I Promise Not To Type Yahoo With An ! For The Entire Review!
Written: Jul 13 '00
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Product Rating:
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Pros: A major bang for the buck in features, bulk mail filter, reliable
Cons: Some spam trickles through here and there
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| awoolcott's Full Review: Yahoo! Mail |
Over the last month or so, after using my AT&T email account for all my email concerns, I began to look for a new web-based email account. You see, my Worldnet email account was slow on occasion, and sometimes to the point that I couldn't sent my messages. I'm not a big fan of Outlook Express (it seems to ALWAYS kill my internet connection during email download), so I need a good, fast, consistent web-based email account.
So off I go hunting. I had a Hotmail account. But, I got seemingly 100 spam emails per day, from get rich quick schemes, to porn websites. I also had an Excite email account. I love the voicemail on it, but the email program is not that great, and it seemed to ALWAYS be under some sort of maintenance. I settled on Yahoo Email. Why? It seemed to be the fastest, most crash-free, and it gave you darn near all the features you could possibly want with that ONE Yahoo ID. You get a lot of bang for the buck (and considering it's free, why not?).
THE SIGN UP
In order to remember how this went (been a long time since I registered), I had to set up a dummy (don't start with calling ME a dummy. I already know that) account. And really, it's easy. Just pick out a user name (which can be a pain if you want something outside of your name or something, due to the volume of people with Yahoo ID's already), and a password. From there, choose a "bonus" question (yes sir, step right up and win one million dollars! Well, no, it don't work that way), from place of birth, pet's name, anniversary, and I think your Mother's maiden name (sad, it's been 45 minutes since I did this and already forgot!). Once you finish that, just give them your name (or whatever you want to be called), your zip code, birthday, and your bank account number (oh sorry. They don't ask for your bank account number). It asks for a voluntary interests section that you don't have to do (that's why they call it voluntary!). Finish that, and you're golden!
SO, WHAT DO YOU GET WITH THIS DANG EMAIL ID?
Well, what do you want? You can get almost ALL the Yahoo features with this email ID.
Yahoo Clubs - Create or join a club to suit your interests. You can create one based on absolutely anything you can imagine. As a matter of fact, there are many Epinions related boards, like the Unofficial Epinions Club, where fellow Epinions members can shoot the breeze, or whine and complain, depending on the topic. Along with that, there is a specific club for almost all your favorite topics. All it takes is your Yahoo ID and you're on your way!
Yahoo Games - I don't know a lot about this, but, there are a few games here and there to play, like Chess and Solitare and the like.
Yahoo Chat - We all know about chat. Pick a room, from sports to sex, and get to talking. A drawback is when your ID is visible, some morons can pull an AOL and spam your inbox straight to overload hell. It also gives you access to voice chat too.
Yahoo Personals - For those looking for love (or a TV), place a Yahoo Personal ad. In my preparation for this review, I visited the Personals section, and it's more about looking for sex than anything. It's also a haven for those who pimp their websites to us (porn).
Yahoo Geocities - Speaking of webpages, Geocities is Yahoo's free page builder. It has variable levels of difficulty, from complete HTML for experts, to hold-your-hand building (which I certainly need). It's probably the best webpage builder out there right now (in my mind of course).
Yahoo Messenger - Yahoo's paging service, it gives you email alerts, lets you see news, sports scores, and stocks, along with other things. It also allows private chat and voice chat. You can compile a buddy list and chat your fingers off. It's not as good as AOL Instant Messenger, but it's not too bad.
My Yahoo - You can set this as your personal start page (like I do). You can arrange it to view how many new email messages you have, you can track sports scores with a scoreboard and a team calendar, see new music and movie releases, and even track the latest posts on your Yahoo Clubs board. Also, get the latest news and weather updates. It's your own personal portal.
There is a TON more, but this is a review of the EMAIL service, so...
YEAH, WHAT ABOUT THAT DANG EMAIL PROGRAM!?
What you get is a very intuitive and easy to navigate email program. It allows you to create tons of new folders, send Yahoo Greetings (something anyone can do, not just Yahoo members), and manage email addresses, along with tons more. And, instead of the old 3MB limit, now you get 6! How sweet is that!
Composing a message - Creating a message is very easy. Click on compose, pull out an email address from your address book or type it in, and get to typing! A really cool feature is the HTML tags you can put in. I really haven't messed with that too much yet, but the tags you use on your Epinions profile work (I'm nowhere near an HTML know it all, more like don't know anything). Best part is, you can preview it to see how the HTML will look. That's a great idea, so you don't look HTML stupid after typing a message (but I'm stupid 24/7, so I don't apply). Of course, you can add attachments as well. Just click send and it's off (wow, this is really boring isn't it?).
The folders - By default, you have the inbox, the sent box, the draft box, Jack In The Box (whoops), bulk mail, and trash. The inbox is obviously the main box where your mail is sent. Oh heck, you know what all the rest mean don't you? The bulk mail one is where all your spam that is sent in bucketloads to tons of Yahoo customers go (that's why they call it bulk!). That way, the trash mail will never see your eyes if you don't check the bulk mail folder. After 30 days, the mail is automatically deleted. The trash folder is of course, trash that you have deleted.
The address book - Yeah, I know, you want me to quit. Tough. The address book is like all the others. Just give a name to the face, their email address, and group them into a group or just them alone (sounds like an MCSE dealing with user accounts created this program). Then you can quickly select them for mass mailings of spam and porn.
The options - There are TONS of options to use. You can add a signature, create a vacation message to send folks who email you while you are away, and you can even buy a 25MB mailbox. That's a lot of MB! You can also block senders that send stuff that annoys you. That way, whoever that is can't send you anything ever again, until you decide not to block it anymore.
It also comes with two way POP3 forwarding. You can set up Outlook Express, Netscape Composer, and Eudora (I THINK) to allow mail forwarding to that software. As I said, I'm not a OE fan, but it's there if you want it. It works in reverse too. You can set it up to check other email, and have it delivered to your Yahoo inbox.
Reading mail - C'mon, you can't read email? Fine, I'll tell you. Click on the subject name (oh yeah, you can arrange the messages by date, sender, and subject), and you can read the message. Not too hard is it?
SO SMARTY, ANYTHING WRONG WITH YAHOO MAIL?
Believe it or not, not a lot. Some spam does trickle past your bulk mail folder, but it's few and far between. It's not to the degree of Hotmail where you get 100 spam mails a day. You can just block the sender, delete the message, and forget about it. In terms of reliability, it's very reliable. One time though, I got a message dated three days before I got it, and that was really strange. But on the whole not too many problems.
OVERALL
If you're an internet newbie, and are looking for a web-based email account that is reliable, pretty much devoid of spam, and gives you access to TONS of features, give a look to Yahoo Mail. And, hey, who can refuse a email account called Yahoo?
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
awoolcott
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 in Games |
 - Top 200 |
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Location: Arizona
Reviews written: 411
Trusted by: 400 members
About Me:
2009 was a pretty good year for games, but next year, wow.
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