side to deal with them.

That’s where the Address Blocker comes in handy. It stops emails from addresses you don’t want to hear from. Just what you need? Then here’s how to do it.

All-new Yahoo! Mail users:
Click Options, then on the list on the left click Spam. Right in the middle of the page you’ll find a space in the “Blocked Addresses” section. All you’ve got to do is put any email addresses you don’t want to get mail from in here, then click Add. There you go. Told you it was easy. Here’s what it should look like:

Classic version of Yahoo! Mail users:
Click Options, then find the link for “Block Addresses“. Click the link for “Block Addresses” and enter any email addresses or domains you want to block. Then click Add Block. Just as easy for the classic mail users as the all-new mail users. Here’s what it looks like:

Happy emailing!
Andrew - Yahoo! Mail Team

One of my colleagues in the states was on TV the other day talking about how to be safer and smarter online. Take a look at this video where Yahoo! Web Life Editor Heather Cabot offers up several security tips to keep your online experience and mailbox safer and more secure.

Yes, yes, yes - I know that it sounds very American in tone, but if you get beyond that, Heather talks about some very, very useful stuff in the interview. Oh - and FYI - even though Heather mentions the Addressguard being a feature of Mail Plus, all users with a @yahoo.co.uk account can take advantage of that feature free of charge.

Happy emailing,
Andrew - Yahoo! Mail Team

Just last month I wrote about the auto-save feature of the all-new Yahoo! Mail. I think you’ll agree that is a great feature. Some emails went around the office just recently with a great tip for using the ‘save to draft feature’, that I didn’t even know existed.

This tip is great for anyone who sends the same form letter to a whole bunch of people. (Note to you spammers out there – stop reading) Saving an email message as a draft is an excellent way to keep a single template for form letters.

Here’s all you have to do:

• Write your message, and click Save Draft to save it to your Drafts folder.
• Now, when you’re ready to use it, click Drafts in the folder list, highlight the message and click ‘Edit Draft’ (or just double-click the message to open it).



• With the message open, now you can add a new “To:” or “Cc:” address.
• Ready to send it? IMPORTANT: Hold down the shift key and click Send. (If you don’t hold down the Shift key, the message is removed from your Drafts folder when you send it.)

There you have it. Now, if you go back to your Drafts folder, you’ll find that the message is still there just waiting for the next time you have to send it out.

Sorry, but this feature is only available to users of the all-new Yahoo! Mail. So if you’re using the Classic version of mail, and would like to try this feature out, you can always switch to the new mail.

Happy emailing
Andrew - Yahoo Mail Team