Yahoo has launched a mobile mail beta. When I logged into Yahoo Mail<\/a> using Opera Mini there was a Try New Mobile Beta link at the top of the start page. Naturally, I checked it out immediately. Yahoo Mobile Mail has always had a simple appearance, almost entirely text with the only color being a small logo at the top and beige bar at the bottom of the page. The beta is almost as simple but looks less sparse with most text elements now enclosed in what look like table cells but are actually div’s with css borders. There is also more color with header elements like folder titles having a pale yellow or lavender background. I do find it more attractive than the rather sparse old Yahoo mail page. Another difference is that the beta wraps the message header rather than requiring horizontal scrolling to see the full header. Unlike Gmail<\/a>, there is no support for viewing attachments in the mobile Y! Mail beta. The first two images show the Inbox in the Beta (top image) and Classic versions of Y! Mail.<\/p>\n
While there is nothing ground breaking about the Yahoo beta, I like that a major focus of the beta seems to be on reducing the number of clicks and page loads needed to read, manage and reply to multiple emails. For example, with the old Yahoo mobile mail, when you do almost anything to an email like delete it, move it to another folder or reply, you’re taken back to the folder list where you have to choose Inbox or whatever folder you were in and then chose the next message. That gets tedious if you have a lot of mail. The beta takes you back to the current folder after any of these operations – one less click and one less page load and it brings Yahoo up to parity with the way Gmail and MS Live Mail<\/a> work. The Quick Reply also saves a number of clicks. I think efficiency would be improved even more, if after a delete, reply or move, Yahoo would take you to the next unread message in the current folder, but the new behavior is a worthwhile improvement.<\/p>\n
I take this to mean that some sort of improved address book is in the works but in the meantime we have to manage our address books on the desktop.
I don’t understand why it’s necessary to remove a working module before it’s replacement is ready but at least Yahoo Mail still has address book integration with Outlook, Outlook Express, Lotus Notes and Palm Desktop using a free version of Intellisync. For some reason Yahoo doesn’t do a very good job of promoting Intellisync. It’s not mentioned anywhere on the Mail or Addresses main pages. To find it, if you have a Yahoo account, go to your Yahoo Calendar and click the Sync tab in the top right corner. Or anyone you can go directly to an Intellisync help and download page here<\/a>. Note that Intellisync is different from the SyncML<\/a> that Yahoo is starting to rollout to a limited set of devices<\/a>. SyncML synchronizes your phone’s built-in address book and calendar with Y! Addresses and Calendar. IntelliSync synchronizes Y! Addresses, Calendar, To-Do, and Notebook with desktop PIMs like Outlook, Notes and Act!. Synchronization is the main reason I use Y! Mail. Microsoft and Gmail don’t have true synchronization although they can import contacts from most desktop email programs and PIM’s<\/p>\n
Not all phones get the link which lets you try the mobile beta. It you want to try it anyway, the direct link is us.wap.yahoo.com\/p\/mail<\/a>. Of course there is no guarantee it will work on unsupported devices. The beta currently doesn’t support WAP1 but I think it will eventually. I get an error message reading “WML not supported (yet).” when I select the Try Beta<\/em> link on the Yahoo front page with the Openwave 7 (WAP 2) browser my Motorola i855.<\/p>\n
Yahoo Mobile Mail Beta: xhtml-mp<\/a><\/p>\n
Yahoo has launched a mobile mail beta. When I logged into Yahoo Mail using Opera Mini there was a Try New Mobile Beta link at the top of the start page. Naturally, I checked it out immediately. Yahoo Mobile Mail has always had a simple appearance, almost entirely text with the only color being a small logo at the top and beige bar at the bottom of the page. The beta is almost as simple but looks less sparse with … Continue reading