Is Yahoo Email Any Good? A Negative Review - Includes Updates

Latest update: June 14, 2024. Page URL indicates original publication date; meanwhile, times change and the updates continue.

Yahoo Mail - If You Love Ads, You Will Love Ad-Infested Yahoo Mail

This ongoing review is in reverse chronological order. Following the updates is the original review. Well worth the read and could save potential new users a lot of aggravation. The passage of time has also made the original review hilariously entertaining. Some of the comments are also of interest.

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WebsiteWithNoName.com is For Sale!

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Update, June 2024

According to a news search, Yahoo mail sure does seem to crash a lot. Is it because of all the advertising code crammed into the application? Could be. Yahoo has now also incorporated AI into the system. That probably won't go well for them either.

Update, January 2023

For the purpose of doing this update, I decided to visit Yahoo.com. I first used Google Chrome and cleaned out all the existing cookies. I then visited Yahoo and scrolled thru the entire home page, I made it a point to not click anything. A total 0f 62 cookies arrived on my hard drive by the time I was done. If you know anything about cookies, then you know that is not a good thing. I then performed the same procedure using Mozilla Firefox. Only 21 cookies made it to my hard drive. This makes sense, Firefox is much better than Google Chrome in blocking cookies, etc.

Update, January 2022

It has been awhile now since I've used a Yahoo mail account and written the original review. Is Yahoo still an ad-infested, bandwidth-clogging disaster? Or has Yahoo mended their ways? If you have had current or recent experience with Yahoo mail, please drop a note in the comments section below. Meanwhile I've re-read the previous updates and the original review, it is entertaining to say the least.

Update, May 2021

Verizon sells Yahoo. Here's the article from NBC News: Verizon sells Yahoo and AOL businesses to Apollo for $5 billion. Verizon has proven to be smart in the past. A few years ago, Verizon sold the landline part of their business to the telephone company, Frontier. Frontier then ended up filing for bankruptcy. This does not bode well for Apollo and Yahoo.

Update, January 2021

Since I have long departed Yahoo mail, I can't speak to that particular situation anymore. However, as to Yahoo's main page and other pages, the ads do indeed continue to clog things up as to scrolling and switching pages. I guess Yahoo is just plain the-site-that-never-learns. Presumably their email app is still the same.

Update, October 2020

Out of curiosity, I decided to do a quick search to see how Yahoo email is doing. Yep, still nothing but complaints. Meanwhile, I noticed Verizon is completely shutting down Yahoo Groups. Is Yahoo email eventually going the same route? Don't know and fortunately don't have to care anymore. 

Update, July 2020

Well, based on the last comment; Yahoo still hasn't learned their lesson. I well-remember the ads full of skin infections and rotten teeth. They were indeed awful to look at, but Yahoo is still apparently using them. My guess is they are also still doing the high CPU usage, high bandwidth usage, high memory usage ads; the kind that blitzes your device into non-functionality.

Please do keep those comments coming in, both pro and con.

Update, May 2020

For the reasons stated below, I've abandoned Yahoo mail. So this page is now soliciting the opinions of others. If you have an opinion about Yahoo mail, please mention it in the Comments Section below. Contradictory opinions are fine. If a website manages to redeem itself, that should be known.

Update, January 2020

Well, I see the Yahoo search engine blockade-contract has gone away. I don't know what that was about, nor do I care. As for the Yahoo mail service; since I don't go near it anymore, there's really nothing in the way of new or personal experiences I can add. I have noticed something rather peculiar with the Better Business Bureau page concerning Yahoo. It appears that all the complaint descriptions have been replaced with the phrase, "Complaint Details Unavailable". I don't recall ever seeing the BBB do that before. I have an unpleasant suspicion regarding this; but since it is only a suspicion, I will not elaborate.

Update, September 2019

The Yahoo search engine is dead to me. Tried to visit their site this morning. Blocked me, demanding I sign a contract first. The contract apparently has terms going way beyond the usual privacy issues. I'm not going to take the hour(s) required to read and understand it. I am not going to just blindly sign the thing either. For all I know: their paid services could now include general visits, visits to certain categories, email, and who knows what else? Maybe I'm misunderstanding something here; time will tell.

Update, August 2019

I was unable to access my two accounts. However, a new account showed that Yahoo still loves plastering all their email account pages with their neverending ads. As for not being able to access my accounts, darned good thing I had quit using them anyway.

Update, January 2019

The account was actually functional this time. Has Yahoo finally learned the error of its ways or did I just get lucky? At any rate, I was able to compose and send a message without any problems. Also, the ads on the sidebar weren't nearly as obnoxious as has been in the past.

A reminder that Yahoo was sold to and is now owned by Verizon. Maybe Verizon has gotten around to cleaning up the mess and firing the appropriate idiots.

I reread the rest of this page. Quite humorous actually, excepting for the hacker stuff.

Update, January 2018

Well, I just checked. Yahoo is still using highly animated, CPU clogging, memory clogging, bandwidth-clogging ads that slow your account and computer to a crawl or even freezes it altogether; forcing users to just give up and close the associated browser tab. The train wreck that never ends. Oh, well. Not my problem anymore. I'm finally rid of them and only check in once in awhile so as to update this page.

Update, October 2017

Well, I am pretty much rid of them. I drop by the accounts maybe once every 2-3 months just to check on things. Nice guy that I am, I even clean out the spam to give their servers a break. Unfortunately, having had the accounts for over a decade, I still occasionally find a reference to them in my rolodex as to being the email address of record. Needless to say, I then go to the indicated website and fix that.

Update, February 2017

There are now media reports the hackers are now getting into Yahoo user email accounts without even having to know your password. Apparently the Yahoo cookies are so simplistic that the hackers just make there own and use those to get into your account.

Update, December 2016

Yep, Yahoo has done it again; this time to the tune of 1 billion accounts. And apparently they are going to force you to change your passwords this time, New York Times article. So you might as well do it now while convenient. Jeez, I am so fed up with those guys,. Fortunately, I am already pretty much rid of them.

Update, September 2016

News excerpt: "Yahoo confirms 500 million user accounts had information stolen in 2014". Yep, happened over two years ago and now they're finally telling us. Yet another reason to not ever use a Yahoo email account. Oh, well. Then again, Verizon is much more professional than Yahoo has ever been. So maybe somewhere down the line, Verizon will do the necessary mass firings to clean out the incompetent and unethical managers around there. As for why it is my opinion the managers at Yahoo are both incompetent and unethical, see original review below.

Update, July 2016

Verizon has purchased Yahoo. Will Verizon do something about Yahoo's barely functional email accounts? We can only hope.

Original Review – Basically, Yahoo Mail Is Useless Anyway. So Why Even Bother to Have Anything to Do with Them in the First Place?

To make a long story short, avoid having a Yahoo email account like the plague. The Yahoo ads they display on your email account page clogs up your CPU and/or ISP bandwidth so much, your account is barely able to function. This is especially applicable when trying to compose a new message.

Yahoo has always been famous for obnoxious ads, but this page isn't going to even bother complaining about that; millions of others already have done so to no avail. One would think after all these years, Yahoo would finally figure out how dearly this practice costs them; but obviously this is never going to happen.

This page is about Yahoo's high intensity, high pixel, highly animated ads hogging your computer and ISP resources and bandwidth to the point the Yahoo email app, itself, is barely able to function.

Switching between folders isn't too bad, the wait time is still tolerable. And in all fairness, I should mention Yahoo's email spam filter is pretty good.

It is when one tries to compose a message is where everything really falls apart. The computer starts beeping almost immediately. Sure enough, most of the characters typed never made it to the screen. Meanwhile, the ads are all gyrating to a fare-thee-well. I would imagine attempting to compose a Yahoo email message via phone would be even more impossible. On those rare occasions when one isn't getting slammed with highly animated ads, everything works fine.

Use an ad blocker? Yep, that did indeed solve the problem for a long time. Then one morning I clicked the mail app on Yahoo's main page and was duly informed the ad blocker must be turned off before I would be allowed access to my email account. This went on for awhile and then suddenly stopped. I don't know if there was some sort of user revolt, "official" complaints or violations, or what.

Things were once again ok for awhile...

But now Yahoo is pulling a new stunt. If one is using an ad blocker and visits Yahoo's homepage, the mail menu option simply isn't there. If one visits the homepage without an ad blocker, then the email menu option is there. Cute.

So there you have it. Can't compose messages without an ad blocker. Can't access email account with an ad blocker.

Are you using an ad blocker and not having access issues? Give it time, Yahoo simply hasn't gotten around to your browser/blocker configuration yet.

Yahoo Mail User

Just my opinion, though I have had none of these problems with any of my other web-based email service providers.

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