The Bottom Line
Yahoo! Mail is your ubiquitous email program on the web, Windows 8 and mobile devices with unlimited storage, SMS texting, social networking and instant messaging to boot.
While Yahoo! Mail is generally a joy to use, free-form labeling and smart folders would be nice, and the spam filter could catch junk even more effectively.
While Yahoo! Mail is generally a joy to use, free-form labeling and smart folders would be nice, and the spam filter could catch junk even more effectively.
Pros
- Yahoo! Mail integrates email, instant messaging, social networks and SMS text messaging
- Keyboard shortcuts, a desktop-like interface and attention to detail make Yahoo! Mail a joy to use
- Yahoo! Mail comes with unlimited online storage
Cons
- Yahoo! Mail's spam filter could be more precise and its manual rules more flexible
- You cannot label messages freely (and with multiple tags) or set up smart folders
- Yahoo! Mail does not offer IMAP access for desktop email programs
Description
- Yahoo! Mail offers free email accounts with unlimited online storage at the yahoo.com, ymail.com and rocketmail.com domains.
- In addition to email, you can send SMS texts and instant messages to Yahoo!, Facebook and Windows Live contacts.
- Yahoo! Mail automatically collects junk emails in a "Spam" folder, and you can report unwanted emails the filter missed.
- Up to 15 filters automatically file incoming mail. You can also block email addresses and instant messaging contacts.
- Yahoo! Mail allows you to collect mail from additional POP accounts, and you can send from their addresses, too.
- Acting as a social network, Yahoo! Mail lets you connect to Yahoo! and Facebook users, whose mail then gets extra treatment.
- Virus scanning and Yahoo! Mail's not downloading remote images or other content in emails protects you from much online harm.
- Keyboard shortcuts, drag and drop, tabs, address auto-completion and more lend Yahoo! Mail desktop-like qualities.
- On mobile devices, Yahoo! Mail offers slick web-based or powerful native applications (available for Android and iPhone).
- A Windows 8 app works very much like the Windows 8 email program and sports new mail notifications on the Start screen.
- Applications can expand Yahoo! Mail to let you edit pictures, for example, or send money and big files easily.
- Paid Yahoo! Mail Plus includes POP access, disposable email addresses, more filters, and email forwarding while excluding advertisements.
