Yahoo Mail (beta)

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.

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.

We had almost given up on our old-style Yahoo Mail account, letting thousands of unread messages pile up. But since we've been using the new drag-and-drop feature and message flagging, it's been easier to organize that forgotten content. The new search within the Yahoo Mail beta, accessible through the upper-left corner of the interface, even inspects the text within message attachments. The Yahoo Calendar is now integrated within the Yahoo Mail beta, so you can view and add events and meetings just below the in-box. And the spelling checker works for 17 languages.

Yahoo is slowly rolling out integrated chatting, which Gmail already offers, so eventually you won't have to leave the page to send an instant message to other users of Yahoo Mail. (In addition, you can access from any browser.)

Downside: Users who are happy with their classic Yahoo Mail may dislike the drastic changes, but you can freely alternate between the new and old styles. The Yahoo Mail beta is noticeably faster than other Web-based e-mail services. Also, unless you constantly click on the in-box, new messages automatically appear only every 10 minutes. Unlike Microsoft Outlook, you can't create nested subfolders. And unfortunately, we still receive several spam messages daily that Yahoo's junk filters don't catch. Still, the ground-up renovation of Yahoo Mail is a radical step up from the click-by-click experience of the classic Yahoo Mail.

Outlook: The makeover of Yahoo Mail beta should make disgruntled Yahoo users think twice about switching to another service. Graceful, swift, and respectful of your privacy, Yahoo Mail makes a gracious e-mail host. Privacy advocates worried about Gmail poking its nose into the content of your messages for targeted advertising will appreciate Yahoo's hands-off approach. Against Yahoo Mail, Gmail looks intrusive. Desktop e-mail providers may also worry about losing customers.

We wonder if the final release of the updated Yahoo Mail might further integrate with other Yahoo services, such as mapping and photo sharing, or with Yahoo Instant Messenger with Voice. See our Yahoo Mail beta slide show for pictures of the early beta interface.

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User opinions

WRITE YOUR OWN REVIEW How would you rate this product?

• 9/10 Spectacular September 22, 2005

  by lbut (see profile)

  "Seems good..." Read more >>

• 8/10 Excellent September 23, 2005

  by chaimdan (see profile)

  "Great product, will be even greater soon..." Read more >>

• 7/10 Very good September 22, 2005

  by Tenorsaw (see profile)

  "Too little, too late" Read more >>

• WRITE YOUR OWN REVIEWSee all 56 user opinions >>

Where to buy

Yahoo Mail (beta)

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