January 22, 2009

Satish Dharmaraj, Founder of Zimbra, Exits Yahoo!

Just a week after Yahoo! announced Carol Bartz as their new CEO, another exec is heading out the door. Satish Dharmaraj, founder of Zimbra, an email startup acquired by Yahoo! in 2007, will no longer bleed purple, according to Kara Swisher.

Swisher rightly points out that email has been one of Yahoo's strong suits, so this loss could particularly sting.

It should be interesting to see how Bartz, with her software-heavy background, handles the replacement. What vision does she have for Yahoo! email? It will be interesting to watch, indeed.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 8:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

May 15, 2007

Yahoo Starting Unlimited Email Space Today

As was announced a couple of months ago, Yahoo started its push for unlimited email storage today. Funny mine is still 1 gig as of a minute before this posting.

The rollout will take a couple of months and will be global, their press release stated.

Yahoo! Mail today began a global rollout of unlimited e-mail storage, which will reach all users of the service within the coming months. The service upgrade to the world's most popular Web mail service* was previously announced in late March on the company blog, Yodel Anecdotal. Yahoo! is the first of the world's three largest Web mail providers to provide unlimited e-mail storage.

“Yahoo! Mail has become an essential part of people's lives over the past decade and people around the world are increasingly sharing more of their lives online. By providing unlimited e-mail storage, we're continuing to build upon the industry's best Web mail service,” said John Kremer, vice president, Yahoo! Mail.

Both new and existing Yahoo! Mail users will receive an unlimited amount of free e-mail storage as long as they follow normal e-mail practices and abide by the company's anti-abuse limits. The service upgrade will be available to users of the original Yahoo! Mail service and the Yahoo! Mail Beta.

Posted by Frank Watson at 10:56 AM | Permalink

March 28, 2007

Yahoo Mail Turns 10, Offers Unlimited Storage

Happy Birthday Yahoo! mail - you are looking good for 10.

One of the biggest and oldest free email services annouced it will be offering unlimited storage as of May 2007. The former Rocket Mail, bought by Yahoo and relaunched as Yahoo Mail in 1997, has come a long way in 10 years.

Posted by Frank Watson at 12:07 PM | Permalink

October 2, 2006

Yahoo Hack Day's Success & Yahoo Mail API Coming

It sounds like Yahoo's first open Hack Day was a big success, featuring even a performance by Beck. Yahoo's Bradley Horowitz has a nice roundup in Yahoo Open Hack Day: Hell Yes!. TechCrunch's Michael Arrington served at MC of the event, and All Women Team Takes Yahoo Hack Day Top Prize post covers the top winners, briefly. Meanwhile, Yahoo Mail introduces web APIs from Niall Kennedy covers how a new API for Yahoo Mail is coming, with commentary from others here on TechMeme.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 8:42 AM | Permalink

June 30, 2006

Yahoo Beta Tests Searchable Yahoo Mobile E-Mail

Gary Price reports that Yahoo is beta testing a new Yahoo Mail interface here. Gary says the most notable difference between the current version and the beta version is that in the beta, you can search your mail on your mobile device.

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 9:31 AM | Permalink

June 13, 2006

Yamanner Worm Targets Yahoo Mail Users

Silicon.com reports on a Yahoo Mail worm named Yamanner that comes in the form of an email named "New Graphic Site." When you open the email, it infects your computer and spreads the worm to your Yahoo Mail address book.

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 11:20 AM | Permalink

January 4, 2006

PC World Talks Web Mail Betas and Desktop Search

An article in the the January 2006 issue of PC World offers a brief look at web mail betas from Yahoo (I use it all of the time, kudos), MSN Live Mail, and Zimbra. The Yahoo and MSN services are invite only betas at the moment.

Yahoo Mail's search shines, reaching into attachments as well as e-mail messages, and showing the document snippet where the search term was found. Yahoo Mail also interacts logically with your browser's back button--often a trouble spot for Ajax apps that continually update one "page" in the browser. In contrast, Gmail disables the back button, while Zimbra warns you that using it will log you out.

Microsoft's Windows Live Mail, which feels more like a tweak to Hotmail than a total rethinking of Web mail...

...Zimbra's real strength is as a full-fledged communication server, allowing a company to integrate its databases so users can, say, jump from a message with an order number to the order database itself.

The Open Source Version of Zimbra is available as a free download while a Network Edition priced at $28 per mailbox per year

And now to desktop search...

What a difference a year makes. It was just a year ago when we were in the midst of desktop search wars. Well, that was a year ago and this month the topic gets little press. A PC World article by Stephen Manes: Desktop Search: Just What You Need, looks at the power of what desktop search can offer the end user. He says that Yahoo Desktop Search is his favorite but adds that if YDS doesn't work for you to try one of the many other free desktop search tools available.

Posted by Gary Price at 11:44 AM | Permalink

December 27, 2005

Time For Dinner: Email/Gmail Team Leaders from Google, MS, and Yahoo Break Bread With WSJ Writer

Inside Google points us to this interesting read about email services by Lee Gomes at the Wall Street Journal. The article is titled: The Men Who Came To Dinner, and What They Said About Email and reports on a recent dinner Gomes had with email/Gmail team leaders: Paul Buchheit (Google), Kevin Doerr (Microsoft), and Ethan Diamond (Yahoo).

From the article: The evening wasn't all a Gmail love-in, though. The Microsoft and Yahoo representatives said their many millions of users might not accept some of Gmail's departures from email norms, such as the way the program groups messages into "conversations." The two men also razzed Mr. Buchheit a bit, saying that it had been easy for Google to promise a lot of storage to its users because it carefully controlled how many users Gmail would have by requiring an invitation to get an account.

Indeed, more than 18 months after its unveiling, Gmail is still a beta, or "test" product. But so are the new email versions the Microsoft and Yahoo programmers are working on. And no one is saying when any of the beta periods will be over.

I've been a Yahoo Beta Mail user for several months and love it. In terms of space, I have almost 70,000 messages (many lengthy press releases) stored and haven't even reached the 50% mark in my 2.0GB of storage. I wonder if I'll soon be able to "tag" my Yahoo Mail for better searching?

I'm also looking forward to trying the new Windows Live Mail beta if and when I get an invite. You can follow what MSN is up to in terms of email here and also register for the beta.

I'm also wondering if with its new ownership and the call from Barry Diller to expand the number of employees it has, Ask.com will release its own email service in 2006? Yes, I know Ask Jeeves also operates MyWay.com, which does offer free email, but I'm thinking of a Ask.com branded service that might also take advantage of the "universal mailbox" concept being used by Bloglines.

Posted by Gary Price at 3:19 PM | Permalink

December 16, 2005

A Brief Look at Mobile Mail Access from Yahoo and MSN

As Chris pointed out late yesterday, an official version of Gmail is now available for mobile devices with a web browser. This post offers a very brief look at what two of Google's competitors offer in terms of "official" mobile access to their mail services. Official because it's possible to read email on one of many mobile web readers from various services.

+ The Yahoo Mobile site points to this info page about they call Yahoo Mobile mail. Here we run into different services from different mobile providers. In most cases, access via a mobile web browser is available. In other cases, Sprint/Nextel for example, you also have an option to download and use a mobile client app designed for Yahoo Mail. I've been accessing Yahoo Mail from my web browser for months. I haven't tried the client app yet. The Sprint app became available in June.

+ Not being a Hotmail user it's impossible to share first-hand knowledge of what's available. However, the MSN Mobile site does offer Hotmail access. I think what's most noteworthy is that a new version of mobile Hotmail (for both the regular and mobile web are being developed/beta tested right now for the new MSN Live service. You can learn more and even catch a screenshot here and on the Your mail is here, come and get it! blog. You can also register to become a beta test of one or both services.

Postscript: P.L. points out that Google's new Gmail Mobile might not work on all phones and devices with a mobile browser. ">His comments here along with a list of phones that have been "confirmed" to work with Gmail Mobile.

Posted by Gary Price at 11:28 AM | Permalink

November 30, 2005

Yahoo Mail Beta Gains RSS Reading Feature

The new Yahoo Mail that's in beta has gained a new way to add RSS feeds into your mail folder. For me, it's nothing shocking. I already pull RSS feeds into Outlook folders and read them in exactly this way. But it's nice for those who want this feature in a web-based email system.

By default, if you click the Add button next to your All RSS Feeds folder, a window pops-up where you're offered to enter feeds from places like the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, News.com, Salon, Digital Photography Review and -- of course -- the Search Engine Watch Blog.

OK, I joke about that last one. We don't make that cut. But if you want us or anything not listed, you can paste the feed into the Address box at the bottom of the Add window.

What's very, very nice is that if you already have a My Yahoo account with feeds added, Yahoo Mail automatically lists those feeds within your All RSS Feeds folder. Great foresight on that, Yahoo!

Have multiple feeds? Each feed gets its own subfolder within the All RSS Feeds folder. You can click on a subfolder and read posts just for that feed.

Sadly, clicking on the main All RSS Feeds folder doesn't show you a view of everything, all feeds combined into one. That might just be a glitch for me, however. SiliconBeat says this type of "river of news" view should be working.

It's also too bad you can't do what NewsGator allows, create multiple folders and put feeds inside of those, to read subsets of feeds.

Someday I'll explain more how this works in more depth with NewsGator. But in short, I have a folder called Search:Hot where I have feeds from 10 or so different blogs that are places always on top of search news. If I'm in a hurry and want to see if anything new is going on, I hit that folder. Rather than important news on search perhaps being drowned out by other stuff, I get a concentrated yet combined view. When I have more time, I look at other folders that group feeds such as Search:Medium and Search:Cool. And non-search feeds that I take go into different folders.

The system works well for me. Obviously, it's not for everyone. But it would be nice to see Yahoo add this as the beta matures.

How about the ability to import all your feeds from another reader via OPML? My Yahoo has an old feature for this, which should in turn bring feeds into Yahoo Mail. But when I tried, it didn't work. Yahoo says it's an old import version and that a new one is promised soon.

Yahoo Mail?s full post RSS reader from Yahoo's Scott Gatz gives you some nice screenshots illustrating the service more, helpful for those not in the beta who can't play with it now.

While Scott calls the system a "full post" reader, remember that this is only true if the feed itself puts out the full post content. If the feed only carries summaries or partial posts, that's all you'll get. Scott and Yahoo Mail's Ethan Diamond are also interviewed on the new system over here at PodTech.

Want the new Yahoo Mail service now? It is pretty slick. My wife was a regular Yahoo Mail user and loved that, and she loves the new service even more. Scott kindly points to a form where you can ask to be included.

So where's the Add To Yahoo Mail button for feed publishers? None that I can see yet, and somewhat of a problem for Yahoo. They have the long-standing Add To My Yahoo button that many use. Will people who use the new Yahoo Mail understand that these buttons are a way to add to Yahoo Mail as well? Or will an entirely new user-friendly button for Yahoo Mail users have to come along. I'll check with Scott on this and postscript on Yahoo's plans.

Submitting RSS Feeds To Yahoo for Search Engine Watch members goes into more depth about getting your feeds into My Yahoo and in front of potential feed searchers, so check that out. Yahoo Feed Search & Web Search Feeds Update covers how searchers can seek and add content into My Yahoo itself, if you want some further assistance on that. Getting Add To & Subscribe Buttons For Feeds for Search Engine Watch members also runs down some popular Add To buttons that marketers may want to consider using to encourage subscriptions.

Postscript: Scott tells me...

Viewing the top-level All RSS Feeds folder should indeed show a compilation of all your feeds, so they're looking into why it doesn't work for me.
The OPML import feature I mentioned is an old version, which is why it probably wasn't working well. I've removed the link, because he promises a new improved OPML version that does work and better is to come.
The ability to group feeds into subfolders as I describe is on the top of the to do list.
For the time being, it remains a single Add to My Yahoo button for publishers to use to encourage subscriptions to both My Yahoo and Yahoo Mail -- but upgrades are coming to that.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 9:38 AM | Permalink

September 22, 2005

Mossberg Says Yahoo Mail Superior to Gmail

Walt Mossberg's column today offers a review Gmail and the new Yahoo Mail. Which service gets the nod? Yahoo Mail. Score one for Yahoo mojo. Mossberg writes that Yahoo Mail is "far superior" to Gmail and if Yahoo Mail was widely released today, "it would blow Gmail away...That's partly due to its features, but also to its respect for user choice." More in Mossberg's review: Yahoo Email Delivers That Desktop Feel Most Users Expect.

I've been a Yahoo Mail user for years but just started using the new Yahoo Mail interface (beta) and love it. I'll have more to say later on. In the mean time, if you want to take a look at the interface, I've posted a screen caps here and here.

Posted by Gary Price at 9:37 AM | Permalink

September 9, 2005

Yahoo Says It Must Follow Chinese Laws On Giving Info

Yahoo says it must abide China law from Reuters has Yahoo neither confirming or denying it provided email details that helped Chinese authorities jail a journalists, as we've covered earlier. However, the company did say that it has to operate within the laws of the countries where it operates. And spotted via Dan Gillmor, Rebecca MacKinnon notes that if Yahoo hosted its email servers outside China, it might not have comply with Chinese laws: Yahoo! e-mail in China: must be evil to be legal.

Postscript: Yahoo Founder Explains China E-Mail Move from the AP has Yahoo cofounder Jerry Yang saying at a forum in China that the demand was a "legal order" that Yahoo had to comply with.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 12:01 PM | Permalink

September 7, 2005

Yahoo Accused Of Helping China Jail Journalist By Revealing Email Address

Rights group says Yahoo's cooperation helped China jail journalist from the Associated Press has Reporters Without Borders saying Yahoo gave the Chinese government information that helped them trace a Yahoo email address to Chinese journalist Shi Tao, who was jailed for in April for 10 years for illegally providing state secrets to foreigners. The Reporters Without Borders statement is here.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 9:54 AM | Permalink

August 30, 2005

Enhancements Made to Yahoo Mail Search

I've been a Yahoo Mail user for several years and have had no problems using the basic search tool that has always been available to find material in email messages sent to me. That said, I've also been hoping that Yahoo would add new functionality to their email search tool. Several stories including: Yahoo to improve search in Web mail service, from IDG News Service along with a post on the Yahoo Search Blog point out that beginning today Yahoo is "gradually" rolling-out several new search and refinement options for Yahoo Mail users.

My Yahoo Mail account hasn't been updated with the features but when my account is updated, this is what I'll find:

Attachment Search
Dynamic Search Refinements
Photo View and Attachment Views

As soon as gain access to these new features and I have some time to test them out, I'll post my reactions on the blog.

Btw, I've been running a test for nearly a year to see how many messages I could fit into my 2GB account. Presently, I have nearly 70,000 messages in various folders (many of them full text press releases) and have used only 32% of my 2GB space allotment.

Posted by Gary Price at 12:32 PM | Permalink

August 2, 2005

Stats: Time Spent With Various Yahoo and Google Services

Bambi Francisco's article: Why Google may need instant messaging offers a bunch of new and interesting stats from Majestic Research about Yahoo Mail, Yahoo Instant Messenger and Gmail.

Yahoo Mail accounts for 42% of Yahoo users' online time
Yahoo Messenger accounts for 22% of Yahoo users' time
Gmail captured 45% of all time spent on Google in June
Time spent on Google's e-mail service outpaced that of Google's main search function, which drew 90% of Google's unique visitors in June
Yahoo Messenger attracted about 19% of Yahoo's unique visitors in June and accounted for 23% of total page views
Time spent on Yahoo outpaced time spent on Google by more than 9 to 1, according to Majestic

Postcript: The Red Herring Article: No Time Lost on Search, has a bit more.

Google generates nearly all of its revenue from search advertising, but search accounted for only 21 percent of the time that U.S. visitors spent on its site during June, said Majestic Research. In contrast, 45 percent of the time was spent on Gmail, Googles beta email service.

Posted by Gary Price at 5:21 PM | Permalink

June 28, 2005

New Version of Yahoo Mail in Test Phase

An article from Reuters reports is beginning to test a new version of Yahoo Mail. According to the story, the new version of Yahoo will Mail will make several new features available.

According to the article, new features will include:

Drag-and-drop message organization
A preview pane to view e-mails instantly
The ability to search e-mail headers, body and attachments*
As well as viewing multiple e-mails in different windows

About a year ago, Yahoo acquired Oddpost, to help bolster Yahoo Mail services.

*Yahoo has offered an e-mail search option for quite some time and has even enhanced the service in the past few months. Yahoo mentions mail search here but doesn't include info about it in their help documentation.

Postscript: A ZDNet article has a bit more info.

Posted by Gary Price at 8:41 AM | Permalink

June 1, 2005

Yahoo Adds News Headlines "Module" to Yahoo Mail Home Page

A few hours ago I noticed that my Yahoo Mail home page (the page visible after logging-in) now contains a "module" labeled "In the News." It offers headlines and direct links to five news stories. A pull down allows the user to see headlines for six news categories. I wouldn't be surprised to see other new "modules" (RSS feeds? Stock Prices? Local Weather?) in the near future. Here's a screen cap of what I'm seeing.

Yahoo made a similar "tweak" at the beginning of 2005 for My Yahoo users who utilize Yahoo's clutter-free and customizable search.yahoo.com homepage. The changes (still available) allow a My Yahoo user to see current news headlines, view the number of unread mail messages in their Yahoo Mail inbox, and review the current Dow Jones market average. All of these "modules" can be made visible/invisible with a quick click.

Posted by Gary Price at 1:46 PM | Permalink

March 23, 2005

1GB: Yahoo Mail Users Getting Storage Space Increase

The AP is reporting that users of Yahoo's free email service will soon (by mid-April) have 1 gigabyte of storage space available to them. Yahoo's fee-based service, Yahoo Mail Plus, already offers 2GB of storage and does not show promo tag lines or graphical ads. It will be interesting to see if Myway, Hotmail, and others also increase the amount of storage they offer. Will Gmail begin offering 2GB? For more, see: Yahoo Fires Back At Google.

Posted by Gary Price at 8:52 AM | Permalink

October 21, 2004

Yahoo Acquires Stata Labs

Yahoo has purchased another email startup, Stata Labs. The acquisition follows Yahoo's July purchase of Oddpost, a provider of web based email. Stata Labs' Bloomba product, by contrast, is a desktop email client built around search from the ground-up. Raymie Stata, founder of Stata Labs, was one part of the original development team from AltaVista.

The press release announcing the acquisition says that Bloomba is no longer available, and Yahoo has no plans to make the product available. The two acquisitions suggest that Yahoo may be planning a Gmail workalike to replace Yahoo Mail sometime down the road.

I played around with Bloomba long enough to be impressed with the speed and quality of the search results it provided on more than ten years of archived emails. Looks like another good pick up for Yahoo.

Posted by Chris Sherman at 8:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

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