Apr 27 2009
Yahoo! Mail Improved
The first looks are out on the new beta of Y! Mail. While we wait for Yahoo! to hand out invites to the beta, there’s some useful freeware any Mac Y! Mail user will want to have.
While there is not a public sign-up for the beta, you can volunteer to join it by entering your Yahoo! email here. No word on when, but it can only help your chances.
YoSucker and Fetch Yahoo
These two are so similar I decided to lump them together. These are perl scripts that “scrape” your Yahoo! Mail account – letting you download the contents to your Mac. This is particularly useful, as Yahoo! does not provide free POP access like Gmail.
Firefox is the only Mac browser supported with the beta. Additionally, there are a few Firefox/Thunderbird extensions for Yahoo! Mail.
This Thunderbird extension lets you download mail from your Yahoo! account directly into Thunderbird. For already stated reasons, this is handy. The project, which is frequently updated also allows downloading of Hotmail mail as well.
With this extension you can get notified of new mail on your Yahoo! account in the status bar of Firefox. One click will open up you inbox too. Very handy.
This extension restores some IE-only formatting options for composing Y! mail in Firefox. I haven’t heard if anyone has tested it in the new beta, but my the looks of things you may not need it. Its a must for the current Yahoo! Mail interface.
Mac users have gone a long time without the Yahoo! toolbar. Now you can enjoy quick access to your mail and other Yahoo! information from Firefox.
eCheck Widget for Dashboard
As if all of that wasn’t enough, there’s a Dashboard widget that checks various web-based email accounts – including Yahoo!. Ironically enough, even though Konfabulator is now owned by Yahoo! there is no Mac-compatible webmail-checking widget for Konfabulator – but I’m sure there will be soon.
For long-time users of Yahoo! Mail, word of an exciting new interface is very welcome. It’s also great to know there’s so much great Mac freeware to enjoy with your account!