WebProNews » Yahoo

Yahoo Mail Socializing All About The Money

WebProNews Staff — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 11:54:29 +0000

Company CEO Jerry Yang told CES 2008 attendees Yahoo Mail would become a much more socially aware application, able to tap into multiple social networks.

The one-stop contact shop idea floated by Yang about Yahoo Mail getting smarter looks like it has another aspect. While advertising already has a place in Yahoo’s email client, the company may be interested in capitalizing on all that social data people will tap.

Resource Shelf pointed out a published patent application from Yahoo that relates to this point. The application bears the title, “Monetization Of Characteristic Values Predicted Using Network-Based Social Ties.”

The patent’s abstract illustrated how this would work to make money for Yahoo:

A method is provided to predict a value for a particular characteristic of a particular user of network-based services. A plurality of other users, other than the particular user, is determined, wherein the particular user has social ties to the plurality of other users.

The predicted value for the particular characteristic of the particular user is monetized, such as by selling advertising to be caused to be displayed to at least the particular user. For example, requested compensation for the advertising is determined based at least in part on the predicted value for the particular characteristic of the particular user.

By identifying a value for a given individual user, Yahoo could conceivably charge an advertiser more for reaching someone who, by virtue of their social networking relationships, should be a more valuable target for the marketing message.

The implementation of such a technology will be closely watched by the same privacy advocates and normal social networkers who complained bitterly about Facebook’s Beacon program. Facebook had to reshuffle its attempt to monetize people’s e-commerce activities.

Yahoo’s patent works behind the scenes, rather than the public fashion of Beacon. How people react to the technology could depend on how relevant and useful they find the sharply targeted advertising coming from it.

Yahoo’s Future: Smarter Email And Mobiles

WebProNews Staff — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 11:12:43 +0000

CEO Jerry Yang told the CES 2008 crowds about Yahoo’s plans to make its Mail client a social tool with all the widgets one could want.

Web browser? So 1994. How about a mail client that knows your social networks and will give the most important messages and people priority in the inbox?

Yahoo’s latest announcement from the big Las Vegas show noted the potential for Yahoo Mail to be what we remember Microsoft fearing from Netscape: a tool that doesn’t care about the underlying operating system.

Why have all kinds of applications and browser windows open when Yahoo Mail can do it all? That will mean opening Mail to third party developers, and the other big Yahoo told the CES audience this is close to reality:

“Yahoo! has today outlined what is possible and that the future is not that far away,” said David Filo, co-founder and Chief Yahoo!. “Yahoo! is uniquely positioned to make this all a reality – we have scale, a huge community of users, great applications and APIs and insightful data. We now have an open platform for third party developers to build some interesting applications.”

Yang suggested Yahoo Mail could tap the Facebooks and MySpaces of the world in a way to make the email client more “personally relevant” to its users. Important people, apparently, would not have their messages languishing in the inbox, awaiting attention, because Yahoo would bring them to the user’s attention.

Also, Yang talked about the big push Yahoo has been making into the mobile world. We think Yahoo believes it can win the kind of share of usage on phones that Google enjoys with search and ads on PCs. Millions of mobile users worldwide makes that a goal worth achieving.

Yahoo and JetBlue’s Arrangement

Pat McCarthy — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 18:46:07 +0000

The announcement that Yahoo! Mail and Yahoo! Messenger are partnering with Jet Blue to offer lightweight wifi services on flights is both extremely cool, and kind of sad at the same time for me.

Being that I’m traveling a lot now for work it becomes readily apparent when I’m in the air that it’d be nice to be able to connect to the web in order to get work done and communicate with colleagues, friends, and family.

However, in a weird way I also treasure those few hours of internet-free time to read documents or get stuff done that is harder to focus on with connectivity distractions. It’s also a good time to just relax on occasion by reading a book or watching a movie. I guess as connectivity hits the friendly skies it will just be another place I’ll have to learn to block out distractions to relax or be extremely productive.

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Will Yahoo Mail & iGoogle Become Social Networks?

Jordan McCollum — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 21:15:24 +0000

Yahoo has long realized that their strength laid in their already-strong web properties: their portal and their email service.

Two months ago, we reported that Yahoo Mail, still one of the top free Web-based email programs, could be leveraged as a social networking platform of some sort. Susan Decker, President of Yahoo, said in July that the service was “one of the Web’s largest dormant social networks and one that we are aggressively pursuing ways to activate.”

This week, the New York Times reports that they’ll be doing just that—and not only them, but Google, too. Google’s plans are pretty sketchy (or secret) at this point:

I don’t have a lot of detail from Google, but I’ve heard from several executives that this is their plan. When I talked recently with Joe Kraus, who runs Google’s OpenSocial project, he said: “We believe there are opportunities with iGoogle to make it more social.” And when I pressed him about the relationship between the social aspects of iGoogle and Gmail versus Orkut or some other social network, he said, “It is much easier to extend an existing habit than to create a brand.”

Yahoo’s plans, while not “detailed” per se, are pretty extensive. The Times spoke with Brad Garlinghouse, author of last year’s Peanut Butter Manifesto and Senior Vice President of Communications, Communities, and Front Doors. As a reminder, just two months ago, Garlinghouse predicted:

a future where Yahoo Mail could include a widget from Web invitation site Evite, a subsidiary of Yahoo competitor IAC/InterActive, that could let users share events with their Yahoo contact list. Garlinghouse also sees potential for Yahoo users to include links to profiles on social networks such as News Corp.’s MySpace within new Yahoo profiles. “We are going to experiment, we are going to take more risks,” Garlinghouse says.

As they progress toward some sort of social network, Garlinghouse

didn’t-have dates or specific product details. . . . But he did say that Yahoo was working on what he called “Inbox 2.0.”

This has several features. First, the e-mail service is made more personal because it displays messages more prominently from people who are more important to you. Yahoo is testing a method that can automatically determine the strength of your relationship to someone by how often you exchange e-mail and instant messages with him or her.

Yahoo Mail will also be extended to display other information about your friends as well. This can be a link to a profile page, and also what Yahoo calls “vitality” –- updated information much like the news feed on Facebook. There could also be simple features that are common on social networks, like displaying a list of friends whose birthdays are coming up.

By utilizing the information that “already exists on our network, but it’s dormant,” as Mr. Garlinghouse put it, Yahoo could create a natural and successful social network. Of course, for it to be a true “social network,” you’d need some sort of centralized profile page system:

There will be some sort of profile system attached to Inbox 2.0, he said. For people who use a lot of Yahoo services, this profile could be quite rich even at the beginning, as it can draw on activity on Yahoo Music, Yahoo Shopping and so on.

“If I get an e-mail from Saul Hansell, I should be able to click on his name and see his profile,” Mr. Garlinghouse said. “The profile page is where you can expose what you want people to know about you.

Garlinghouse denies that Yahoo Mash will be used for these purposes, telling the Times that “Mash is simply an experiment, not a product being readied for mass promotion.”

Of course, one key to this being a success would be the ability to opt out. Privacy is the #1 concern in social networking these days. It would probably be unwise to automatically collect and publish all the information about a person’s interaction with all of Yahoo’s services—while the controversy would garner them attention, it’s probably not a good strategy to get happy users.

Would you welcome a social network into your inbox?

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Gmail Storage Ticks Upward, Lags Yahoo, AOL

WebProNews Staff — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 11:21:58 +0000

Google has given the storage counter for Gmail a little boost to its spin, but believe it or not they could be doing more.

Gmail Storage Ticks Upward, Lags Yahoo, AOL

Not very long ago, storage on web-based email measured in the megabytes, and not very many of them, either. When Gmail arrived with its 1GB inbox, invites to the service became a hot commodity.

Google’s decision to take advantage of what has become an inexpensive commodity, storage, spurred interest and gave the company another place to drop its signature contextual advertising. As of market close on October 11, Google’s $622 share price gave it a market cap of over $194 billion.

We can’t tie that directly to Gmail, of course, but Gmail likely didn’t get in the way of that rise, either. Google plans to give a little back to the Gmail users in the form of more storage:

In April 2005, we started increasing Gmail storage as part of our “Infinity+1″ storage plan. At that time, we realized we’d never reach infinity, but we promised to keep giving Gmail users more space as we were able. That said, a few of you are using Gmail so much that you’re running out of space, so to make good on our promise, today we’re announcing we are speeding up our counter and giving out more free storage.

In Google Apps, Gmail accounts start at 2GB, except for Premier Edition accounts, which begin at 10 GB. Now, the 2GB accounts will receive their own spinning counter, while the 10GB accounts receive a nudge to 25GB of storage.

Nice numbers, and for someone who used to have to obey a 20MB email limit in the corporate world, they are huge. But when it comes to truly fantastic amounts of email storage, one has to look at Yahoo Mail and AOL Mail.

Both of these Gmail competitors have millions of users, and unlimited storage for their free webmail accounts. If storage is really an issue for email, Gmail is at best the third choice for people today. Tomorrow, who knows?

Yahoo Mail Marks 10 Years

WebProNews Staff — Tue, 09 Oct 2007 00:31:28 +0000

The service formerly known as Rocketmail, now with a heaping helping of Oddpost in the mix, reached a milestone anniversary this month.

John Kremer, vice president for Yahoo Mail, marked the anniversary on the official Yahoo blog with a list of highlights since October 1997.

That was when Yahoo Mail launched in its first incarnation, bringing people a whopping 3MB of storage space. In March of this year, Yahoo threw away the limits and gave Mail users unlimited storage.

Kremer also provided an interesting memory of the time before criminal spammers were operating in force online:

It

Yahoo And Zimbra, Still An Odd Deal

WebProNews Staff — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 00:17:17 +0000

The $350 million cash price tag Yahoo will pay for email software firm Zimbra makes the mind reel. Especially since Yahoo just got finished with a major update for its Mail product.

Barely a month ago, Yahoo Mail left beta. The product once known as Oddpost before its acquisition by Yahoo in 2004 has features to match desktop email clients, if not their speed. Yahoo Mail is very good.

The official word yielded this contradictory gem from Brad Garlinghouse on Yahoo’s official blog:

Zimbra is a global leader in email and collaboration software and its services are aimed at universities, businesses, and ISPs worldwide, which is a major driver of what made the company so attractive to us. We

Yahoo Mail Speeds Out Of Beta

WebProNews Staff — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 11:15:31 +0000

Yahoo’s unlimited storage email service shed its beta label and added the ability to send and receive text messages to and from mobile phones in several countries.

The long-running Yahoo Mail beta is no more. It’s just Yahoo Mail now, with a new feature and a significant improvement to its performance.

Yahoo’s feature-rich next-generation email product had been recognizable as much for a lack of speed as for its capabilities. That’s not the case any longer, as we found Yahoo Mail much faster than its previous versions.

Yahoo Mail vice president John Kremer announced on the official Yahoo blog the addition of SMS to the service. People in the US, Canada, India, and the Philippines can send and receive text messages for free within Yahoo Mail’s interface.

The SMS function is rolling out across the Yahoo Mail userbase, as is the removal of the beta label. Kremer also reminded people that the instant messaging ability within Yahoo Mail can reach people who are also on Yahoo Mail, along with Yahoo Messenger and Microsoft’s Windows Live Messenger.

People who prefer to stick with the classic Yahoo Mail interface can do so. Kremer said Yahoo will keep that interface available.

AOL Launches New Mail And Widget

Mike Sachoff — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 14:49:16 +0000

AOL has released an e-mail service with AIM integration that enables users to simultaneously e-mail and IM from the same application.

AOL has also launched the AIM WIMZI Widget that allows bloggers, Web site owners and users with social networking profiles to instant message anonymously with site visitors.

The AIM WIMZI widget communicates with the widget users AIM client and is integrated with the users AIM Buddy List, allowing site, blog and social networking profile visitors have an IM conversation when the user is singed on to AIM. A widget users online status is shown with a highlighted icon and screen names are protected through customized user and visitor aliases.

"We continue to enhance our products to offer a seamless and fully integrated online communications experience," said Kevin Conroy, Executive Vice President, AOL.

"With the introduction of Web Mail with AIM and the AIM WIMZI widget, we are making it easier for people to communicate online without opening multiple applications."

Not All Goodmail Partners Have A Whitelist

WebProNews Staff — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 15:13:27 +0000

Goodmail Systems announced last week that four major Internet service providers will be adding CertifiedEmail to their repertoire of email filters. The sweeping partnerships give Goodmail automatic access to some 65 percent of US inboxes.

Not All Goodmail Partners Have A Whitelist

Microsoft has yet to join the program, a deal that would boost that number to 85 percent. Bulk email senders wanting to bypass the spam filters at Yahoo, AOL, Time Warner Road Runner, Comcast, and Cox, can now do so for a quarter of a cent per email.

Or, as Goodmail competitor and third-party reputation service Habeas’ CEO Des Cahill puts it, at a cost of $2.50 CPM.

Goodmail unveiled its CertifiedEmail product last year amid a storm of controversy when AOL appeared to be forgoing its email whitelists (free sender reputation lists) in favor of fee-based Goodmail.

The press was quick to take note, calling the arrangement an email tax, or a kind of postage that could derail small online businesses and non-profit organizations that depended on bulk email. AOL decided to keep its whitelists after significant public pressure. Yahoo joined up shortly after AOL.

So news a year later that Goodmail is to be put into use at nearly all the major email service providers in the US (except Microsoft and GMail, which announced last year they had no plans to institute a third-party authentication program), sent déjà vu levels to new heights.

The most important question was: Do these email service providers have free whitelists and will they keep them? Or is Goodmail now the only option for bulk emailers looking to reach inboxes with images and links in tact?

Spokespersons with both Verizon and Time Warner have told WebProNews that they will continue to offer whitelisting and have no plans to phase out the free offering. Cox and Comcast, however, may be a different story.

"Cox does not have a white list," Cox Communications Director of Public Relations Susan Leepson told WebProNews. "All email must go through our spam and virus scanning."

That includes email Cox sends its own subscribers, continues David Deliman, Product Communications Manager for Cox. Deliman clarifies that Goodmail is not a postage-type company, accepting payment to bypass filters.

"Goodmail performs a strict background check on all senders," he said, "and their CertifiedEmail is only available to legitimate organizations whose customers have already opted-in to receive e-mail from the company."

That doesn’t necessarily mean that bulk emailers can have their messages delivered with images and links in-tact.

Comcast did not return request for comments regarding whitelists and whether or not bulk emailers would have a choice beyond Goodmail.

Though representatives for Goodmail and the ISPs that responded are heavy on the end-user benefit talking points (Goodmail’s Vice President of Marketing David Atlas was reluctant to speak to the sender-side of the issue at all), Cahill thinks there the monetary benefits shouldn’t be ignored.

"I think what Goodmail has proved is that ISPs want to make money off of email," he said.

The ISPs involved wouldn’t speak to the financial arrangements between them and Goodmail Systems, but Atlas says they have a 50/50 split in revenue.

While these arrangements may be beneficial to the end-user (a recent study by the ESPC showed over half of respondents were open to authenticated email), and definitely beneficial to Goodmail and the ISPs in terms of revenue, what of bulk senders?

Atlas says non-profit organizations like the Red Cross, who needs protection from spoofing, can get up to an 85 percent discount. Small businesses, however, are not eligible.

"They haven’t proved that senders can afford to pay Goodmail and the ISPs," said Cahill, who believes the phishing problem can be better addressed via the refinement of industry standards, which is what quarterly-held Messaging Anti-Abuse Working Group looks to do.