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There used to be a time when it was hard to meet someone who didn’t have a Yahoo! Mail account. However, times have changed, and Yahoo! Mail is now seen as a runner-up to Gmail, and its users are aging rapidly. It might then seem that the reasons to create a Yahoo! Mail account are few and far between, but the opposite is actually true.
Yahoo! Mail is an excellent example of a service that has to try just a little bit harder than the current market leader to attract users, which is great news for everyone who’s looking for a reliable, free email service that can be synchronized with a variety of third-party clients.
In this article, we are taking a look at the top 7 most important Pros and Cons of Yahoo! Mail to help you decide if this email service is a good fit for you.
How to Create a Yahoo! Mail Account
It takes just a few minutes to create a Yahoo! Mail account:
- Go to: http://yahoo.com/.
- Click the mail icon in the top-left corner of the page.
- Click the “Sign up” link at the bottom of the sign in box.
- Enter your information in the required fields.
- Choose the “Text me an Account Key” option and wait for a verification code to arrive on your mobile phone.
- Enter the verification code that you’ve received and click “Submit code.”
- Enjoy your new Yahoo! Mail account.
Keep in mind that Yahoo automatically deactivates email accounts after 12 months of inactivity.
Top 7 Pros of Yahoo! Mail
1. Integrates Multiple Applications
Yahoo! Mail goes well beyond emails and integrates all other Yahoo services into a single bundle, allowing you to accomplish more from a single window. Yahoo’s app ecosystem may not be as extensive as Google’s, but you might be surprised by what Yahoo developers have created once you learn the ins and outs of this email service.
2. Supports Keyboard Shortcuts
You would be surprised to learn just how much time the average email user wastes by relying on the mouse instead of using keyboard shortcuts. The reason why more people don’t use keyboard shortcuts when reading, writing, and organizing emails probably has a lot to do with how hard-to-remember they typically are. Yahoo! Mail is different, however, and its keyboard shortcuts are a joy to use.
3. Comes with 1 TB of Storage Space
Only when you remember that Gmail gives its users 15 GB of storage space, you become able to fully appreciate the fact that Yahoo! Mail comes with 1 TB of free storage space. That’s a lot of space even for dozens of HD movies, let alone emails.
4. Allows You to Block a Sender
With Yahoo! Mail, you can block anyone and for any reason. After you block someone, you won’t receive any more messages from the person, and the person won’t know that they’ve been blocked.
5. Integrated Chat Functionality
Yahoo runs an instant messaging service, called Yahoo Messenger, and you can use it directly from your Yahoo! Mail account without having to download and install a dedicated chat application on your device.
6. Yahoo! Mail Is Available on Mobile Devices
Yahoo has developed an excellent mobile app for Yahoo! Mail, and it works on all recent Android and iOS devices. The app allows you to receive notifications when you get new emails, quickly search across all of your messages, and you can even connect it to your Google Drive and Dropbox accounts to send photos and documents you’ve stored in the cloud.
7. Scans Emails for Malware
Yahoo! Mail has an integrated malware scanner developed by Symantec Corporation, an American software company that provides cybersecurity software and services to many Fortune 500 companies.
While you should never blindly open any email attachment, you can be quite certain that Yahoo! Mail will automatically remove all malware a long time before you have a chance to open it.
Top 7 Cons of Yahoo! Mail
1. Yahoo! Mail’s Spam Filter Can Be a Hit or Miss
Yahoo! Mail’s spam filter is good, but it’s not great. Whereas Gmail has got better and better at catching malicious and annoying emails, Yahoo! Mail has stayed mostly the same, which means that you can expect the occasional spam email to slip through the cracks.
2. Limited Support for Tags
If you’re used to organizing your emails using tags and various smart folders, Yahoo! Mail might leave you feeling a bit disappointed as it doesn’t let you label emails with multiple tags.
3. Security Record
Yahoo has reported several major data breach incidents in the past few years alone, so its security record is far from perfect. While the company has definitely tightened its security, who knows if some lone hacker hasn’t already figured out how to breach the site one more time.
4. Ads in Your Mailbox
Yahoo! Mail is supported by inbox ads. Unfortunately, their frequency is so high that they can be distracting at times. You can solve this problem by using an ad-blocker such as uBlock or paying as little as $0.99 a month for Yahoo Mail Pro.
5. Emails Are Always Sorted by New
In recent years, many email clients have started to group emails into conversation threads. Yahoo! Mail, however, is still sorting emails by the newest first, and there’s no option how to switch to a conversation view. On the other hand, some consider this traditional approach to be one of Yahoo! Mail’s pros.
6. Not Many Email Addresses Available
Yahoo! Mail has been around since 1997, and the service has over 225 million active monthly users. With so many people using Yahoo! Mail every day, you can bet that all the best email addresses are already taken. If you want a very specific email address and don’t want to spend money on a custom domain name, you may find better luck with a lesser-known email service.
7. Employers Look Down on Yahoo! Mail
Yahoo! Mail has a much older userbase than Gmail, and many employers have come to associate Yahoo! Mail email addresses with the lack of flexibility. What’s more, some employers refuse to communicate with people who use Yahoo! Mail because they email end up in the spam folder.
