About Yahoo! Mail

Using technology invented by David Nakayama, the creator of RocketMail, Yahoo! Mail has been a vital part of worldwide Internet users' daily lives since 1997. In October 2007, a new version of Yahoo! Mail based on JavaScript technology from Oddpost, a paid webmail service, was introduced after nearly 2 years of beta testing. Today, account holders can choose between the Yahoo! Mail Classic interface or the New Yahoo! Mail.

History

Yahoo! Mail is a free Web-based email service that was introduced to the public in 1997. The mail service was based on technology from Yahoo's acquisition of Four 11, a company that created RocketMail, an earlier Web-based email service. In the early days of Yahoo! Mail, users were allotted a mail storage capacity of 4MB, which was gradually increased until users were granted unlimited storage in 1997. The New Yahoo! Mail features include enhanced search capabilities, keyword shortcuts and integration with Yahoo! Calendar and Yahoo! Messenger.

Function

Yahoo! Mail serves as the provider of email free email service for 260 million worldwide users and is said to be the the largest single email provider in the world. It allows account holders to send and receive mail from anywhere in the world using a Yahoo! ID and a computer or cell phone with an active Web connection. Users also have the ability ability to chat and send SMS text messages from within the Yahoo! Mail inbox.

Features

Yahoo! Mail features unlimited storage space, phishing and virus protection, as well as spamguard protection, a feature that automatically filters unsolicited or suspicious looking mail to a junk mail folder. Yahoo! Mail users also have access to Yahoo! Address book, Yahoo! Calendar and Yahoo! Messenger services, as well as access to a fully customizable My Yahoo! Web page. In addition, Yahoo! Mail also offers many helpful keyword shortcuts and automatic draft-saving for emails during the composing process.

Types

There are two types of Yahoo! Mail services: Yahoo! Mail and Yahoo! Mail Plus. Yahoo! Mail plus is a premium version of the service that allows users to pay for increased features, such as removal of the Yahoo! tagline from messages, larger outgoing message size limits, more filters and removal of banner ads from the mail program interface. Yahoo! Mail Plus also features POP access and mail forwarding, and users subscribed to this service will not be faced with account deactivation no matter how long the account remains inactive.

Considerations

Many people have expressed concern about the safety and practicality of tying all email activity to one free account, because in the event a major outage were to occur, many people's emailing activities would come to a standstill. Although it is a free service, many people use Yahoo! Mail to conduct daily business, and many people have cautioned about the safety of utilizing a free service to conduct job-related activities. A notable instance was when the 2008 Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin's Yahoo! Mail account was hacked into during the campaign.