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Yahoo Unlimited E-mail Storage = Ads for Everybody

Posted on May 4, 2007 in Hot Web Topics

Yahoo is paying for the unlimited E-mail storage everybody is going to get with more ads. Paid Yahoo Mail users or not – we are all going to get this “new feature” called advertisements.

Want the good news? Yahoo is going to give us unlimited E-mail storage soon. The bad news? If you haven’t been seeing ads – you are about to get them back – even if you have been paying for your E-mail service! I have enjoyed the perks of having the “paid” version of Yahoo Mail since I am a AT&T DSL customer. When I moved over to DSL I signed up with SBC Yahoo! DSL. One of the perks I liked the most was that there were no ads on the E-mail application.

Here is a copy of the E-mail I got from Yahoo:

Dear AT&T Yahoo! Member:

AT&T and Yahoo! have a history of providing our members with award-winning, industry-leading Internet products and services at a great value.

As more members are using AT&T Yahoo! Mail to send and receive photos, videos, and music, we will begin offering unlimited email storage in May to both existing and new members. Your service will continue to include all the premium products you already enjoy including video, LAUNCHcast Plus, and an all-in-one security suite.

Additionally, within the next few weeks you will begin seeing graphical advertisements in your AT&T Yahoo! Mail service. These advertisements will be integrated into the AT&T Yahoo! Mail experience, and we hope you will find the advertisements useful. Advertising such as this allows us to continue delivering new and innovative elements to our service and helps us keep prices competitive, while we continue to provide the high level of service that you have come to know and trust.

We strive to provide you with the best online experience possible and to address all your needs on the Internet.

Sincerely,

AT&T Yahoo! Member Services

I love how they push the advertisements as an additional feature to look forward to. Shame on you Yahoo!

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  • julian
    sad whats happening at yahoo. i got the same email from them . looks like mail plus service has banners now... even though they still advertise yahoo mail plus as banner free. shame on yahoo...moving away to cable.
  • andyo
    Hi again. I found the yahoo mail thread where people are complaining like crazy about this. If my eyes are not deceiving me, has the tower ad shrunk just a bit? Anyway, feel free to leave your complaints there, I guess.

    http://yodel.yahoo.com/2007/05/14/unlimited-sto...
  • Kumar
    I can't believe they think people are stupid enough to buy this "world class" service nonsense. We need to organize something to help them know this is quite inapropriate. I'm paying for dumb advertisements???
  • andyo
    oops, sorry. These are my settings for Adblock.

    You can also use the Element Hiding Helper to aid you, but this will only hide unblockable elements, like Google's text ads and such.
  • andyo
    Hi all, I came to this site through googling for people who had the same trouble as I did. You can get rid of the ads in Firefox (at least visually, but not entirely blocked), but if you haven't done so yet, I'd encourage you to complain. That vertical banner is horribly obtrusive. On a 1024 or 1280 horizontal screen is just unbearable. Check out my screenshots.

    This is with the new ads.

    This is after using Adblock plus to block and hide elements.

    These are my Adblock settings. Copy the lines exactly into the Adblock plus filters and they should get rid of the ads.

    As you can see, though, I still have the big annoying vertical blank space to the right. Hiding the elements for that messes up the whole page, so I can't do it. It may have to do with the messenger "feature" that these people added. I don't care for Yahoo messenger and I don't want it in my mail. It's funny, just a couple of weeks ago I was thinking of switching from Hotmail to Yahoo, because of their very clean interface, no tagline ads at the end of emails for us paid customers.

    The tide turned quickly. The new Windows Live Desktop gets rid of ALL ads (including taglines) and provides many more features, and it's faster. It's still in the final beta stages, though, so they may add some ads by the final release, but the way it's been evolving, (from annoying ads to none at all) I'm hopeful.
  • schuck
    I've posted my ire over on
    http://yodel.yahoo.com/2007/05/14/unlimited-sto...

    Get the word out, and maybe this unbelievable marketing gaff will gain some momentum in the news.
  • Tony
    I was on the phone for two hours and got the same load of "canned responses" from everyone I talked to.

    Has any hacker figured out how to disable the ads yet?
  • Kada Situ
    This is completely lame, I would prefer having only 2gig of space with no ads. I don't care about the unlimited storage, since I will backup all the email into Outlook anyways. I really, really hate these new ads as I never seen them before >:(
  • Ann
    Ha ha! I got the same "world class service" line from them this morning, too but through live chat:

    AT&T: Hi Customer! How may I help you?

    ME: I just want to register a complaint that I hate the ads in my email. I feel that since this is not a free email account and I have been paying your company for 8 yrs. as my ISP, I should have ADS-Free email.

    AT&T: I appreciate your patience and apologize for the inconvenience this has caused

    ME (after long pause): This is lame

    AT&T: We apologize for the inconvenience. The advertising is a needed step towards providing world class service at an affordable price.

    AT&T: Please bear with us, it is just a temporary advertisement. Im sorry!

    ME: Honestly, I have never had world class service from this company and I am not sure that it is even possible.

    Your session has ended. You may now close this window.
  • Matt
    I am on the phone with Yahoo At&T right now and they maintain that this is a part of their world class service. They are actually telling me that over the phone! It does get better, they are trying to give me a case ID that....you guessed it....they cannot send via email! I am a mail plus customer as well, no way I am sticking around and paying for something like this. Off to Google and GMail.
  • Austin
    I'm a paid AT&T/Yahoo Mail, and first the very fist time I've found it being "decorated" and "laced" with all sorts of ads. I suppose I'd just have live with them now.
  • Dave
    The ads hit my inbox tonight. Unacceptably obtrusive and annoying. I cannot believe paying DSL customers are being treated this way. No way I'm gonna send AT&T/Yahoo more money for an ad-free "plus" account. That is part of what I've been paying for the past several years. Time to change my homepage to Google and set-up a G-mail account.
  • I am testing out yahoos new email, hopefully the unlimited gets into effect really really soon, drop me a line @ unlimited_email_test@yahoo.com or unlimitedemailtest@gmail.com Thanks
  • Thanks for sharing this.

    Users from Yahoo!'s ISP partners (AT&T, SBC, Verizon, etc) may all receive such letters or maybe just AT&T users. And maybe Y! Mail Plus users will lose the advertising-free interface as one of their bonuses, maybe not.

    This one letter doesn't enable determining any of the above. So casting dispersions Y!'s way may be missing the mark. Your ISP may be choosing to package Y! Mail this way in order to gain a revenue share opportunity.

    I certainly hope Verizon doesn't follow suit. That's where my hat's hung. But if it happens, I'd be happy to sign up directly for Y! Mail Plus if that program offered an ad-free mail interface. Otherwise, I may be driven to use Thunderbird.

    Time will tell.
  • Well with them saying that it "is coming" I don't think they have rolled 'em out yet. I hope they will change their minds. I don't mind ads on some sites - but for application sites like Web mail, RSS reader, ect - I'd rather be ad free.
  • Hmm, that's odd Mitch. I just checked the status of my Yahoo "Mail Plus" account and it still states no ads or tag lines. Maybe it's to do with AT&T's version?
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