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Yahoo Boosts Email Space in response to Gmail

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the battle-of-bits-and-bytes dept.

coleslawjoe writes "This article at New York Times explains that Yahoo has decided to boost their E-mail space (Soul sucking registration required) from their current 4 megabytes to 100 in response to Gmail. They are also planning to offer 2 gig mailboxes for $19.99(USD)."

15 of 707 comments (clear)

  1. not all accts upgraded yet? by polymorpheus · · Score: 5, Informative

    Looks like only 2 of my 3 Yahoo! accounts got the boost overnight? Anyone know more details about the rollout? polymorpheus

  2. no registration needed link by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    no registration required

  3. And when it's full... by darien · · Score: 5, Insightful

    That's cool. It'll be nice not to have to clear out my Yahoo! inbox every week. This will probably stop me migrating. After all everyone already knows my @yahoo.com email address.

    However, at some point my 100Mb box will be full, and I'll want to get it down to, say 50Mb. At which point I very much hope there'll be some decent new tools for bulk deletion. The idea of trying to free up 50Mb by clicking through page after page of email going "select... delete..." does not appeal.

  4. Re:How about instead... by dghcasp · · Score: 5, Insightful
    The only reason people keep [email] around is that they're too lazy to delete them themselves.

    Bullocks.

    There's lots of reasons people keep their email around basically forever... Some quick examples:

    • License keys
    • Particularly nice or significant email messages
    • Evidence that someone actually said something & can't deny it later
    • For future reference

    Or are you one of those Dilbert-esque PHB's who have your secretary print all your emails, file them in binders, then keep them under lock & key until you forget the key?

  5. Re:aah, yahoo is /.'d! by dennison_uy · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Actually, I think that's more a result of Yahoo migrating to the new system. I've seen the new interface from my friend's account like 6 hours ago and it looks pretty slick. He had thought Yahoo! was bugged but we kept refreshing and we were able to watch them migrate to the new interface in real time.

    I logged into my account and it was still using the old interface and had the old 4-megabyte limit. It wasn't until I logged in like 10 minutes ago that I logged in to see the new interface, although a bit broken ... they are still probably porting over some of the accounts ... I wonder why they couldn't make "global" changes that would affect all users at once, as it probably should be?

    --
    Take off every 'sig'!
    All your 'sig' are belong to us!
  6. Re:big Surprise by Donny+Smith · · Score: 5, Interesting

    >Offtopic, but why does google engender a warm fuzzy feeling of trust whereas yahoo, hotmail and the rest "feel" like corporates out to make a quick buck? It's a totally false feeling, but it's happens...

    Wait till they go public.
    Today while typing a personal (naughty) message to friends on Gmail, I did feel uneasy knowing that I'll be "profiled" by AI bots, so I toned down the language :-) Really creepy!

    Originally I wanted to use Gmail for my personal stuff ('cause it "never" goes out of date) and Yahoo for memberships, resumes, etc., but I'm thinking about reversing my decision and doing the opposite.

    Well, for all we know, Yahoo might be doing the same, but still, at least I don't know about it.

  7. Re:100mb? WOW! by MonTemplar · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Of course, everyone and their dog can apply for a Yahoo! Mail account right now. GMail is still in beta at the moment. Yeah, I know, kind of spoils your joke, and you put so much effort into it too... :D

    -MT.

    --
    -MT.
  8. Re:annoying I can only delete 25 messages at a tim by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Mail Options->General Preferences->Messages per page

  9. Re:100mb? WOW! by sapped · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Actually, for paying customers they have removed the adverts as well.

    Thus, right now, today, I am sitting with a 2 gig mailbox with no adverts. Google will have to get their product out the door sharpish to overcome the inertia that Yahoo is creating right now.

  10. Not all Yahoo! email boxes 4Meg by Like2Byte · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I began using Yahoo! Mail years ago and I've had 6MB per email address (I've got two) ever since. When I signed my mother and father up to have Yahoo! Mail accounts two years later they were given 4M accounts.

    The first thought I had though since being notified of the increase was, "How the heck am I going to keep track of all the junk I'll eventually have to delete?" My answer was, "To never allow it to clog in the first place by removing immediately any e-mails that I may want to save." The obvious answer.

    IIRC, Yahoo only allows you to set up 10 rules for handling the email you receive. This is troublesome because now that we've been given so much free space, I know people will want to seperate their space by using folders - ideally, automatically - for just about everything and everyone they know. But, if 10 rules are the limit, I see in the future that limitations on space won't be the driving factor in attracting customers. Once again, it will all boil down to service and services available (options, rules, etc.) to the end user.

  11. Re:hrmmm 2 gig for $20 or 1 gig for free? by fr0dicus · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I doubt it. People don't like changing their e-mail address, any more than they like changing their phone number, and anyone stuck with 4MB will find the new 100MB ceiling massively bigger. Yahoo are very effectively protecting their installed userbase.

  12. Re:How about instead... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    >> Particularly nice or significant email messages
    > Never got one I wanted to keep yet.

    i think this says it all, really.

    I'm sorry to hear that; I really am.

  13. Re:hrmmm 2 gig for $20 or 1 gig for free? by daoine · · Score: 5, Insightful
    It depends on how you look at the move. I don't think Yahoo is necessarily going to attract new customers with this model.

    However, with this move they're highly likely to retain their current paying customers. People who were paying for 20M get 2G for the same price. It's suddenly no longer worth the hassle to get an invite to Gmail, nor are you likely to move over once Gmail is public. Changing an email address is a pain, and if you were willing to pay before, you're likely to be willing to continue.

  14. Re:umm by mjh · · Score: 5, Insightful
    (p.s: it won't work!)

    Actually it might. Right now, only beta testers can migrate to gmail. But most people can't. So they can't weigh whether the gmail service is better/worse than yahoo. As a consequence, people may discover that 100MB of mail space is all they need. If they're used to 6MB of mail space, 100MB is a huge increase. The decision isn't just between an additional 94MB and 994MB. It's between:

    • 1000GB
    • 100MB + keep current email address
    Don't discount the cost of switching your email address. Keeping your email address is probably worth a whole lot more to most people than an additional 900MB of disk space... especially if they've been getting by with 6MB of disk space.

    IMHO, this is a really good move on Yahoo's part. It will be interesting to see how well it works.

    --
    Key to financial independence: Spend less than you earn. Save and invest the difference. Do it for a long time.
  15. The evils of capitalism by santos_douglas · · Score: 5, Funny

    and unbridled competition are once again evident as Yahoo has used its monopoly power to force an additional 96MB of space on us all!