| FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
YAHOO! EXPANDS COMMUNITY SERVICES WITH FREE E-MAIL
Yahoo! Mail Helps Users Stay in Touch
SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- Oct. 8, 1997 --
Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) today launched
Yahoo! Mail
(mail.yahoo.com), a free, e-mail service for Internet users.
Based on the popular RocketMail technology, recently rated
the No. 1 free e-mail service by C|Net, Yahoo! Mail provides
users with a free e-mail account accessible from any
Net-connected computer, anywhere in the world. Yahoo! Mail
is the latest offering in Yahoo!'s family of community
services, which also includes chat, message boards,
classifieds, maps, yellow pages and white pages. In a
separate release today, Yahoo! announced that it has signed
a definitive agreement to acquire Four11, creators of the
popular RocketMail Web-based e-mail, Four11 white pages and
telephony services.
"Yahoo! has established one of the Web's largest global
communities by providing services to foster open
communications for our users," said Jeff Mallett, senior
vice president of Business Operations at Yahoo!. "Our
community services have quickly become some of the leading
services on the web. Integrating chat, mail, classifieds,
message boards and other services throughout Yahoo!'s
properties helps encourage discussions between users and
allows individuals to communicate by whatever means they
prefer."
With its new e-mail service, Yahoo! is poised to take
advantage of the explosive growth in the e-mail market.
According to figures from the Electronic Mail &
Messaging Systems' (EMMS) most recent report (Aug. 11,
1997), the worldwide e-mailbox count is approaching 150
million. EMMS' findings also show that the freemail sector
alone showed growth of 3.6 million mailboxes in the second
quarter of this year.
Stay in Touch Wherever You Are
With Yahoo! Mail, individuals have free, convenient access
to e-mail anywhere they have Net access. This makes it easy
for users to stay in touch at home or while traveling for
business or pleasure. Users can have one e-mail address for
life, whether they move, change jobs or ISPs, graduate or
travel around the world. Like Yahoo!'s other community
services, Yahoo! Mail is integrated throughout the main
Yahoo! site (www.yahoo.com) and other Yahoo! properties for
instant communication access -- to send mail, chat with
others, post a message or find someone or something needed
at that moment. In addition to traditional e-mail features
for sending, receiving and managing mail, Yahoo! Mail also
includes the following:
- One-time Registration for All Yahoo! Personalized
Services -- Individuals registering for Yahoo! Mail
are automatically registered for Yahoo! Chat, Classifieds
and My Yahoo!. Users already registered for one of these
services can access the other services simply by typing
in their log-in name and password.
- Remote Mail Account Access -- Individuals with
more than one e-mail account can access them through
Yahoo! Mail, using any Net-connected computer.
- Password Protection and Management -- All e-mail
accounts are password protected with a user-selected
email address and password. Users have the option to
change their password at any time.
- 3 Megabytes of Storage Space -- Users can save
up to 3 Megabytes of messages in their box. Messages stay
in the system until the user deletes them. Yahoo! Mail
will send warnings to users when their box starts to get
full.
- Support of Rich Multimedia Features -- Yahoo!
Mail is Web-based, it can support many different forms of
text, audio and video media as well as send and receive
HTML documents and accepts both MIME and Uuencoded
documents.
- Access to Four11's Directories -- Yahoo! Mail
incorporates Four11's directories, providing users with
access to more than 10 million e-mail addresses and more
than 100 million phone numbers.
- Address Book Feature -- Users can create
address books for easy access to their most frequently
used names, addresses and numbers. The address book
includes nicknames and group aliases as well.
- Online Help Desk -- Yahoo! Mail users have
access to an award-winning online help desk (Four11 was
voted the best online help of any freemail service by
C/Net).
Advertising Opportunities
Yahoo! Mail offers advertisers a unique forum to reach
consumers. The new service launches with charter sponsor
WebGenesis, creators of The Globe, the premier Web community
with more than 600,000 members.
About Yahoo!
Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) is a global Internet media company
that offers a network of branded Web programming that serves
millions of users daily. As the first online navigational
guide to the Web, www.yahoo.com is the single largest guide
in terms of traffic, advertising, household and business
user reach, and is one of the most recognized brands
associated with the Internet. Yahoo! Inc. provides targeted
Internet resources and communications services for a broad
range of audiences, based on demographic, key-subject and
geographic interests. Yahoo! is headquartered in Santa
Clara, Calif.
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