andi_kam Posted June 19, 2004 Share Posted June 19, 2004 (edited) Backdrop to this review: This is a review I have written for my website "Computer Logic". When I refer to "we" im not just speaking about me and an imaginary friend so im not crazy lol. I am speaking about me and one of my staff members that helped me in writting the review. Anyway, without further a do, enjoy the review and let me know what you think.. Yahoo Mail ----------------- Brief Overview: In three words yahoo mail is reliable, simple and secure. It features a 100mb storage meaning and an account gives you access to other areas of the yahoo service such as groups, chat and games. Overall score: <span style='filter:glow(color=blue, strength=2);height=1px'>8.2</span> Favourable points: ? 100 MB storage ? Effective Spam and image protection ? Rich text editoNegative points: /b> ? Global version of yahoo lacks POP access and free greetings. ----------------------------------------- Yahoo mail has been available for quite some time. However, more recently it has seen upgrades to its user interface, spam + antivirus protection and greater storage capacity. All of these have added up to make this email service a very good choice. Currently its number of users are lesser than that of hotmail however we believe it deserves far greater popularity. Design (9/10)[/b] The interface is quick, accessible and easy to use. All the features are just a few clicks away and where you would expect to find them. Page load times are very low. In terms of customisation a number of different styles are available though personally I choose Grey+Orange. With Yahoo the emphasis is on do what you want and do it quickly. Keyboard shortcuts are one of the ways of achieving this. For example: Ctrl + Shift + C will check for new messages. Drop down menus are also used to provide quicker access to the feature you wish to use. Includes: Spam, antivirus and account security from unauthorised access. I will dive straight into the deep end. Spam, bulk or unsolicited email, call it what you will but what is important is that it has become a big nuisance in the email users life. To stop this Yahoo offers image and spam identification protection. Image blocker keeps your address away from spammers. All images in emails are blocked unless they are from a contact in your address book or you choose to display in an email. Moving on now to the emails themselves. Yahoo uses "SpamGuard" technology which works by attempting to identify unsolicited email and sending them to your bulk mail folder. This is then emptied on a chosen basis. Good, but does it work? In our test we set up an account and signed up to a number of websites that send junk. Then it was just a matter of time: ? Roughly 3/4 of junk mail were caught. (Good) ? All emails off other friends, including not in our address book were allowed. (Good) ? 1/3 of newsletters we wanted to receive were sent to bulk mail folder. (Fairly Good) To solve the last one we simply added @playstation.com to our safe list. But, what if you know a little about computers, like me! and you don't post your address well then you wont receive much or any junk. My Yahoo Account has been active for over 3 years and I have yet to receive any junk. Compare this to hotmail whereby within a few days of activating users have reported already getting spam. So why 9/10 and not 10/10 well, the final category, unauthorised access. For a determined user there are ways of getting into yahoo accounts so keep any personal details out of there, I have not marked Yahoo down by much here because this is the case with many internet services. [/color] Unfortunately in Firefox and other browsers some of the more advanced features such as rich text editor are not available. Also worth adding is that WAP access is available for free. It has a really nice, simple, clear design with no adverts getting in your way as you compose your email. The features of the rich text editor include the usual bold, italics etc and a number of cute emotions. Further more you can attach files as big as 10mb! Huge! Finally once you are finished composing you can choose to save it to your sent messages, something that will be increasing used with 100mb storage available. Also available is the ability to download an address auto complete tool which will be used to complete addresses as you type: The second way to add addresses quickly is by simply assigning a nickname to each contact and just typing in the nickname. An address book, notepad and calendar tool are also available. The address book is well thought out with the ability to add plentiful information including alternate addresses and 4 custom fields. Finally once you have added addresses you can search through them and organise them into categories. Remember the day when you used to get a calendar free with hotmail, well those days can be re-lived with Yahoo calendar! You can add tasks and very complex calendar events. Why very complex? Well, let me just take you through some of the options available... repeating event, invitations, send an email reminder, address information, share the calendar. I do not think that there is anything that this calendar can't do! This takes Yahoo mail further than just sending and receiving email and into a personal organisation tool. Another thing we were very happy about with Yahoo mail is its expiration policy. Unlike the 1 month hotmail expiration policy Yahoo allows up to 4 months. Nice one yahoo! Yahoo Mail! Edited February 3, 2005 by andi_kam Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spike101M69 Posted June 19, 2004 Share Posted June 19, 2004 (Y) sweet review Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andi_kam Posted June 19, 2004 Author Share Posted June 19, 2004 Thanks very much. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
waddle5000 Posted June 19, 2004 Share Posted June 19, 2004 thnx for the review :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lardiop Veteran Posted June 19, 2004 Veteran Share Posted June 19, 2004 Nice Review... (Y) Used to be my primary storage for personal e-mail until Mr.Gmail came knocking. I like what they did witht he interface recently, but Hotmail/Yahoo Mail will all have a hard time keeping up once GMail hits the public market. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andi_kam Posted June 20, 2004 Author Share Posted June 20, 2004 very true. Though I do not plan to switch to google even if it does come out. Not too worried about piracy or anything but I will simply never fill 100mb. I like the changes to yahoo mail overall, i guess you could tell from my 8.2/10 lol. Its exciting to see what other email services will do in reply to Googles launch. So far... Yahoo 100mb free 2gig paid......... Lycos 10mb free 1 gig paid...... hotmail? mail.com etc? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tiftof Posted June 20, 2004 Share Posted June 20, 2004 Nice review. Was interesting because I never used yahoo before and didn't know what its like. I switched to gmail already thought, so I'm not going to switch again (and gmail is perfect for me). But your review has broadend up my mind. And I also want to know how hotmail will react. In the regions were I live hotmail is widely used. It will have a great effect if they change the size limit enough and ofcourse let you send bigger attachments. Most people just need a little space and don't want other functions as they're used to hotmail. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stncttr908 Veteran Posted June 20, 2004 Veteran Share Posted June 20, 2004 Nice review. Personally, I don't like having to go all over the place to check my email, so I just use Yahoo!POPS to check my Yahoo account through POP3. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andi_kam Posted June 21, 2004 Author Share Posted June 21, 2004 Glad you liked the review and hope that it didnt let people make a more informed choice in their email service even if that email service wasnt yahoo. I know about checking pop mail though for free users they no longer have any way of making money because you dont click on the adverts so I can also see yahoo's side for not allowing it in the yahoo.com. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SIG Posted June 21, 2004 Share Posted June 21, 2004 Very nice review :) The new 100MB storage is great (although I think I will never fill more than 1% :p ) and I also like the new interface. I've been using my Yahoo Mail account since 2000 and never had a problem with it. Good Job Yahoo! :woot: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
b3ta Posted June 22, 2004 Share Posted June 22, 2004 Very nice review. (Y) I have no problems configuring pop access though. :ermm: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andi_kam Posted June 22, 2004 Author Share Posted June 22, 2004 might review hotmail or lycos in future. I will have to See what kind of changes they make to respond to google mail ;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DOGglee Posted June 22, 2004 Share Posted June 22, 2004 yeah nice review :) i like the new yahoo mail too :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sdb815 Posted June 22, 2004 Share Posted June 22, 2004 I've been using Yahoo! for a while, and I never get any spam. The only thing I don't like about Yahoo! is ther HUGE ads everywhere, but Firefox takes care of that! I also wish they would bring back POP3 support, but it's still a good free service. Good review btw. :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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