Abhilash tells me that he utilizes GPRS (not sure if that’s strictly through a mobile device or if he tethers it to his laptop as a modem…but either way is good) to check his YMail everywhere he goes.

…and here he is again, this time clearly mocking me with the makings of a VERY full head of hair (were you wondering why I’m wearing a hat in my pic?).

Love the bird’s eye view!

Ryan Knight
Community Manager
Yahoo! Mail

In the meantime, it’s time for user submitted pictures! You may recall that a few weeks back I was inspired by the Where The Hell Is Matt video, and asked you all to send in creative examples of some of the places that you have found yourself using your Yahoo! Mail. One of my friends sent in a pic of herself checking via wireless out in front of some Taiwanese monuments.

Over the next week I’ll be posting some of the selections from those submissions. Some captured themselves within the image, others just captured a lovely view, but big thanks to everyone who made the effort. The team really enjoyed it.

Here we have Chrystal, seated in a place she “frequents often on campus” (the Cal Poly San Luis Obispo University Union), while checking her Yahoo! Mail.

Another of the submissions comes all the way from Manila, where Christian offered a sample of the view he enjoys while checking his email wirelessly on his balcony.

Stay tuned to the blog over the next week. Rounds 2 and 3 will be on the way.

Ryan Knight
Community Manager
Yahoo! Mail

As you can see there is an easy to follow navigation bar at the top of every page.  You can drill down within the Products tab to get detailed information about Classic or All-New Mail, and if you’ve ever wanted to know the differences, there is an option for that too.  You get side by side feature comparison of both versions, with some details about Plus features too.

Each main product page also has tab choices that let you see not only the current features, but also a summary list of all of the most recent changes.

But maybe you don’t want just a summary list of the changes.  If that’s the case you needn’t fret because there is another option in the main navigation bar that lets you review detailed descriptions of What’s New with Yahoo! Mail.

Maybe you want to know more about integrated chat or SMS within the All-New Mail.  Perhaps you were living under a rock and never heard that we offer unlimited storage for all users.  No matter your flavor, you can find the latest major product breakdowns under that tab.

Under the enhancements tab you can find a very detailed description of all of the features of Yahoo! Mail Plus, accompanied by one of my favorite Liam incarnations…Super Liam!

And I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the coolest aspect of the overview site…the giant link to this blog!  Sure you are already here now, but I’m all for anything that makes it easier for you to get back, as well as anything that could bring some new readers.

If you happen to be someone who found your way here for the first time thanks to that link, please do subscribe to the RSS feed and come back again.  Here you will find breaking news about both versions of Yahoo! Mail, product demos, screencasts, and news about bugs that may be impacting your Mail experience, all with a healthy dose of lighthearted humor (except on the bug posts, of course).

There’s lots of stuff to check out on the Overview site, so please have a look around.  Also, I want to let you all know (or at least the folks who read all the way to the end of my posts) that I’m going to be out of the office for the next week, so be patient if you don’t see any comment responses from me for a few days.

I’ve queued up some great posts with the pics users submitted of the places they use Yahoo! Mail, and they will be going up while I’m gone.  Enjoy, and I’ll be back soon!

Ryan Knight
Community Manager
Yahoo! Mail

dlippman: Why don’t emails with the word “Lottery” and a few other Spam characteristics automatically go into my Spam folder?

Mark: I really wish we could! Catching a specific word is really hard. On the one hand, there are the risks that we’ll catch something legitimate — “Campus housing lottery this Friday” — which is what we call a “false positive.” (A “false positive” is any time our filters mistakenly mark something as spam when it isn’t)

On the other hand, if we build a filter for one specific word, there are often about a bazillion other ways the bad guys can spell it and still get their point across. Did you know there were 600,426,974,379,824,381,952 ways to spell \/!@g.r.a? (check out http://cockeyed.com/lessons/viagra/viagra.html)

I actually had to look up what that number translates to (turns out it’s a quintillion) and who would have thought that the “little blue miracle” could be re-written that many ways.

Check out the complete transcript from the Workshop here.  We will be doing more of these Workshops over the next few months, so if you have any themes you would like to recommend please feel free to suggest them (comments or email).

Ryan Knight
Community Manager
Yahoo! Mail

What many on campus DIDN’T know was that when he wasn’t spending that hour speaking he was actually being dragged all over campus to shoot scenes with various Yahoos. If you look really closely at the Mail team clip (0:55, pause if you need to) you will see a contemplative Liam in the center, with Matt just to the left and me wearing a hat just a little further to the left. If you look closely you can also see Mark, the anti-spam Czar.

The video is over on Yodel, so be sure to check it out!

Ryan Knight
Community Manager
Yahoo! Mail

That’s right, the All-New Mail is now fully compatible with the latest Mac and Windows versions of the Safari browser.  It’s actually been rolling out over the last few weeks, so many of you have probably already noticed.

Our guys have worked very closely with folks from Apple to ensure that Safari users on both sides of the OS war can enjoy a great experience in Safari. (Unfortunately for me this work hasn’t netted me any Apple swag, but oh well.  I guess it’s probably more important to actually work on compatibility anyway.)

This also means that if you are someone who has straddled that fence because your work machine and home machine ran different systems (as I did for far too long), you have another browser option that will provide a consistent experience on both machines.

There it is…one more thing for Mac and PC users to agree on.  A great experience with YMail in Safari.

The Yahoo! Mail team…bringing users together.

Ryan Knight
Community Manager
Yahoo! Mail

Our engineers are reviewing the situation, but in the meantime I wanted to confirm with you that we are aware and are on the case.

UPDATE - 7/31
All issues should now be resolved. We apologize for the frustration.

Ryan Knight
Community Manager
Yahoo! Mail

You can pre-submit questions by signing into the workshop early, or you can sign in during the event and submit them live.  The timing will be from 4-5PM PT.  We look forward to seeing you there!

Also don’t forget to submit your pics or videos highlighting where you’ve been while accessing your YMail.  The deadline for submissions is today and I’ll be sending out rewards within the next two weeks.

Ryan Knight
Community Manager
Yahoo! Mail

The first bit of cool news is the new default appearance.  When you open it the first thing you will probably notice is that it VERY closely resembles the All-New Yahoo! Mail.  Zimbra has several themes (or “skins”) that can be applied, and it now defaults to a Yahoo! option.  So if you like the interface of New Mail you will probably find this new default appearance quite cozy.  Of course there are still differences to the interface and functionality, but the look will be familiar.

Another benefit for YMail users is that Zimbra enables offline access to your Yahoo! Mail.   You’ll be able to compose, move, and also delete messages, and all of these activities will be pushed back to Yahoo! Mail the next time you connect.  That may sound mystical to some, but IMAP helps make it possible.  Yes, you read that last part right … Yahoo! Mail has dipped its toe into the IMAP pool and is testing the waters with Zimbra (after all, they are family).

The sync options are currently limited to Mail, so keep that in mind if you were hoping to play around with your Calendar and Address Book.  Regardless, this still represents an exciting new option for the YMail user who is frequently on the go (and hasn’t drank the iPhone kool-aid).

You can get more details about all of the changes over on the Zimbra blog.

Ryan Knight
Community Manager
Yahoo! Mail

During the session Mark and I will be responding to some of the top questions I’ve been receiving from users on the blog.  Users will also be able to submit questions in advance by visiting our Workshop page, as well as live during the event.

This will be a great opportunity to not only get a better understanding of the kind of steps you can take to reduce the spam you see, but and also to share some of your thoughts directly with the people who can make a difference…so don’t miss it!

***Someone suspected my cavalier attitude might have rubbed of on our Czar, so I swapped out the ushanka pic for something a little more formal.***

Ryan Knight
Community Manager
Yahoo! Mail