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Comment by sghill | Hacker News Reader

I think Yahoo has a lost generation[1] problem on its hands. Gmail in particular has made Yahoo's products look like Detroit's cars in the 70s and 80s.

Anecdotally, at some point in the 2000s, it became embarrassing to have a Yahoo email address. It invited in jokes of 'she must love spam!' or 'he must love getting his account hacked.' From here, it's a long and difficult road to recovery. From the 1991 article linked below, this quote sounds like it applies:

> "A lot of people would have trouble admitting to their peers that they bought an Oldsmobile even if they thought it was every bit as good as a Honda," said Chris Cedergren of J. D. Power & Associates, an automotive marketing company in Agoura Hills, Calif.

[1]: http://www.nytimes.com/1991/04/09/business/detroit-strives-t...

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"Gmail in particular has made Yahoo's products look like Detroit's cars in the 70s and 80s."

Have you tried the Yahoo Mail mobile app?

Nope.But

- does Yahoo have free IMAP or POP? No - does Yahoo have a decent SPAM filter? No - how much free space for storage? Too little - can I use my own domain with yahoo mail? Don't know - does Yahoo have a decent interface? no

It is just totally outdated. I don't know if google makes money with gmail Honestly, I doubt it. But it helps them to keep (and track) its users. From the privacy perspective, gmail is a nightmare. But is is just too good thought out. It just works.

> I don't know if google makes money with gmail Honestly, I doubt it.

As Google is a pretty key component of paid Google Apps, and the free version is an advertising venue, I think Google makes plenty of money with Gmail, both by selling it and selling advertising in it.

I have to take issue with the jokes about Yahoo! spam filter. I've had the same email address for 10+ years, @yahoo.com, no effort at all to hide it. I get maybe 1-2 spam messages that reach my inbox per week. Usually 1-off nigerian prince emails or "You won 1M GBP UK Lotto" junk has been the most recent ones.

Generally I sit with ~600-700 mail in "spam" which appears to cover ~2 weeks of not-checking-spam-folder.

Not a bad ratio at all, much much less than 1%.

"- does Yahoo have free IMAP or POP? No"

Hmm... then how does the iPhone client fetch mail from Yahoo?

"- does Yahoo have a decent SPAM filter? No"

I get more spam in my INBOX in my GMail account (which I have protected quite steadfastly) than my Yahoo account.

" - how much free space for storage? Too little "

Are you kidding me? Yahoo went to "unlimited" storage like 5 years ago!

Looks like you have a pretty strong bias. Time to re-think those assumptions...

"Hmm... then how does the iPhone client fetch mail from Yahoo?" Dunno. Maybe via an app or something? As far as I know, I have to pay for POP accesss. Otherwise I could access my yahoo mail from my gmail account and via alpine.

No, I can't say that I have. I just looked up Yahoo's Mail app on Google Play[1]. Unfortunately, the very first thing I see in the description adds to my perception of its quality and doesn't make me want to try the service:

> NOTE: We are aware some of you are having issues while attempting to view an email. To resolve this issue open settings > About Yahoo! Mail > Clear Cache. You should then be able to see your email messages post clearing your local cache. Sorry for the inconvenience.

The app does look to have mostly positive reviews, and that you're asking if I've tried it must mean they're taking a step in the right direction. I wonder if they've considered making it an IMAP client. Given that the built-in Android mail app leaves so much to be desired, I'd gladly try it for my work account, which may then slowly change my perception of Yahoo.

[1]: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.yahoo.mobi...

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