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Review: Yahoo Mail Beta

Yahoo’s Internet mail service gets a much needed update

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Recommended by PCW
Price: £Free
Manufacturer: Yahoo



Ratings
Overall rating: Overall rating
Features: Features
Ease of use: Ease of use
Value for money: Value for money
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Verdict

Pros: Simple layout; drag and drop email
Cons: Nothing to give it an edge over the competition
Overall: Yahoo Mail Beta is a long overdue update to an ageing email tool, but one that is well thought out and makes the software far more user friendly


Rob Jones, Personal Computer World 11 Apr 2006

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Yahoo Mail has been around for years, but in that time bar a few tweaks such as improved security measures and increased storage, it has had little in the way of a major upgrade.

The application was beginning to look and feel very tired as an email tool, but Yahoo has finally put that to rest.

Following the trend of releasing Beta versions to the public (for example Google Talk Beta), this upgrade is called Mail Beta. You don't have to upgrade, but we suggest you do.

This version has breathed new life into Yahoo Mail. Suddenly it is a far easier, more intuitive application to use.

New to Yahoo Mail - somewhat belatedly - is a preview pane. It has also refreshed the icons running along the top and moved email folders, the calendar, contacts and notepad icons into the left-hand pane, making it quicker and easier to manage your email.

Plus, it has integrated the RSS feeds set up as part of your My Yahoo account, so you now get your news stories in your email as well.

With the range of features and tools on offer, Yahoo Mail appears to have been strongly influenced by Microsoft Outlook.

It still comes with 1GB of free storage, but gone are the Mark and Move tabs - email can now be dragged and dropped between folders.

All emails are also now kept as a continuous stream that you can scroll down, rather than on different pages.

There's little in this update that sets it apart from existing email tools, such as Hotmail, but if you are a current user of Yahoo Mail it's definitely worth upgrading.

System requirements:
Internet connection

See also:

March was relatively quiet in the virus world, with most researchers reporting few new variants and no widespread outbreaksOld hands jockey for position  07 Apr 2006
RIM and Yahoo announce content tie-up for mobile devices  05 Apr 2006
Microsoft is to allow users to access Hotmail or Windows Live Email accounts directly from their desktopsAd-supported application delivers email to the desktop  03 Apr 2006
Software giant takes legal action against phishing suspects  23 Mar 2006
Phishing websites try to lure consumers into giving up confidential information such as credit card numbers or user names and passwordsLawsuits fly across Europe, Africa and Middle East  21 Mar 2006
New beta brings Outlook-like features to browser access  16 Mar 2006
Avoid stranger danger online  14 Mar 2006
Yahoo is freshening up its web-based email with a new beta promised soon  10 Mar 2006
MailWasherFilter out spam from multiple email accounts  16 Jan 2008

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