Security:  

Yahoo! tries very hard to keep spam and other unwanted email out of your inbox. All suspicious email is sent to your “bulk” folder. You can automatically have all messages in the “bulk” folder deleted or you can keep them for one week, two weeks or one month. Although occasionally legitimate mail was sent to our “bulk” folder, we liked that we could go into the folder and change that address to “not spam.” Additionally, you can report spam that has slipped through the filters to Yahoo!

Yahoo! is teamed with Norton AntiVirus and scans all incoming and outgoing messages for known viruses. In some cases, the infected email can be cleaned and safely read. Yahoo! also tries to combat phishing scams by blocking know phishing sites from reaching your inbox. For extra security, you can limit automatic downloads and block remote images.

Features Set:  

With Yahoo! you can organize and sort your inbox and all incoming mail with folders, filters and “black/ white lists.” With customized filters you can sort incoming mail by their “from,” “to,” “Cc header,” “subject” or body content. Additionally, you can block entire domain names.

You can only import your address book from Outlook 97, Outlook Express, Palm Desktop 2.0 or higher or Netscape/ Thunderbird.
You can write emails and spell check using Yahoo!’s HTML composer. If you need to compose a plain text email, or keep your bandwidth usage low on your mobile device, Yahoo! is equipped for both.

Extras:  

Although Yahoo!’s email is simple and easy for novice computer users they also provide a few additional features like a calendar and notes section to supplement your account. You can also download Yahoo!’s instant messenger free. The IM download will connect you to other Yahoo! users and serve as an incoming mail notifier. Your Yahoo! account is accessible through Yahoo!’s homepage which includes news, games, shopping and more.

Yahoo! Mobile can check and compose email, send updates and manage your account through your cellular phone or PDA. Features include messenger, games, web, ringtones and photos.

A unique feature to Yahoo! are the “Search Shortcuts.” Here, Yahoo! automatically saves photographs and attachments you’ve received in emails for quick access.

Support/ Ease of Use:  

Although Yahoo! provides a comprehensive help section, it is mostly made up of frequently asked questions. Because of this, the search feature only looks for keywords in the content and sometimes displays strange results that relate little to your problem. This resulted in us searching through the help section looking for answers a little longer than we would have liked. However, our answers were usually answered after some trial and error. Additionally, Yahoo! does not provide an email contact.

Yahoo! is an easy–to–use and generally self–explanatory free email service. Although Yahoo! does not have the best spam protection on the Internet, we found their filters to be adequate and the longer you are a member, the better the filters are. Additionally, all Yahoo! email features work in multiple browsers.

How does Yahoo! compare to other free email services? For details and reviews, take a look at our side-by-side comparisons of our top ten picks.

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