Taglines eliminated: newshound shortage could be on the horizon!

You’ve almost certainly seen them before, but as of a few days ago you won’t be seeing them again. Tagline advertisements (which were inserted at the end of email messages) were comprised of short messages for a variety of products, but are now comprised of nothing!

I for one am going to particularly miss the frequent Yahoo! Mobile ad (which replicated on each reply in a thread) encouraging folks to “be a better friend, newshound, and know-it-all” with Yahoo! Mobile, but I suppose I’ll learn to cope.

If you find yourself experiencing similar feelings of longing for these blurbs, don’t fret! You can put them in yourself by creating a custom signature! Just follow the directions from Yahoo! Help. In fact, I’m thinking of putting the ‘newshound’ message in my signature, but instead linking to this blog.

Ryan K.
Community Manager
Yahoo! Mail

Yahoo! Mail users eligible for Pearl-a-day giveaway

If you’ve thought about jumping onto the mobile mail bandwagon for a while, now might be a good time to take the plunge. While the Yahoo! Mobile team has done a lot to make Mail (and other Y! products) work really well on a variety of mobile phones, the experience they’ve developed for certain smartphones (like BlackBerry or iPhone) is really awesome. For me, the divide between having to actively check my email and having my device notify me when new messages arrive is Grand Canyon-esque.

That’s why I think this promotion from the Yahoo! Mobile team is something really worth checking out. They are giving out a BlackBerry Pearl a day for the rest of May. All you have to do is sign-up for the promotion and then try using Yahoo! Mail on any data enabled phone. Once you’ve done so you’ll get entered into daily drawings when you use Yahoo! Mail. Winners get to choose the color and carrier for their new Pearl.

Check out the Yahoo! Mobile Sweepstakes page for all the details on entries, drawings, and timing. Also note that the checkbox for receiving future promos from BlackBerry defaults unchecked, so only check that if you WANT to be alerted about upcoming offers from BlackBerry.

Ryan K.
Community Manager
Yahoo! Mail

Another scam warning - recent PayPal phishing

I received a lot of positive responses (comments and email) after last week’s warning about bogus Yahoo! Lottery scams, so I thought I’d keep with that theme and offer up some more tips.

Hopefully just about everyone knows that when someone sends an “URGENT” message “from the desk of…” some guy insisting that you just lucked into a fortune, your “too good to be true” alarms should sound off.

But a well crafted phishing email can be a little harder to spot without looking for key indicators. A quick glance at my spam folder revealed two different scammers posing as PayPal, notifying me of an urgent need to click a link and verify information.

If you look at the screenshot on the right you will see that the scammer is using the updated PayPal logo, but don’t let that give you a false sense of security. The greeting gives it all away. PayPal will ALWAYS address you formally by the name registered to your account. So if you have a personal account it will be your name, and if you have a business account it will reference your business name. Never as “Dear PayPal Member” or “Account Holder”.

Now that doesn’t mean that a message addressing you correctly is guaranteed to be legit, but it does mean that a message not addressing you directly is an obvious ruse.

Once you get past the greeting, you can also look for mistakes in the copy. In the above example there is an extra period at the end of a paragraph. In the other sample there is a missing return space between paragraphs. These are small things, but a lot of scammers seem to miss them.

Also, both examples urge you to click a link to go somewhere and input information … which most reputable sites won’t ask you to do.

Remember that these aren’t tips to confirm that a message is authentic, but rather clues to easily filter out a lot of the bad ones that aren’t authentic. Ultimately your best bet is open a new window and visit the site how you normally would, and look for any alert messages there. If you have a problem with your account they will usually notify there too.

Hope this helps a little more!

Ryan K.
Community Manager
Yahoo! Mail

Yahoo! Lottery notifications - don’t fall for ‘em!

I trust that the vast majority of you all would never fall for such an obvious ruse (notice I spelled that correctly this time), but given the number of questions I’m getting via email, as well as what many users are asking on Yahoo! Answers (more than 6,000 questions!), I think it’s worth a reminder.

If you have received a message notifying you that you have won a Yahoo! Lottery award (no matter what country it claims to be from), don’t trust it. Over on the right I have a sample of a UK & Ireland version that offers winnings of £845,000. All you have to do is reply with all of your personal information!

Keep in mind that these types of messages can come in all shapes and sizes, and be any style imaginable. So the best thing to do is look for certain red flags. Be weary wary of any message containing the following:

• requests for sensitive account information, passwords, or bank information.
• offers of some form of unexpected financial windfall from estates or lotteries.
• anything that warns you not to tell anyone.

There are more, but those are some good ones to start with. If you are ever undecided about a message (some of the spammers are pretty crafty, after all) simply open a new browser and login to your account directly. If there is something important going on with your account, you should be notified when you login (this goes for most sites).

It also can’t hurt to keep an eye on the good ‘ol Yahoo! Security Site for all sorts of valuable tips to stay safe online!

Ryan K.
Community Manager
Yahoo! Mail

RESOLVED: Postmaster Queue Delays

I’m happy to report that the previously reported delays in responding to Postmaster troubleshooting forms have been resolved, and all inquiries should receive a response within 24 - 48 hours.

We apologize for any frustration this may have caused.

Ryan K.
Community Manager
Yahoo! Mail

Be a part of Liam’s Life, in Yahoo! Mail

If you are like me, you first noticed the charming, yet goofy, ambassador for Yahoo! Mail almost two years ago, bouncing and pogo-ing around the beta version of what is now the All-New Yahoo! Mail. Of course, back then I was in the same non-employee boat that most of you are right now. But times have changed and I find myself with the unique opportunity to not only get the skinny on our bespectacled friend, but share that skinny with those folks who don’t have the same insider access that I do.

It all began back in 1973. Born to a rocket-scientist mother and mailman father, Liam began perfecting the Chaplin-esque pratfalls we’ve come to love while establishing himself as the class clown of his elementary school. During his teen years he tried his hand at commercials, as well as music, but ultimately found his place working with his father at the post office.

It wasn’t long though before he had an epiphany. Liam wanted to be a part of the latest evolution of mail…email. As luck would have it, his mom had friends at RocketMail (the email engine that would become the foundation for Yahoo! Mail), and got him a job in the Yahoo! email room. As the product of a rocket-scientist and a mailman, Liam was perfectly suited to advancing communication technology, and emerged as the perfect advocate for Yahoo! Mail.

Though he has found great success in his role with the Yahoo! Mail team, all is not bliss for Liam outside of work…which is where you come in. Soon many of you will have an opportunity to help Liam find similar happiness outside of his job.

Be on the lookout for Liam on the front page of Classic Mail, as well as the Home tab of the All-New Mail. He’ll be mixed in where you probably noticed all of those security themed tips for Yahoo! Security Month. You’ll be able to feed him, exercise him, and try your hand at keeping Liam happy … but you’ll only get the chance for a limited time!

Ryan K.
Community Manager
Yahoo! Mail

Yahoo! gets in on the Freecycle frenzy

In the interest of practicing what we preach, earlier today Yahoo! had a Free is Good Fair in honor of Earth Day.

Hopefully you saw the post last week encouraging users to participate in Freecycle and Reuse groups that enable people in local communities to give and receive “free” goods from their neighbors. Yahoo! gave employees a chance to do the same earlier today.

Staffers brought in personal items, as well as various Yahoo! gear to pass along to others. Perhaps I didn’t really need another Yahoo! coffee mug, but I wanted to do my part to help!

Ryan K.
Community Manager
Yahoo! Mail

Update to Yahoo! Mail Classic has Resumed

That’s right all you Classic enthusiasts. The much ballyhooed update to our Classic Mail offering was postponed over the holidays, but I can confirm that it is back underway.

Many of you have already noticed some of the changes (auto-save to draft, anyone!?!?), and the rest of you should be seeing them soon. I’ll be back in the coming weeks with more details (how does flagging messages or downloading attachments with only one click grab you?!?!).

Stay tuned!

***UPDATE***
I’ve been closely monitoring comments on this post, and would like to thank everyone who has shared their thoughts. Two of the most common issues reported involved default font sizes and Compose Message links from areas outside of Mail. In order to troubleshoot these issues further it would be very helpful if folks experiencing them could email me directly (ymailblog1[at]yahoo.com) with their details.

If you feel your fonts are displaying too large please provide:

• complete URL displayed in your browser after clicking “Inbox”
• operating system (Windows NT, 2003, Vista, Mac OS 10.5.3, etc.)
• browser and browser version (IE7, Firefox 2, Safari 3.1.1, etc.)

If you are clicking compose links but are instead landing on the Home screen of Mail please provide:

• The location you are clicking FROM (MyYahoo, Toolbar, etc.)
• complete URL displayed in your browser after clicking “Inbox”
• operating system (Windows NT, 2003, Vista, Mac OS 10.5.3, etc.)
• browser and browser version (IE7, Firefox 2, Safari 3.1.1, etc.)

As I’ve mentioned before, I can only really be helpful to all of you if you help me by providing complete detail when you find some sort of issue.
***END UPDATE***

Ryan K.
Community Manager
Yahoo! Mail

Yahoo! + Earth Day = Freecycle it!

No matter which side of the Global Warming discussion you fall, I think one thing that just about everyone can agree on is that getting something you want, for free, is way cool. Especially if it is something that you want (and were about to spend money to get), or it’s something you want to get rid of (and can’t sell or might even have to pay to get taken away). Sounds to me like a win-win. Throw in a little something I like to call ‘good for the environment’ … and what we have, ladies and gents, is the trifecta!

So, in celebration of Earth Day this year, Yahoo! is focusing on one of the most important themes of environmentalism: Reuse. Yesterday we began spotlighting a “Free is Good” microsite (green.yahoo.com/earth-day) that features Freecycle and other Reuse groups. These organizations use the Yahoo! Groups platform to enable people in local communities to give and receive “free” goods from their neighbors.

To give all of you even more incentive (and potentially even more stuff to Freecycle) from April 20 – May 4th we will “hide” special prizes in randomly selected Freecycle and other reuse groups. These prizes are specifically eco-friendly in nature (e.g. a Smart car, organic food delivery, eco-resort trip, concert tickets to Sheryl Crow, other locally relevant cool prizes and a fan favorite – toilet paper (as long as you don’t try to recycle it, too). We are also featuring real stories from real people who have found “treasures” on Freecycle.

There’s no time like the present. Fire up that Yahoo! Mail and start cranking out messages to people in your local Reuse Group. After all, Yahoo! Mail messages represent more than half of all Yahoo! Groups email (and you wondered what this had to do with Yahoo! Mail), so there’s a pretty good chance that if something is Freecycled through these Groups … Yahoo! Mail was in on the fun.

Ryan K.
Community Manager
Yahoo! Mail

More tips for Yahoo! Security Month

In the spirit of Yahoo! Security Month, I wanted to put up a quick post so you all can check out this recent clip from KGO-TVs The View from the Bay. Yahoo! Web Life Editor Heather Cabot breaks down several tips to help everyone be smarter online!

Ryan K Community Manager Yahoo! Mail