The
Yahoo Mail news is coming thick and fast this week. Yesterday they announced
that Yahoo Mail now has free unlimited email storage space, and today Yahoo has
announced an API for Yahoo Mail.
Earlier today I spoke with Chad Dickerson, Head of Yahoo! Developer Network, and
John Kremer, VP Yahoo! Mail, to find out more.
The Yahoo! Mail Web Service is, in technical terms, a SOAP web service that allows developers to connect to and utilize the Yahoo Mail platform and data. It was previewed to Yahoo! Hack Day attendees last September. There are restrictions on its use. But basically for premium Yahoo Mail users, the API allows access to perform typical mailbox tasks such as list messages and folders, compose and send messages. For free users, developers can build mail preview tools with limited Web Service functionality.
The high level nutshell is that third party developers can, using the the API, build mail tools or applications on the same platform that Yahoo uses to serve 249 million Yahoo! Mail users. Which opens up the potential for a huge user base, if you manage to create a popular mashup using the mail API.
An
early example is a mashup
of Yahoo! Mail and Flickr (screenshot to the left). It won 'Best Mail Hack'
at September's Hack Day. Check out this
screencast for an explanation of how this was put together using the API.
The mashup lets you send a Flickr postcard, via Y! Mail.
In our discussion, Chad also mentioned a search app that allows more sophisticated search of your mail. You could also create an email backup application, as another example. There are more 3rd party apps in the Yahoo Gallery for Mail and Yahoo is of course hoping 3rd party developers will contribute others.
Here's a screencast which explains more about the API, which is useful especially for developers wanting to try this out.
Note that Yahoo is also providing commissions for third party developers, so they can earn money off their creations. Specifically, Yahoo! Mail provides a commission of $10.00 for every new Yahoo! Mail Plus account referred by developers. They've also teamed up with Commission Junction to provide third-party tracking, real-time reporting and monthly commission checks.
All up, this is another great example of a big Internet company 'opening up' their platform and (to some extent) their data, to enable more creative mashups and new apps to be built on top of it. Yahoo is certainly doing more than both Google and Microsoft in this respect.
Flickr postcard, via the Yahoo Mail API
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It's good news, but I don't think that an email service without POP3 is really opened up.
Posted by: Andrew | March 28, 2007 7:12 PMYahoo has a way of just when you think they've fallen behind, they popup and surprise you each time.
Posted by: Richard Curry | March 28, 2007 11:03 PMThe search hack Chad referred to is mine. I wrote it for an internal Yahoo! hack day and it won the "Technically Sweet" award. ;)
http://ymail.unclehulka.com/mailsearch/
You'll need a premium mail account to check it out since the Search API is restricted to premium accounts.
Ryan Kennedy
Posted by: Ryan Kennedy | March 29, 2007 12:31 AMYahoo! Mail Web Service Engineer
Richard, I am not entirely sure you are being fair on Google here:
"Yahoo is certainly doing more than both Google and Microsoft in this respect"
Take a look at : http://code.google.com/apis/
They have plenty of APIs, sure I am not saying they couldn't do more but I don't think it's accurate to paint a picture of them doing little in comparison to Yahoo.
regards
Posted by: Al | March 29, 2007 4:02 AMAl
We have been talking about Yahoo! a lot over at Highbrid Nation. You gotta admit they have really stepped up thier game against Google. As these big companies battle it out, it just means better products for us :)
Posted by: Evorgleb | March 29, 2007 8:53 AMDefinitely, personally I love the competition from Google because it pushes our product people to allow us engineers to do crazier and crazier stuff. ;)
Ryan Kennedy
Posted by: Ryan Kennedy | March 29, 2007 2:01 PMYahoo! Mail Web Service