Yahoo tests new email service
2005-05-26 20:31
California - Yahoo Inc. is testing an email service that will let people share digital photos without the hassle of often cumbersome attachments that hog storage space and bandwidth.
The Sunnyvale-based company is touting the free service, available beginning on Thursday, as a simple way to distribute photos to family and friends.
Thumbnails of up to 300 photos can be inserted into a single email that can be sent to hundreds of recipients.
Even if it contains 300 photos, an email is unlikely to be rejected by inboxes with limitations on the size of a message because each thumbnail is just three to five kilobytes.
Yahoo designed the "PhotoMail" service so it can be opened and viewed no matter where an email is addressed.
All the photos inserted into the emails are stored on Yahoo computers, enabling recipients to see a full-resolution image by clicking on any thumbnail.
The photos can be inserted into an email by dragging images stored on computer hard drives or Web sites.
Using the test service requires a regular email account.
Installing a small piece of software also is required.
Besides introducing the photo service, Yahoo also is adding more protections against unwanted email and supporting communications in six additional languages.
With the expansion, Yahoo email will be available in 21 languages.
Yahoo is counting on the photo service and other improvements to broaden its email leadership over its two closest rivals, Microsoft Corp.'s Hotmail and Time Warner Inc.'s AOL.
- AP