Messenger and Mail…together at last!

[mfenech]

Yes, you read correctly, Yahoo! is adding messenger to their mail!

Here's what the people over at the Yahoo! Mail Blog have to say:

"At the Web 2.0 conference in November, we took the wraps off of one of our newest, coolest features: Yahoo! Messenger integrated with Yahoo! Mail Beta. But, that was just a preview of what was to come. Today, we will start to release this exciting new feature. But, we’ll be rolling out the feature gradually, so, unfortunately, not everyone will have access immediately.

As part of this release, I’ve put together a screencast that runs through how the integration works and what you can do now that Messenger and Mail are sitting side by side in your browser. Aside from the obvious of being able to instantly connect with 73 million Yahoo! Messenger users worldwide (according to comScore, 12/2006), you also get a seamless experience melding instant messaging with email.

This is the first screencast I’ve done on the blog, so don’t be too harsh. ;)

Update: Some people have been asking for higher resolution versions of the screencast so they can read my witty banter in the chat sessions. So I’ve put up a higher resolution screencast for your viewing enjoyment. You may want to stick with the embedded video below if you’re on a slower internet connection or if you’re running a screen resolution lower than 1024×768."

Source: Yahoo! Mail Update Blog

[Jeff]

Does anyone know when this actually takes effect? I'm using Yahoo! Mail Beta, but there is no IM/Mail integration to be seen.

I hope they do it as well as Google did. The way Google integrates chat and mail is excellent!

[Nessa]

Wow i can't wait for this! Looks great plus i especially like the "Convert to E-mail" option! Glad to see Yahoo! stepping up it's game a bit and not staying way behind in changes!

[Cchris78]

Yahoo Mail updates could take a few days to a few weeks.

This is the link i go to for mail http://us.f578.mail.yahoo.com

The Mail updates depends on the f# you are on. Paying customers already got upgraded, they will test with it for a while. Then they start upgradeing everyone else. I believe the higher the F# is the longer it will take them to update your server. I don't remember I used to know.

Don't forget its not just the U.S. that they are updating the new Email. All countrys have the new Email.

[detn8r]

I'm on f326 (sounds like a plane flight to me). Curious though; how do you switch to the BETA?

[Nessa]

Originally Posted by detn8r

I'm on f326 (sounds like a plane flight to me). Curious though; how do you switch to the BETA?

http://advision.webevents.yahoo.com/mailbeta/

Click on Try It Now to switch to Yahoo! Mail Beta, and if you decide you don't like it for some reason and want to switch back, it gives you the option to switch back near where it says "Sign Out" and "My Account" (under your screen name) it'll have "Switch Back" as an option. Hope this helps! :)

[detn8r]

Ah! Thanks for that. But now I know why I switched back -- it takes flippin forever to sign in with dial up!

[PinkPanther006]

Sorry, but I really don't like the integration idea. I gave up using Yahoo mail years ago because I was having such issues with receiving e-mails from friends on hotmail or MSN. I use gmail now but use the YM for chat. If they integrate it then they will be losing a lot of us who don't use YMail. Personally, I say, "don't fix it if it ain't broken".

[detn8r]

Well, don't you have the option to NOT use it? :) Either way... I switched back to the "normal" Yahoo Mail, only because this new way of deleting emails sucks! You have to do it one-by-one, and when I signed out and came back they were all there again. It's nicer to delete multiple emails at one time.

[MichelleArca]

I like the new Beta interface. But not in all the browsers does it work perfectly. How about Safari, Opera, Firefox ??? experience problems sometimes.

I am in the Netherlands and it is working here for about 4 a 5 months now

Michelle