Yahoo Mail Beta Review

Friday, September 16th, 2005

Ok so I’m in. As an Oddpost user, I’ve got an account with access to Yahoo!’s new mail beta. Click the image at right for a screenshot showing an interactive drag-n-drop of a message into a different folder. You can’t see the cursor, but the little green tick changes to a cross when you can’t drop the message.

Initial thoughts: the implementation is just as slick as Oddpost, with full drag-and-drop email management, right-click menus, and asynchronous updates. The most amazing thing is that it works equally well in IE and Firefox. As someone who dabbles in websites with a fraction of DHTML behaviour, I can understand the miracle that they have pulled off here.

There’s a few funky differences to the way that Oddpost works, the main one being that Yahoo! Mail does not spawn a new window when you log in. This is a Good Thing, because you still have access to your regular browser menus, back-forward behaviour, etc. They’ve managed the multi-window behaviour in a very slick way too. The image below shows what happens when you double-click a message to open it: you get a pseudo-window using tabs. Flicking back and forth between the folder and message is nice and quick. I presume they’ve used iframes or something.
Ymail multipanes
The one thing I don’t like is the super cartoony colourful icons and interface. But I guess the kids love that sort of stuff these days.

I’m still discovering the features and behaviours, and will update anything particularly interesting as I stumble across it. Feel free to ask any questions and I’ll attempt to answer them.

More screenshots after the jump.

Search results:

Right-click menu:

Contacts view:

Adding a new contact:

Prompt to add a contact after sending a new message:
Sent message

Tags: Reviews, Webmail

Brad Kellett says:

It wouldn’t be iframes, but more likley some DHTML/JavaScript trickery. I love seeing web apps like this, the talent that these designers and coders possess astounds me.

16th September, 2005 at 1:57 pm

wes says:

Nice review and screenshots. I’ve had a Yahoo email account since about 1995, and I sure am looking forward to the new interface. Even though I am mostly a Gmail user, I have a hunch I might be moving back to Yahoo Mail again once its made available.

Thanks for your review

29th September, 2005 at 1:07 am

meysam says:

salaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaam

18th December, 2005 at 12:44 pm

patharaporn says:

How do i update my mail to yahoo mail beta?

9th January, 2006 at 6:46 am

Ben says:

I’m pretty sure it’s an invite-only thing at the moment. Staff from Yahoo! or Oddpost have to invite you.

9th January, 2006 at 8:48 am

mario says:

i need help with getting yahoo mail.beta send me and when it come to my email

13th January, 2006 at 10:48 am

FfloatingDesk says:

I was invited by Yahoo to use Beta now. BUT, I had to download latest version of Mozilla, or Firefox, which I did. But then, I couldn’t get back to ‘my invitation! … See a Laptop float … at … FloatingDesk.com … it’s finally here.

18th January, 2006 at 1:09 am

King Waylon Roldan says:

please help me switch my account to yahoo mail beta…please……………..!!!

26th January, 2006 at 9:10 pm

marawan says:

welcome

30th January, 2006 at 8:03 am

Syed Danish says:

HI…alll
I want to update my yahoo mail accout to YAHOO MAIL BETA version…please help..

27th February, 2006 at 6:02 pm

27th February, 2006 at 12:02 am

Saltanat says:

16th March, 2006 at 12:01 am

15th March, 2006 at 6:01 am

Ajay Shrestha says:

Hey please help me to upgrade. I’ve had a Yahoo email account and I sure am looking forward to the new interface. Even though I am mostly a Gmail user, I have a hunch I might be moving back to Yahoo Mail again once its made available.

19th March, 2006 at 11:04 pm