How to Get Yahoo's Next-Generation Webmail
Posted by Harry McCracken | Wednesday, April 26, 2006 8:07 PM PT
"Spectacular" isn't too gushing a description of the
new version of Yahoo Mail--with its drag-and-drop interface, it's one of the most highly-evolved, desktop-like browser based services yet.
But there's one teensy problem with it: Unless you're one of the users who Yahoo invites to try it out, you can't get it, since it remains a closed beta.
At least that's what I thought. But the
Google Operating System blog has published a clever trick for upgrading from the old Yahoo Mail to the beta--and when I tried it, it worked.
Here's the process in a nutshell, assuming you already have a Yahoo Mail account and are logged in:
1. Click on Options on the right-hand side of the screen.
2. Click on Account Information on the left-hand side.
3. If you're prompted for your password again, give it.
4. Click the Edit link next to Member Information.
5. Scroll down to "Preferred Content" and click on your current choice (which, if you're reading this, is most likely English). On the next page, change it to Yahoo United Kingdom, Yahoo France, or Yahoo Germany. Click Finished, then click Finished again.
6. On the next screen, you should have an invitation to try the beta--click on it, and you're good to go. And you can go back and change your Preferred Content back to whatever it was in the first place.
If you try out the beta--which is also a basic-but-handy RSS reader that knows about any feeds you've set up in My Yahoo--come back and let us know what you think. If you're not a fan, you can revert back to Yahoo Mail classic...but I'm not sure why anyone would. (The beta can be a tad slow--which might be one reason why it's still a beta--but I've never found its performance to be completly unbearable.)
yep! it works
nop does not work for me
It worked, but once I clicked on the link to take me to the beta, it wouldn't let me in because I'm using IE7 Beta 2.
wow! Thanks. the trick really works :D
I got to the switch info screen but it said it could not validate my account? /shrug I tried it 10 different ways using multiple accounts.
thanks for ur kind infn about yahoo mail,pls send me these types of infns and new technologies and softwares.
Just switched to beta. It is a bit slow but it looks great. Will try to sync up Calendar at work tomorrow!
It did not work for me.
Yeah it works. Thanks a ton.
it really doesnt work for me i tired it with too many accounts ...follwed the all steps but fuck.........
yeah super stuff worked a treat. got to try and staay up with all this new stuff, 2006 being the year of the web app and all that.
cheers
worked for me w. free Yahoo! account, but not for my wife's ATT (SBC)-Yahoo!
i thought it wasn't going to work when the screen didn't pop up to switch to the new yahoo, and then right before i clicked log out it popped up. i really like this new interface.
nope, didn't work for me. I think it is because I am a .co.uk and not a .com. Dangit.
can i switch back to yahoo US and the proper time zone without losing the new yahoo interface? obviously reporting that i am in the UK is messing up my calendar.
At step #6 there wasn't "an invitation to try the beta."
Beta no likey Opera browser :(
It worked. Like a charm!
nope, tried UK and France, never got the offer
Worked for me!!!
It does not work if you have an SBC Yahoo account. When I created a new Yahoo mail account, then the steps above worked.
nope, says you need ie 5.5 + but it don't like the 7 beta 2, strange...maybe they too want us to use the firefox over IE....coincidence??? i think not!
Awesome. I like it!
Grr... I upgraded my account to an SBC account for the yahoo mail plus, and now it doesn't work. Doesn't really matter because I use gmail only anyway. Still, I wanted to try it out but it just looks like a wannabe thunderbird.
oh yes it worked and fantastically too. Nitpickingly observing though, one needs also to click on the "FINISHED" button on the screen after changing the Preferred content. So that makes TWO screens where you have to click "FINISH".
I don't see the inivitation page to try beta... how?
since the change my inbox is full of spam, is the spam filter also a beta?
seems like it's already not working again
Just tried it, worked for me.
Awesome, works great!
It work if you click finish a bunch of times then check your mail.
wow, it worked for me too!
works but not the first time.
it doesnt work..do i need to do some thing else
it doesnt work..do i need to do some thing else
I think you should mention that the 6th step is not just where the screen pops up. After clicking "Finished" twice, you have to click the "Check Mail" button at the top, where you will most probably recieve the offer for the beta.
For everyone here using Firefox, I suggest you use the AJAX Yahoo! Mail extension, rather than the beta, if you're willing to give up the integrated webreader and keyboard shortcuts. Although, for who stick with IE, using the beta is best, in my humble opinion.
OMG THAT IS AWESOME!!!!!!!!!! YAY! thank u sooooo much that ROX! woo i am happy now lol
Too cool! thanks!
it didn't work for me with the steps given. So, I scrolled down to read the comments, and thanks to Ranajay's input to click the 'Check Mail' button after the second 'Finished' button. I then saw the invite. Thanks to both of you, I now have the beta!!
Thanks!
I have had Beta for about a week. Suddenly my screen changed & now the Beta Y Mail does not load properly. I cannot read my mail.
Help
Daaaamn.....How do people figure these things out? lol Worked like a charm!
Hey it really worked , Thanks a Lot.
they have removed it unfortunately.
It took several tries but it finally worked!!! "After clicking "Finished" twice, you have to click the "Check Mail" button at the top, where you will most probably recieve the offer for the beta." I also clicked the "Mail" button to go to the mail home page... It did not send the Beta offer via popup, it was an ad on the mail home page.
It still works. But on my laptop the beta has text too large for the spaces formatted so it overlaps each other and makes it very difficult to read. The 3 links at top - Sign Out - Modify Yahoo Account Info - Revert to Classic Yahoo Mail- are all more or less covered up by the tabs. You can barely see the very tops of the letters so you can see the link pop up text when you hover over them. Not sure how to fix, if it's a beta problem or maybe I have my default text set too big. It's on normal though.... who knows....looks like a nice upgrade if I can get text display fixed.
worked for me fine today.
"New" Yahoo Mail is slow and buggy for me. As of October 2007, Yahoo Mail "Classic" has been dumbed down even for Yahoo Mail Plus Premium purchasers, and is now missing many features, including integration with the address book and filters, such that email lists no longer show if the sender is in your address book, marking spam no longer adds them to a block filter, and html graphics once blocked in an email cannot be shown (no "show html" button) so you have to click off to the sender's links to see what they sent you, if even possible. Also, it's unreliable, slow, and error prone (errors #5 and #14).