Yahoo! Mail Review

Yahoo! Mail is one of the older of the free web-based email services, having gotten its start in 1997. Offering a Classic and an Outlook-like interface choice which users can switch back and forth between, one of the top features for users is bound to be the unlimited storage on free accounts. To find out more about its features, keep reading.

The current feature set for Yahoo! Mail includes the following:

• Integrated chat and email, even allowing an email message that you're composing to be switched to an instant message, should that friend come online while you're typing, as well as supporting multiple simultaneous chats.
• Integrated texting and email, allowing texting from your inbox.
• Mail access from Internet-enabled phones, and one-click access when using the Yahoo! Toolbar.
• 10 MB out-going message-size limit
• New addresses at ymail.com and rocketmail.com.
• Entire emails are searchable.
• Drafts are auto-saved as you compose.
• Themed email "stationery."
• Initial-blocking of email images for safety (unless you change the preferences).
• Forward-as-attachment feature
• Signature feature.
• A local news tab on your mail homepage.

Differences between the Classic and new version of Yahoo! Mail include the following:

• Classic works with more browsers.
• Classic is better if you are working with a dial-up connection.
• New version is what you need to be able to download multiple attachments simultaneously.
• New version has the slideshow feature, but Classic does not.
• New version has a quick Calendar view, but Classic does not.
• Only new version has a reading pane, tabs, and drag-and-drop functionality.

In addition, certain features are only available with a paid service:

• removal of graphical ads that appear in the free service
• The use of AddressGuard
• POP mail access
• mail forwarding
• removal of the sign-in requirement in order to avoid account deactivation.
• a 20 MB outgoing message-size limit
• customer support

Note that Yahoo! offers a separate email solution, Zimbra Collaboration Suite, for businesses. You should also know that over the years, Yahoo! has taken some very strange, initially unannounced stances, such as filtering and changing words to prevent abuse and banning user names with the letter sequence a-l-l-a-h in them. Perhaps most important, note that the terms of service for free Yahoo! Mail include the following sentence: "You agree that Yahoo! may, without prior notice, immediately terminate, limit your access to or suspend your Yahoo! account, any associated email address, and access to the Yahoo! Services, " and if this happens, you may lose all your messages, stored messages, attachments, etc.