The evolution of Mail, Messenger and Search

Posted August 24th, 2009 at 1:05 pm by Bryan Lamkin, Yahoo! Applications

 31 Comments / Filed in: Trends & News

We’re sprucing up the joint today with major enhancements to three of our most popular products as part of our quest to make Yahoo! the center of your online world. We’ve rolled out improvements to Yahoo! Mail, Yahoo! Messenger and Yahoo! Search to make them more personally relevant, help you get more done in less time, and keep you better connected with the people and things that matter to you most.

Let’s start with Yahoo! Mail.
After much testing, today we’ve reached a significant Yahoo! Mail milestone by bringing the best of the web – including photosharing, third-party apps and social features – to people’s inboxes… all 300 million inboxes around the world.

For photo hounds, we’ve introduced new multi-select and drag-and-drop functionality that makes it easier to attach photos, view thumbnail previews, and rotate images before you send them. And we’ve upped the photo and filesize limits from 10MB to 25MB.

We’ve also streamlined the inbox experience to further expand the social and open capabilities. A new Application Box brings third-party open apps like PayPal, Picnik, Xoopit, and ZumoDrive together with Flickr, Calendar and Notepad to make managing your email folders easier. Plus, we’re excited to add a new app to the gallery in a few weeks from Evite. With the Evite app you’ll be able to create invitations, check on events, and add items to your Calendar all from one place. And we are only scratching the surface on the apps available. Stay tuned as we roll out additional apps worldwide and specific apps for regional markets over the coming year.

Your inbox will soon be a bit more social, filtering out the noise by surfacing the most recent emails from your contacts and giving you birthday reminders. In addition, we’ve improved Yahoo! Contacts so you can automatically get updates when a contact changes their name, e-mail address or phone number.

We’ve also redesigned Yahoo! Mail for the mobile web (http://m.yahoo.com), giving you one-click access to check, compose and search email; allowing attachment downloads like Microsoft Office, PDFs and photos; and letting you access personal folders on the go. It’s available today on the iPhone and will be released on 400 other devices with HTML browsers on September 1st.

Here’s a video tour of some of the new features in Yahoo! Mail:

Introducing Yahoo! Messenger 10
With this new release of Yahoo! Messenger, the biggest news is the debut of truly high quality video calling. Using your Web cam, you can now have full-screen, face-to-face video conversations with crystal clear audio for free from right within your Yahoo! Messenger window. Messenger is also more getting social as we roll out new features to help you stay in closer contact with friends and family. A new “Updates” tab gives you a quick glimpse of what your contacts are up to – including status updates, Flickr uploads, Yahoo! Buzz stories, Tweets and more. Since our popularity only grows around the globe, we’re also letting you customize your client with one of 16 languages without having to download a different version. And finally, an improved iPhone Messenger app ensures the same great experience with your contacts’ messages even when you’re on the go.

Download the Messenger 10 Beta here: http://messenger.yahoo.com/winbeta. And be sure to check out a demo of what’s new in Yahoo! Messenger 10:

Testing the new Yahoo! Search.
To prove just how committed we are to continued innovation in your search experience, we’re testing a new search results page that ups the ante on personal relevance. We’re providing new tools for refining results that let you explore related concepts, display only results from popular Yahoo! and third-party sites, and narrow results by types of content like people, videos, and discussion forums.

We’re also using advanced science to detect what you’re searching for based on your search history. For example, if you search for “cat” and then later for “jaguar” we can figure out that you’re looking for content about the animal and not the car.

We’re running random bucket tests (no opt-in at this time) of this new version of search with a small subset of our users. In case you’re not one of the lucky millions, here’s a sneak preview of what we’re testing:

Finally, following the lead of the new Yahoo! Homepage, which now proudly wears our corporate color, we are introducing a new “universal header” across every Yahoo! product and service in the U.S. It not only sports a purple logo, it also features a Yahoo! Search box that integrates Search Assist on every page. We never want you to have to go far to find what you’re looking for.

Check out screenshots of our various enhancements as well as more details of today’s news at our Press Room and over at the Yahoo! Messenger Blog and the Yahoo! Mail Blog.

Bryan Lamkin
SVP Yahoo! Applications

Tagged: news, purple, yahoo! mail, yahoo! messenger, yahoo! search

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31 Comments Add your own

Sean | August 24th, 2009 at 1:27 pm

Bryan,

I am VERY concerned about Yahoo! Messenger and the team.

Firstly, there are many, many bugs and exploits on the Yahoo! Messenger platform that are risking people’s accounts with mail and other Yahoo! services. For example, users can use applications freely found on less savoury websites to mass report an ID for abuse, which automatically triggers a total Yahoo!-wide ban, so they lose their mail too. Your teams don’t care about this, there is no route to appeal, and customer care simply says you must write to the custodian of records and likely subpoena yourselves to find out more. This has happened to me and many of my Yahoo! buddies.

Secondly, the Yahoo! Messenger Blog administrator is constantly removing all criticism, even when it’s civil and constructive. I know there is a lot of silliness on that blog, but much of what I see that is constructive, lasts only hours before deleted.

Thirdly, and in conjunction with the above, the Yahoo! Messenger customer care is really, very poor. They have a very, very weak understanding of the product, and fail to answer even simple questions correctly. Even after speaking to them in live chat to really pin down the fault, they then escalate it and more incorrect answers come back by email. I have really been at my wits end with the support teams recently – they fail to pass any real bugs to the engineers, always repsonding with false answers.

I was really hoping, when all the above started about a year ago, some improvement would be seen, but it hasn’t, it’s continued to go down hill, and nobody at Yahoo! is listening – somebody should look at the core values you post against the yahoo! smileys, Yahoo! messenger is hitting the mark with some of these by a great distance, and it’s only moving further away.

Sean.

Cate Brady | August 24th, 2009 at 7:38 pm

Is that why I’m getting so many error messages using email today?It’s a mess.

matt | August 24th, 2009 at 9:54 pm

I love the new universal header. The status updates in mail/homepage/messenger is a bit confusing for me though. I think the yahoo ‘Social Pulse’ on the iphone is better.

Robert Martin | August 24th, 2009 at 11:20 pm

Yahoo has became part of our daily life, we send message, chat with our near and dear ones all over the globe. More over yahoo offers search engine and many more facilities. Yahoo offers large range of utilities and facilities to its users.

Liam | August 25th, 2009 at 5:06 am

You guys need to finishing “tweaking” Yahoo! Canada Mail POP & Forwarding option (among other things). I don’t know why it is separate but Yahoo! Canada lags behind what you guys get down south.

Show Canada some love please!

Alex Kulik | August 25th, 2009 at 7:04 am

i have to comment. more of a rhetorical question. Did anybody at Yahoo ever ask themselves “why do people stick with the clunky old ClassicMail?”? my guess, the answer is “no”. when the subject got brought up on ymailblog, the response from the newly appointed arrogant yahoo-in-charge (and i do not use the word in this case as a term of endearment) Andrew Molyneux was to shut off comments. Great way to keep in touch with your customer’s needs, really!
here’s the simple reality. the ClassicMail users don’t want new features. not everyone in the world wants to use twitter, facebook, flikr, myspace, aol buddy lists or whatever the next fad will be – who cares, all those sites become abandoned in a matter of a year or two anyway, as soon as something hotter appears. But i digress… when the old design has become ClassicMail a lot of core functionality became broken, and nobody seems to address those issues. it took almost a year of begging and pleading to get the mail search fixed – apparently running a simple reindex job is beyond the scope of competency of your DBAs. And then the Chat functionality arrived. Seriously, the genius that came up with an idea that you need to install (or enable) Flash player to load an applet to get turned-off chat module to stop flashing “Loading…” sign should start wearing a diaper, as something that stupid would not occur to someone who has been potty-trained.
Please, even if you choose to moderate this message, pass this comment onto John Kremer, or somebody else at the top of the Mail product – i would really like to keep using yahoo. Right now, every time a new feature makes my experience more difficult, slower or annoying, i tell one more of my respondents to use my other mail address. when they all switch i’ll have no reason to come back. yeah, i know one user out of a million, who cares. just remember, one of the worst mistakes a business can make is alienating and ignoring the existing customer base while chasing the elusive new markets. (remember Y! vs G! search fiasco from many years ago?)

gag | August 25th, 2009 at 1:35 pm

video messenger is a fabulous update

search result based on previous search terms is cool

invite feature, calender, extra space n all makes mail useful

hey developers, programmers n managers at yahoo!, i thank you all for these cool updates

Arlin Bell | August 25th, 2009 at 3:47 pm

I’ve just read what you’ve done in yahoo email and I
think it is wild waa-hoo!!I can’t wait to get it started
in my email and get the rest of the new stuff figured
out to.No! I’m happy with what you have worked so hard
on. Thank you again.
Arlin

Brett | August 25th, 2009 at 4:34 pm

The apps are not appearing in the sbc/at&t cobranded mail. (And how can I get rid of the ugly AT&T skin?)

Béranger | August 26th, 2009 at 12:35 am

What 25 MB of attachments? In my Yahoo! Canada (Classic) account, it still reads 10 MB!!!

Arron Fitzgerald | August 26th, 2009 at 1:22 am

I cannot see any of these new features in my (UK) email; no apps, ads are still there. Is there is delay for UK users?

Ray | August 26th, 2009 at 5:47 am

Hy!

A release time line would have been nice though, in order to let people know when they can expect to get the new mail features. But as a think about it, I guess you are doing an upgrade on the servers, so it is not a possibility to know who will be getting what and when.

Cindy | August 26th, 2009 at 9:15 am

I can’t wait for all the new updates! Just one question…if everyone is getting all this, what’s the advantage to paying for Yahoo Plus….just no ads??

Sean | August 26th, 2009 at 10:51 am

Bryan,

Why are Yahoo!, including you, denying and censoring all critism of your products?

You ignore it, Product Managers ignore it, Customer Care ignores it. You don’t listen, perhaps you should remove or invert your core values, they are pretty much core lies at the minute.

Sean.

Leaflord | August 27th, 2009 at 7:52 am

It has yet to show up in my account — mine is still the older, slower and cluttered Yahoo mail!

M.L.A. | August 27th, 2009 at 6:13 pm

My address book is now a total mess. I had everything sorted by last name with business names under “last name” and descriptions under “first name”. I also find all my contacts by last name. I am totally disgusted that everything now is sorted only by first name. Please bring back the last name sorting or I’ll be going to g-mail and google!!!!!!!

Robert | August 28th, 2009 at 12:07 am

I love everything you have done to mail, but it would be nice to have IMAP access.

Margaret | September 2nd, 2009 at 1:26 pm

I have to sooo agree with Alex Kulik | August 25th, 2009 at 7:04 am. Thank you Alex. Every time I tried the NEW mail I reverted back and diligently filled out the questionnaire regarding WHY I opt to stay with Mail Classic. I even checked that I’d be willing to be contacted in regards to this. NEVER did anyone contact me. They just changed things If people want the “NEW” mail, go for it, just let us have our plain easy to use mail-Classic!
Even in Classic you make these un-called-for changes. Has anyone tried to change, or revise a Contact’s information lately? Where IS the EDIT feature? It says, select (click on) a name – but when I do, I can “email, add to catefory,delete” it, thank you very much HOW adn where DO I INPUT A NEW phone number that my contact changed? The old classic was so easy. For heaven’s sake – quit fixing something that isn’t broken. Quit fixing yourself out of business. I have referred plenty of new users to Mail Classic, because it is (WAS) easy to use, easy to explain and teach, to a brand-new email user. If they want more, let them switch laater to the NEW mail, but PLEASE! quit fixing what isn’t broken!

ken burke | September 4th, 2009 at 8:58 am

margaret i soooooooooo agree with you somehow my contact list got changed and i can’t get it changed back. i just got a g-mail account and am thinking to switch over completely

ken burke | September 4th, 2009 at 9:07 am

wow i hope that you guys get the hint we like classic, nice easy e-mail usage, quit trying to fix what isn’t broken

jenifer | September 4th, 2009 at 8:19 pm

I think that the evolution in the mail is really fine. It is very easy to share our thoughts and videos in a quick manner. The Yahoo makes me more crazy. I think it is the best for the email users to use it an easy way.
by
thoi trang

sunnierstudent | September 6th, 2009 at 12:22 am

yahoo messenger 9 and 10 are junk because we cannot maximise (size) of the main messegenger window. it looks ugly as well. looks should be made the same as it was with 8.0+

windows live messenger download | September 6th, 2009 at 8:15 am

Messenger enables you to talk to people from anywhere in the world, but what if you two don’t speak the same language? A handy way to solve this problem is using Microsoft’s translation bots

SUSAN | September 9th, 2009 at 6:07 am

Please bring back classic email. I am 61 years old and this new stuff is way too confusing. I just want to read my mail!!!!!!!

YahooMailSucks | September 10th, 2009 at 7:36 am

Yahoo’s new mail interface is ridiculously slow and often unresponsive. All attempts suggested by Yahoo techincal service have failed to resolve the issue.

Now Yahoo Search Mail does not work on the Yahoo ,ail account I use most. Strange that Search Mail works on my other two accounts.

Tech support has been useless in attempts to resolve this issue also.

How incompetent are these people?

wendy hoard | September 10th, 2009 at 9:42 pm

This change has resulted in all of my old email being gone. simply disappeared. I had years of email stored there, so I wouldn’t lose it if my computer crashed. well now that’s a joke.

part of our quest to make Yahoo! the center of your online world

You won’t be the center of my online world. I’ll avoide yahoo like the plague

We’ve rolled out improvements to Yahoo!
None that I can see, deleting all my email isn’t seen as an improvement to me.
Mail
Your inbox will soon be a bit more social,

Social, it’s all gone what is social about deleting all my email.

Nick | September 21st, 2009 at 2:13 am

My Yahoo Inbox often makes Firefox hang. Please fix!

Deb | October 4th, 2009 at 2:29 pm

Yahoo doesn’t like my old operating system, and I certainly don’t like Yahoo’s way of operating either.

I haven’t had email access since October 1st. I am not even sure if I can upgrade. There is no instructions on what the customer can do. I will not pay for internet access alone. I depended on email for job leads.

I tried contacting the internet service and I was left on hold for over 20 minutes. What happened to customer service?

Please moderate your customers’ concerns.

msrsw | October 8th, 2009 at 11:47 am

The photo/file attachment idea is nice, works sometimes, but often I get the “!” icon, and no information why it won’t accept my attachment (both by using attach file, and dragging method). I then have to use my other accounts. I’ll give it a few more tries.

Patricia | October 26th, 2009 at 6:41 am

I have asked you before and you haven’t listened………..PLEASE TAKE THE CHAT FEATURE OFF OF MY COMPUTER.

I DON’T LIKE IT AND I WON’T BE USING IT.

IT IS AN IRRITATING NUISANCE.

Paul Stankavich | October 31st, 2009 at 1:03 pm

sily and send huge photos. Now I can hardly read the copntact list, searches rarely find who I am looking for, and the same photops I have sent on a regular basis lock my mail. If I copuld tyransfer all my stuff to hotmail would do it in a seconmd. Where is youir ualioty copnmtrol team? Hopw do I back up to my old yahoop? I cannot even get to technical support because GFlash will not load and I cannot find a phone number.
Nopw I am typing this blog and loosiing the first stuff I typed. IO am goping to wriote to every computer maghazine I canm find that your productm does not work