Landrush for new Yahoo Mail addresses begins at 3 pm ET

By Jacqueline Emigh | Published June 19, 2008, 2:41 PM

With hundreds of millions of user names already tapped out, Yahoo has now decided to add two more domains -- ymail.com and rocketmail.com -- to its e-mail addresses for Web users.

Sign-ups for the new e-mail addresses will probably commence later today, BetaNews has learned.

"The new domains, ymail.com and rocketmail.com, should be available at mid-day today (Thursday) - near 12 pm PT (Pacific Time) / 3pm ET (Eastern Time)," a Yahoo spokesperson said, in an e-mail to BetaNews. The land rush for staking out new user names will take place at http://mail.yahoo.com.

Yahoo is already widely credited by analysts with running the most popular Web-based e-mail service in the world.

Company officials figure that by adding the two new addresses to the existing "@yahoo.com," the beleaguered Internet company can effectively triple the size of its name space, giving users more choices.

In a study commissioned by Yahoo and conducted by Harris Interactive, Yahoo asked "online adults" which e-mail address they would choose for personal use, if they could have any name they wanted. Seventy percent replied that they would opt to have some portion of their name included in the e-mail address.

More than 266 million users have already signed up for Yahoo Mail, according to a statement from Yahoo.

E-mail addresses at the new domains will reportedly get the same Yahoo Mail features as addresses at yahoo.com, including unlimited e-mail storage, anti-spam and anti-virus e-mail protection; integrated instant messaging and text messaging through Yahoo Messenger and Windows Live Messenger, and options for country-specific e-mail accounts.

Yahoo already owned both of the additional domain names, anyhow. The rocketmail.com domain came with its 1997 buyout of Four11 Corporation. The ymail.com address has reportedly been around for some time, too, but for mobile users.

Users who had already signed on to rocketmail prior to Yahoo's Four11 acquisition will be able to hold on to their old e-mail addresses, BetaNews was told.

"Those who have rocketmail accounts are still in our system. So we are not starting over from scratch -- just opening up the domain for the rest of Internet users," another Yahoo spokesperson said, in an e-mail to BetaNews.

Comments

View comments by with a score of at least

Hi,

Anyone have this problem trying to sign up with ymail.com

Its says my system is not "compadable"...I need windows XP.

I have windows XP...

Thanks,
Dan

Score: 0

|

Yahoo is still advertising domains for $9.95 per year... but in March they went up to $12.95 and I just got another note from them, they're going to be charging $34.95 per year for domain renewal. The reason I bought 25+ domains thru Yahoo! was for the renewal price, however, I cannot afford to pay $35 per year. They're really trying to improve their bottom line, as well, are contracted to generate a specific amount of sales so as not to get their contract with Google terminated. It is frustrating to see their ads saying $9.95 per year domains, when I know that is WRONG. What kinda professionalism is that?! Interesting, what they're doing to try to appease their Google fellowship and / or to look better for another possible Microsoft purchase.

I dunno though, their site, lots of ads, annoying video ads.. recently started hosting a customer's site with them, hopefully they don't more than triple their hosting rates now... arggg.. I also think it is weak, how their Answers site, as great as it is, they allow Movie Company's to ask stupid questions, to generate more sales for the movie. Bogus.. Sell out Yahoo! Let Bill Gates fix your business.( LOL )

Score: 0

|

They should just Purge accounts that have not been logged into in say 6 Months.

Score: 0

|

No.

Or at least if they had POP access they shouldn't.

Or POP access should count as being logged in.

/is confusing himself now

Score: 0

|

If someone hasnt logged in, in over 2 years, I think its safe to say bye to them!

Score: 0

|

not sure if POP counts as logged in or not either.

Score: 0

|

They already do, it's 4 months.

Score: 0

|

I only log into Yahoo through Winmail or Outlook Express using YPOPs and never had a problem. They use POP3 to log onto Yahoo's servers with your username & password.

Score: 0

|

heh, I have a rocketmail account once again. had one years ago and made the mistake of converting it to a yahoo account.

I have a friend who never changed his and has been using his @rocketmail.com emailfor the past 11 years.

Score: 0

|

I'm just like your friend I've been using mine for 11 years now. I don't use it so much but that is because I have 5 email accounts (for different tasks). Gmail is less hassle.

Score: 0

|

It took until 4:00 p.m. before I could get signed up for my new rocketmail address...

Now that it is up and running, it should get very busy for a bit. ^__^

Score: 0

|

Its already 330 here and im getting the following message:

"Coming soon to a screen near you!

Bummer. It doesn't look like the all-new Yahoo! Mail is available for you just yet. It's nothing personal, we promise -- we're simply rolling it out gradually for the time being. But rest assured you can get your hot little hands on it soon.

For now, you can check your email in original Yahoo! Mail Classic."

Score: 0

|

how do you get one of these? I went ot yahoo and it still only shows yahoo.com

Score: 0

|

I just registered four accounts, on mail.yahoo.com, when you click on the sign up button, you get form for choosing an email address with three different domains, hope this helps you

Score: 0

|

Will Firefox beat IE9 to Direct2D rendering?

Just days after Microsoft executives gave conference attendees a peek at a new rendering technology, a Mozilla contributor revealed he's working on the same thing.

AOL's decision to rebrand as Aol. takes a bad brand and makes it worse

The idea behind the social Web is to crowd source before bringing out something new. But not at AOL, which new logo debuted with a cry of "fail!" across the blogosphere and Twittersphere today.

Microsoft's Bob Muglia and Ray Ozzie on Silverlight vs. standards

Bob Muglia: "We're trying to provide people with an environment that has capabilities that you just simply can't do today in the standards-based world."

Uh-oh, netbooks -- not Windows 7 -- will lift 2009 PC sales

Santa may bring a lump of coal to the Windows PC industry this holiday season. Netbook sales will sap PC margins, while weak Windows 7 PC sales could further drive down average selling prices.

Kindle 2 update adds battery life, native PDF reader

Amazon has pushed out an update to the Kindle 2 e-reader that lengthens battery life and adds a native PDF viewer.

Safari on iPhone gets competition from a $1 browser app

Apple likes to say it gives iPhone users a full browsing experience, but a new competitor tries to incorporate more desktop browser features.

Action Replay maker sues Microsoft for Xbox 360 'predatory technological barriers'

Third-party video game accessory maker Datel has filed an antitrust lawsuit against Microsoft over the Xbox 360's recent Dashboard update.

Where there's smoke: Apple warranty stance raises troubling questions

Carmi Levy | Wide Angle Zoom: Smoking can be dangerous not only for your lungs, it appears, but for your Apple hardware warranty.

Microsoft's .NET Micro Framework is now free and open source

The latest version of Microsoft's .NET Micro framework is now in the hands of the FOSS community.

Google's value proposition for Chrome OS: Should we feel insulted?

For a search engine that has direct access to all the world's online history, it appears to have taught Google nothing about selling a machine.

E-book readers will be in short supply this holiday season

E-readers are hot this year, and a lot of compelling new products have been released, but are there enough electrophoretic displays to go around?