

Yahoo Mail turns 16, gets a makeover - scsper
http://yahoo.tumblr.com/post/63462971435/yahoo-mails-sweet-16-is-sweet-a-brand-new-view

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error54
One thing that bothers me about their android app is that they trick users
into clicking ads. What I mean is that when you open the inbox, you'll see an
unread message at the top of the list but when you go to tap on it, an ad has
already slid into place shifting the entire list of emails down leading people
to tap on the ad instead. What's even more scummy about this is that the
behavior isn't consistent so sometimes an ad will be in the top of the list,
sometimes it won't so the user doesn't know if to wait for the ad to load or
not.

I don't mind seeing ads in my free products, I just don't like being tricked
into clicking an ad.

~~~
nacs
I've noticed this issue with quite a few mobile games as well.

After the loading screen has ended and the "Tap anywhere to play" screen
appears, right as you get ready to tap the screen, an ad will slide in
covering the screen and handle the tap. Scummy indeed.

~~~
seiji
People improve what they measure. If the measure is "revenue derived from PPC
ads," then they'll evolve interfaces to make clicking ads unavoidable.

~~~
WhitneyLand
Yes, but some companies measure building long term brand and trust against
trying to squeeze a few extra points out of PPC by making people feel tricked.

~~~
4hthth4
Apparently not the companies making games like Turbo Turd Launcher 5.

------
debacle
I switched over to outlook.com recently. The UI is far superior to Google's in
a lot of ways, the ads are less in your face, and with the recent NSA
revelations I'm not really too concerned if the NSA is getting my data from
Microsoft rather than from Google.

The new Yahoo UI looks nice, and I'm really interested in seeing more
competition among the big three. Google has been navel-gazing with the gmail
UI for too long, really.

~~~
Yhippa
I recently moved my personal domain email to be handled by Outlook (since
Google no longer has Apps for your Domain) and have been really happy so far.
I don't know why I'm bothered by the ad bar in either Yahoo Mail or Outlook
since Gmail has it too. Likely because Gmail's blends in much better to the
interface?

The multiple smart inboxes in Gmail is a killer feature for me thoug

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abraham
> since Google no longer has Apps for your Domain

should probably read as "since Google no longer has free Apps for your Domain"

~~~
pygy_
Uh? I'm still using the free plan... Did I miss something?

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atrus
You're grandfathered in.

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pygy_
As in this?

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grandfather_clause](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grandfather_clause)

Does anyone know if they have plans to shut it down?

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magicalist
No, they're just not offering new ones. You should be fine.

~~~
pygy_
Thanks.

This discussion prompted me to back up that account locally, just in case...
It was long overdue, anyway.

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computer
When I visited the article I immediately thought I was looking at a screenshot
of Gmail, until I noticed the ugly Yahoo banner ad on the right.

I guess Gmail is succesful and popular enough that copying them makes a lot of
sense.

~~~
estebank
True, came in to say something similar. It looks _a lot_ like GMail[1]. Not
that that is necessarily a bad thing.

[1]
[http://media.tumblr.com/841e692e2c1bdf45eb0c3167146bd142/tum...](http://media.tumblr.com/841e692e2c1bdf45eb0c3167146bd142/tumblr_inline_mucp0t3Jq91qhxx5s.jpg)

~~~
yeukhon
It is a bad thing because consumers are so used to that interface and either
designers just can't come up with a better one or they don't want to come up
with a new one.

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JumpCrisscross
"we’re giving you a monstrous amount of storage, 1TB (that’s 1,000 GBs), so
you have ample space for all your emails and attachments."

~~~
adrianb
I thought Yahoo Mail didn't limit storage - they advertised it as "unlimited
storage" a few years ago.

\- terms and conditions apply, no abuse allowed

~~~
0xndc
Everyone has "unlimited" storage. I guess "1TB" sounds better.

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masnick
I'm surprised they still apparently have the big banner ad on the right-hand
side. I know they have to make money somehow, but it really detracts from an
otherwise pretty good-looking design.

Yesterday I saw someone using the previous version of Yahoo mail, and that
banner ad had a strobe effect on the border that was constantly flashing. I'm
amazed people put up with this -- I guess people have probably developed
pretty strong ad blindness (hence the strobe ads).

If I ran a web mail company, I would not want to be part of the arms race of
user ad blindness vs. more aggressive ads. As a user I'd take google's
textual, potentially relevant ads over this any day. (No, I do not care if
google "reads" my email.
[http://www.maxmasnick.com/2012/02/12/gmail_paranoia/](http://www.maxmasnick.com/2012/02/12/gmail_paranoia/))

~~~
trailfox
Yahoo + Adblock + customized ad opt-out and you never see any ads, and you
don't have google reading your mail.

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puller
and you have Yahoo 'reading your mail'. So?

~~~
trailfox
Yahoo doesn't scan your mail if you opt out of the customized advertising.

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stephenhuey
Wow, conversations! They're introducing threads almost a decade after Gmail. I
remember when I first made the switch from FastMail and Yahoo to Gmail. Gmail
conversations were jarring even though I was somewhat used to threads from
newsgroups, but after a few days I never looked back.

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bruceboughton
It's 2013 and still no IMAP access in Yahoo Mail. Heck, it's only been around
for 27 years.

~~~
Terretta
You can use IMAP from smartphones, and from Apple Mail. How to, per Wikipedia:

> _Mac OS X users can directly set up an IMAP account in Apple Mail 4.4. After
> entering a full name, email address, and password, hold down the Option key.
> The Create button will change to Continue, allowing one to manually
> configure the account settings._

> _Apple Mail 5.0 included with Mac OS X Lion supports easy and direct IMAP
> account setup._

~~~
cmircea
Well gee, what about the other email clients? Not everyone uses Apple Mail.

~~~
Terretta
The claim was Yahoo had "no" IMAP access. That's incorrect.

And, for the record, if you want it in Windows, just configure it. That it's
not "supported" doesn't mean you can't use it.

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probablyfiction
Yahoo! Mail; now with Gmail inside.

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k-mcgrady
Looks like Gmail with a different background image.

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marban
What used to be Y! Plus (19.99) is now Y! Ad-free (49.99). Nice increase for
less since they've made all other features available to freeriders as well.

~~~
marban
Addendum: Y! Plus subscribers will be grandfathered into the 19.99 plan.

~~~
newscracker
I was shocked when I saw the ad free version priced at $49.99 for new
subscribers!

And Yahoo still doesn't have IMAP access (while Gmail has had it for free).

~~~
Terretta
You can use IMAP from smartphones, and from Apple Mail:

> _Mac OS X users can directly set up an IMAP account in Apple Mail 4.4. After
> entering a full name, email address, and password, hold down the Option key.
> The Create button will change to Continue, allowing one to manually
> configure the account settings._

> _Apple Mail 5.0 included with Mac OS X Lion supports easy and direct IMAP
> account setup._

~~~
newscracker
As others have pointed out, it's not available on all platforms. It's not
transparently published either.

~~~
Terretta
The claim was it doesn't have IMAP access. It does.

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exo_duz
I remember when Yahoo was the goto email. Now that Gmail has the market share,
will a fresh coat of paint relive the glory hey days of Yahoo Mail?

I'm using both and the best part about Gmail is the spam protection and the
fact it's so easy to search. I have problems with Yahoo losing emails over the
years and it's quite frustrating.

Just have to wait and see how this will affect it.

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garraeth
Good to see the update.

But why hide my folders on page load now? And also not display how many unread
in them on top of the little folder icon?

And why auto-reveal the next message when deleting the previous one (from the
previous design change)?

At least give me an option to enable/disable these "features" please.

Frustrating. Two steps forward, one back.

~~~
alyandon
Agreed. It is amazing how it is possible for a product development team to
come to believe that making me click several times to see the same information
I could before via one click (or without clicking at all) is a good idea.

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lazyant
And still I get ~0 spam in my gmail account and lots of spam in my yahoo
account that seems easy to trap (the "buy v1agr4" type)

~~~
genwin
My Yahoo account that is just for personal use and trusted vendors gets ~0
spam. Another Yahoo account for the remainder gets lots of spam. Part of the
difference may be that I religiously use the Spam button for the first
account.

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zpk
These idiots keep screwing with their products. Thank god Yahoo is now only a
secondary email for me. They removed tabs, the tabs were a great convenience.
They fubared their fantasy sports site, recently added back the white theme,
amidst a massive backlash.

I just don't get it, why mess with all this so damn often, and piss users
off....

~~~
Miyamoto
1\. Yahoo doesn't change anything. Gets called unpopular and outdated. 2\.
Yahoo changes. Gets criticized as screwing their products.

~~~
zpk
I am on year 13 of their fantasy sports site. I'm going to know what works and
what doesn't. From applets to flash to mobile....Not to be a jerk, but do you?
Otherwise don't have this conversation with me.

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davidcollantes
On the iOS app, they are still using the "old" keyboard, not the iOS 7 one.
But the app seems to be getting better, which is good news for those using
Yahoo mail.

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piyush_soni
This is so, SO shamefully Gmail. :)

~~~
sagarm
It definitely reminds me of the layout of Gmail, but I think it looks better.

Is it better to use? I had one spam message in my inbox, and when I tried to
mark it spam I was unable to do so due to a layout glitch. I refreshed and
tried again...and again...and eventually the message disappeared.

Definitely some bug fixes to be made. Even after the bug fixes -- could I use
it to manage my email the same way I do with Gmail, with thousands of emails
in and hundreds out per month? Not today, but I look forward to seeing Gmail
get some competition.

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netman21
Ooh cosmetic changes. Sheesh, what about availability, security, and
better/faster search?

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genwin
An always-https connection would be great. I've had no significant
availability or search issues, ever.

~~~
jhatax
Yahoo! mail has an always-https connection, at least mine does. Go to Settings
-> Security -> Use SSL: [http://imgur.com/q8DEnYs](http://imgur.com/q8DEnYs)

Just FYI - you had to enable HTTPS in Gmail at one point. Same thing with
Yahoo! It does not presume you want SSL all the time.

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camus
So can I read my yahoo mails on gmail without having to pay just to read them
on my client or what ?

