Yahoo Mail (beta)

• Average user rating: 3.0 stars out of 56 reviews
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Product summary

CNET editors' take

• Reviewed by: Elsa Wenzel
• Edited by: Robert Vamosi
• Reviewed on: 09/21/2005
• Updated on:05/09/2007

Yahoo has sweeping changes in store for the hundreds of millions of people who use its free Yahoo Mail. We've spent more than a year testing the beta version of Yahoo Mail. The major face-lift to this popular Web-based service makes checking and managing messages about as fast and painless as what desktop e-mail apps offer. Indeed, the Yahoo Mail beta merges the ease of use of Microsoft Outlook, Eudora, and Thunderbird with the go-anywhere convenience of a Web account. Yahoo Mail's free, unlimited storage beats competitors including Windows Live Hotmail, AOL, and Gmail.

Yahoo Mail is based upon Oddpost, a business e-mail service bought by Yahoo and built with Ajax coding, which makes messages appear faster because you no longer have to wait for an entire page to reload. And unlike Gmail, Yahoo Mail doesn't target ads based on the content of your messages--a blessing for those who want to keep their e-mail private. In the meantime, Microsoft has renovated Hotmail, which now bears the Windows Live brand. Google continues to provide even more dynamic features within Gmail.

If you want to give the Yahoo Mail beta a spin, visit Yahoo's Web site or look for a button when you log into Yahoo Mail that invites you to test the beta interface.

The Yahoo Mail beta mimics the layout of desktop e-mail services such as Outlook. Folders appear in the left pane, message lists are in a top pane, and a collapsible reading pane is in the center. On the Home tab, you'll see Yahoo News (and ads) mixed with your incoming e-mail.

Upside: Yahoo offers many features that rival e-mail services do not, beginning with unlimited storage. The Yahoo Mail beta is sleeker, faster, and smarter than its predecessor. You can choose from among 16 color themes. In our tests, the Yahoo Mail beta proved to be a time-saver, loading messages quickly and autofilling e-mail addresses as we typed. No longer do you have to check messages to delete them or hit the Next link at the bottom of a list of messages to reach the next batch of content.

Yahoo offers tabbed browsing, so you can keep multiple messages open at the same time. Tabs allow you to toggle between messages, handy if you want to paste, say, a phone number from an old message into a new e-mail note. Plus, keyboard shortcuts save you from using the mouse. News junkies will appreciate the RSS feeds that appear within the left pane, feeding updates from the blogs and publications of your choice. By contrast, Windows Live Hotmail lacks RSS integration, while Gmail's Mail Clips are limited. The makers of Yahoo Mail show off their sense of humor, as well. Just click the Subject line when you're composing a message, and a random phrase appears.

Yahoo Mail offers two mobile editions. You can also receive third-party e-mail in your Yahoo in-box via POP3, import contacts from 13 other e-mail services, and export contacts to Outlook, Palm, and Netscape accounts. For an additional $35 per year, you get the option to receive messages from five accounts at your own domain names. Business users can pay $9.95 per month to remove all advertising. Continue reading

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User reviews

• Average user rating: 3.0 stars out of 56 reviews
• My rating: 0 stars Write review

• Showing 3 of 56 user reviewsSee all 56 user reviews

• 4.5 stars

  7 out of 8 people found this review helpful

  "Seems good..."

  by lbut on September 22, 2005

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• 4.0 stars

  5 out of 7 people found this review helpful

  "Great product, will be even greater soon..."

  by chaimdan on September 23, 2005

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• 3.5 stars

  4 out of 6 people found this review helpful

  "Too little, too late"

  by Tenorsaw on September 22, 2005

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• See all 56 user reviews Write review

Where to buy Yahoo Mail (beta)

Visit the vendor's Web site to access the beta version of this service.