Yahoo launches 100MB of free e-mail

Yahoo began offering on Tuesday 100MB of storage to people who use its free e-mail service.

As part of an overall redesign of its mail service, Yahoo also upgraded Mail Plus paid users to 2GB of storage and lowered its subscription rate from $29.99 a year to $19.99. Other a la carte services, such as POP e-mail forwarding, are consolidated under this plan and will no longer be sold on a standalone basis.

The storage boost comes as no surprise. Yahoo arch-rival Google in April announced plans to launch a free e-mail service called "Gmail" with 1GB of storage. The upcoming launch of Gmail has changed the landscape for free-e-mail users, but also raised privacy concerns because of Google's decision to serve advertisements based on scanning the content of e-mail text. Yahoo executives last month announced the company would offer its own storage upgrade as part of overall changes to the service.

Brad Garlinghouse, Yahoo's vice president of communications products, said the changes were enacted to make "e-mail storage a nonissue." He acknowledged that competition was a factor as well.

"There are new competitors on the scene, and we want to make sure the things we're focused on are important with users," Garlinghouse said.

The new storage limits amount to a strategic turnaround for Yahoo. In 2002, the company began charging for various tiers of storage size for its photo and briefcase products. Yahoo also lowered its free e-mail memory from 6MB to 4MB for new members.

Aside from allowing people to keep more e-mails, most changes to the new Yahoo Mail are cosmetic with a stress on making the service sleeker and faster. The product will also place more emphasis on a mail search bar at the top of the page. Unlike Google's, the Yahoo bar will not search e-mail text to serve advertisements, but will let people more easily hunt for buried correspondence.

Garlinghouse also said the company will put 50 million identities back into circulation. That means identities that have remained dormant for years will become available again. Although Yahoo has maintained a policy that it can recycle user identities after six months of dormancy, the company has taken a "very conservative approach" to offering these names back to the public, Garlinghouse said.

Not exactly right

You say in the article:<br /><br />"The product will give greater emphasis to a mail search bar at <br />the top of the page. Unlike Google, the Yahoo search bar will not <br />search e-mail text to serve advertisements, but will allow people <br />to more easily hunt for buried correspondence."<br /><br />This makes no sense whatsoever! Had you used gmail, you'd <br />know it allows you to search your own correspondence, and it's <br />not used to search advertisements as you falsely state in the <br />article.

[jegrant]

I agree; it's a very badly formed sentence.

It appears to combine two thoughts that are only tangentially <br />related.<br /><br />1: Yahoo will now more prominently feature a Search bar that <br />searches through email messages.<br /><br />2: Yahoo will not be statistically analyzing your email (or, as <br />some would put it "running a search engine") in order to <br />determine which ads it ought to display to you while you use the <br />service.<br /><br />Honestly, I don't think that many would particularly care if Y! did <br />analyze email and use that info to show ads, as long as it was <br />done within the rigors of a strict privacy policy. How about <br />offering users the option to turn off all the annoying animated <br />GIF and Flash ads, in exchange for targeted text ads based on <br />email analysis? I think a few would go for that. And then, anyone <br />who doesn't want it could simply keep it the way it is.

Agreed

I second that. More research should have been done, this story is just sloppy looking.

Not exactly right

You say in the article:<br /><br />"The product will give greater emphasis to a mail search bar at <br />the top of the page. Unlike Google, the Yahoo search bar will not <br />search e-mail text to serve advertisements, but will allow people <br />to more easily hunt for buried correspondence."<br /><br />This makes no sense whatsoever! Had you used gmail, you'd <br />know it allows you to search your own correspondence, and it's <br />not used to search advertisements as you falsely state in the <br />article.

[jegrant]

I agree; it's a very badly formed sentence.

It appears to combine two thoughts that are only tangentially <br />related.<br /><br />1: Yahoo will now more prominently feature a Search bar that <br />searches through email messages.<br /><br />2: Yahoo will not be statistically analyzing your email (or, as <br />some would put it "running a search engine") in order to <br />determine which ads it ought to display to you while you use the <br />service.<br /><br />Honestly, I don't think that many would particularly care if Y! did <br />analyze email and use that info to show ads, as long as it was <br />done within the rigors of a strict privacy policy. How about <br />offering users the option to turn off all the annoying animated <br />GIF and Flash ads, in exchange for targeted text ads based on <br />email analysis? I think a few would go for that. And then, anyone <br />who doesn't want it could simply keep it the way it is.

Agreed

I second that. More research should have been done, this story is just sloppy looking.

Ads + Search

"Unlike Google, the Yahoo search bar will not search e-mail text to serve advertisements, but will allow people to more easily hunt for buried correspondence."<br /><br />GMails search allows you to find messages based on sender, subject, and the message itself. It is not just used for the ads. I have only had 2 ads in 19 received messages.<br /><br />Yahoo!Mails cheap shot at stealing Gmails look and feel has made me resent them more than I already did.

Ads + Search

"Unlike Google, the Yahoo search bar will not search e-mail text to serve advertisements, but will allow people to more easily hunt for buried correspondence."<br /><br />GMails search allows you to find messages based on sender, subject, and the message itself. It is not just used for the ads. I have only had 2 ads in 19 received messages.<br /><br />Yahoo!Mails cheap shot at stealing Gmails look and feel has made me resent them more than I already did.

Y! Mail Plus Upgade

If you have the SBC Yahoo! service (either dial or DSL) you will be upgraded for free. I just logged in this morning and found out I now have 2GB of storage!

Y! Mail Plus Upgade

If you have the SBC Yahoo! service (either dial or DSL) you will be upgraded for free. I just logged in this morning and found out I now have 2GB of storage!

[bobtheman22]

Maybe they ought fix their site first!!!

Keeps time out using various providers. Not a good sign Yahoo!!!!

[jeffhughes1]

Yahoo broken

I logged in and was redirected to the "Yahoo Mail Plus Free Upgrade" page as well, but get page errors after that when trying to access my mail. Nice upgrade...

[bobtheman22]

Maybe they ought fix their site first!!!

Keeps time out using various providers. Not a good sign Yahoo!!!!

[jeffhughes1]

Yahoo broken

I logged in and was redirected to the "Yahoo Mail Plus Free Upgrade" page as well, but get page errors after that when trying to access my mail. Nice upgrade...

[teraguru1]

Seems good

Servers are running slightly slower, but the rest seems to be fine.<br /><br />I like it.

[teraguru1]

Seems good

Servers are running slightly slower, but the rest seems to be fine.<br /><br />I like it.

Right Thing

At least they are on the ball, GMail on the other hand is still (in beta) while a few people are making a profit from a beta test. I just wonder how long it will be before other companies do the same thing (hotmail, mail.com, etc).

Gmail

Gmail is still in beta because they are offering 10 times the space of yahoo, and have no previous experience running mail servers. They also have alot more stable and dial-up friendly interface.

Right Thing

At least they are on the ball, GMail on the other hand is still (in beta) while a few people are making a profit from a beta test. I just wonder how long it will be before other companies do the same thing (hotmail, mail.com, etc).

Gmail

Gmail is still in beta because they are offering 10 times the space of yahoo, and have no previous experience running mail servers. They also have alot more stable and dial-up friendly interface.

[computron]

Account got deleted

My account wasn't inactive for over 4 months, everything got deleted!<br /><br />I don't care if there is 100MB or not, never save your e-mails on "someone else's HD". I just lost everything -- even if I am a "current" user!

Re: Account Got Deleted

Yahoo deactivated my very active account. Of course in doing that they took out my Yahoo Mail, Geocities Website, Launch Radio. All attempts to contact them have resulted in form email messages being sent back to me.

[computron]

Account got deleted

My account wasn't inactive for over 4 months, everything got deleted!<br /><br />I don't care if there is 100MB or not, never save your e-mails on "someone else's HD". I just lost everything -- even if I am a "current" user!

Re: Account Got Deleted

Yahoo deactivated my very active account. Of course in doing that they took out my Yahoo Mail, Geocities Website, Launch Radio. All attempts to contact them have resulted in form email messages being sent back to me.

What about Hotmail?!!

What are they going to do now?

What about Hotmail?!!

What are they going to do now?

Yahoo Mail Problems Since Yesterday

I have been missing messages and having incoming e-mails delayed for hours since yestersday. I'm still missing e-mails sent to my Yahoo account about 24 hours ago. The wireless mail alerts also stopped working yesterday. Had no problems for months prior.<br />Looks like this upgrade must be the root cause.<br />They should warn people when they are planning server maintenance and "upgrades."

[jchakra]

Y! Mail slowed to a crawl

It is all jacked up!

locked out of Yahoo mail

Some upgrade, huh? Guess their server maintenance has something to be desired. I can't get to my paid Yahoo mail account since yesterday. No warning that an upgrade is going to take place. This is impacting my bottom line. <br /><br />When is gmail coming on line?<br /><br />Anyone know if I can downgrade my Yahoo mail account to the free one? I read somewhere if you downgrade your email account will be closed.

yahoo mail

haven't gotten into my yahoo mail for 2 days WHY???????????????

Yahoo Mail Problems Since Yesterday

I have been missing messages and having incoming e-mails delayed for hours since yestersday. I'm still missing e-mails sent to my Yahoo account about 24 hours ago. The wireless mail alerts also stopped working yesterday. Had no problems for months prior.<br />Looks like this upgrade must be the root cause.<br />They should warn people when they are planning server maintenance and "upgrades."

[jchakra]

Y! Mail slowed to a crawl

It is all jacked up!

locked out of Yahoo mail

Some upgrade, huh? Guess their server maintenance has something to be desired. I can't get to my paid Yahoo mail account since yesterday. No warning that an upgrade is going to take place. This is impacting my bottom line. <br /><br />When is gmail coming on line?<br /><br />Anyone know if I can downgrade my Yahoo mail account to the free one? I read somewhere if you downgrade your email account will be closed.

yahoo mail

haven't gotten into my yahoo mail for 2 days WHY???????????????

Agreed but they seem to be patching up quite fast

I agree that the whole system is unstable and initial launch was very buggy. When I checked my email this morning, the whole design was messed up---attachment showing up in Date column area, pushing over the cells on this row to right; no images indicating whether the mail was forwarded/replied; etc.<br /><br />However, to my surprise, all the bugs mentioned above was fixed in less than 2 hours. I'm assuming the current instability due to their constant pushing of patches or something, so I can bear with it for next few days.<br /><br />The only regret is that the announcement on Yahoo Mail change came to my inbox hours after the discovery of the change on my own.

Agreed but they seem to be patching up quite fast

I agree that the whole system is unstable and initial launch was very buggy. When I checked my email this morning, the whole design was messed up---attachment showing up in Date column area, pushing over the cells on this row to right; no images indicating whether the mail was forwarded/replied; etc.<br /><br />However, to my surprise, all the bugs mentioned above was fixed in less than 2 hours. I'm assuming the current instability due to their constant pushing of patches or something, so I can bear with it for next few days.<br /><br />The only regret is that the announcement on Yahoo Mail change came to my inbox hours after the discovery of the change on my own.