Dear Yahoo! Mail, how are you?

There is a fact that Yahoo! Mail is probably one of my first email service providers. Not sure about the exact date I created my account, but I think it was in 2000’s. It was the time when Yahoo! was so popular, had lots of services, and interesting products. Probably, it was also because that there were not many alternatives. Yahoo! Mail was a good choise.
But, it has been years. Many services — not only email — come and go. But, when we jump to the internet world, everybody will get an email. Not only about the very basic features (sending and receiving email), but email service should be build better, answering what users need. What internet users really need.
Let’s not forget also about some other services. Google launched its Gmail in April 2004 (so, it has been 8 years). Recently, Microsoft re-launched its Hotmail as Outlook.com. Every service tries to make improvements for its users to deliver the best product and features for them. This is how Yahoo! Mail inbox looks like.

If you have a Yahoo! Mail account, just try to login and see yourself. What do you think? Well, what do I think? And, why I’m writing this post, anyway? If I don’t like it, why should I write about it? Isn’t it easier to just leave it?

Your email service does not work (for me)

There are some reasons (well, lots of reasons) why I think it does not work me. I’m focusing on the web-based email service even I have my Yahoo! email on my iPhone, iPad, BlackBerry and also Android. Here are some of my personal thoughts:

1. It’s toooooo busy

I just want to read email. I know that you have many service (I see that on the left sidebar). I just want to focus on the inbox. Having less white spaces will put more elements/contents. But, the readability and reading experience do not meet my taste. I tried to customise the way how my inbox should be displayed, but nothing fits me.

2. Ads

I know that having advertisement (text or banner) is one thing that you should have. They make money, and you need it. But, could you please make it better (in terms of placement and materials). There are three zones there (small text ad on the upper left, banners on the bottom left, and huge sky crapper-size on the right. Yes, I can hide it, or probably simply block it from the browser using browser extensions.

3. Why you put {this} and {that} that have no (clear) functions?


You have menus on the top when reading list of messages, reading a specific message, composing screen, etc. Some of them are working, not some of them are not (by context).
For example, you have “Reply to All”. You want me to be easy to send reply all too senders (from a specific email). Nothing special with this. This is good. But why you also give me this option when I select multiple emails? This might something you actually don’t have it there too. But, why you still give me this? If it only works for a single email, why you have the the option to reply multiple email at the same time?
I know that you want to help me replying my email by doing less clicks from the front. Is it what you want? If so, why not having the “Reply to All” disabled (or hidden) when no actions can’t be done from that menu? This also happens when I try to hit the “Forward” button. Just show me menu(s) that really works.
Another example: If I select an email and it’s marked as “Read”, I can have an option to make it “Unread”. But, why having “Mark as Unread” for email that is already “Unread”?
As the email service creator, I’m sure you know more about every menus/functions found there.

4. Spams

I know that you work hard on this part. But, I think I see many phishing attempts.

Other notes

I have a BIG questions: How do Yahoo! employees think about their Yahoo! Mail? Especially the web-based email? Do they use it on daily basis? Or, is it because they interact with their email messages from an email client most of the time?
I believe that Yahoo! has resources to make improvements here. They how have Marissa Mayer now.
Again, this is my personal perspective, from a user who wants to have a better and great experience in dealing with email. Is it too much?


Comments

4 responses to “Dear Yahoo! Mail, how are you?”

  1. I see phishing attempts, too. And the crazy thing is, while Yahoo lets that happen, it has suddenly decided to block my ability to send emails because some roboprogram has somehow determined that I’m a spammer. Terrible service. Nice blog, though!

  2. every once of two days, it ask me to login via desktop version, i don’t know why. maybe related to someone attempt to login using my account.
    if i not login via desktop version, then my mail client won’t be able to fetch email.

  3. Help your blog into Wall Street !!!
    http://orangescale.com/
    hx7lb7e34giy8e8k

  4. Rank Better and Earn More
    http://orangescale.com/
    4gw4cs4yo4uk44gw4c