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Yahoo! Mail Update: Now in Full Compliance of Acid Test

Posted by Mark Wyner on February 14, 2008 in Email Client News

The Yahoo! Mail team was not satisfied with their acid test results, even though they only lacked support for a single item on our list. So they went off and remedied the bug and are now in 100% compliance.

When we launched the Email Standards Project we reported that the Yahoo! Mail clients rendered our acid test nearly flawlessly, falling short only on the list-style-image property. Shortly thereafter we announced that Yahoo! responded, not willing to accept a score of less than 100%.

I worked with a member of their development team who claimed their client actually did support this CSS property. We discovered that the issue was not a lack of support for list-style-image, but rather a lack of support for the shorthand list-style. Yahoo! pledged to remedy this shortcoming but didn’t promise any target dates. I therefore assumed it wasn’t a huge priority.

Well, the Yahoo! team again puts their best foot forward and shows us they care about our initiative. They have remedied this bug in both the “classic” and “new” versions of Yahoo! Mail, offering 100% compliance of our acid test. Our hats off to you, Yahoo! Mail.

Note About Longhand Versus Shorthand CSS Properties

As a result of our discovery that longhand and shorthand could render differently in email clients, we thought it would be best to test a longhand-only version of our acid test. As it turns out, we only discovered two differences in rendering:

  1. The Yahoo! Mail bug for list-style-image, which is obviously now a thing of the past.
  2. Windows Live Hotmail does not support the background property, so background colors are unsupported with shorthand of that property. Whereas within longhand we use background-color, which is supported.

107 Comments so far

Matt Radel said...

Any chance to best Google. Hear that Gmail..? Oh, I’m sorry Gmail - I still love you.

Posted 1:22 am on 16 February 2008 - #1
Travis said...

Excellent! Thanks a lot Yahoo! for taking the time and effort to fix even an ostensibly minor rendering issue such as this. I wish the other email clients had at least 1/10th of your commitment to delivering a well-tuned product :)

Posted 3:52 am on 16 February 2008 - #2
virginia nadayag said...

why can’t i open my mails? what is wrong with yahoo these days?

Posted 9:23 pm on 18 February 2008 - #3
virginia nadayag said...

just improve email services please, make it faster to open mails

Posted 9:56 pm on 18 February 2008 - #4
rosie benson said...

how can i get back on classic yahoo e-mail i have e-mail i need to read and i can’t get on it i try to sign in and it asked me for a id iwont it back like i had it so i can read my mail

Posted 12:30 pm on 19 February 2008 - #5
Oh Minseok said...

Dear,

I’m a korean living in seoul.(name: Oh Minseok)
Korean special investigative team are investigating samsung
corporation.
But they does not work right.
I am suspicious to be bought off.
samsung corporation has many crimes.
And the team investigates samsung corporation.
It contains korean companies samsung,huyndai,sk CEOs’ illegal issuing
stocks or bonds.
The quantity are plenty.
(Three company CEOs did(and are doing) many crimes to me.
Many koreans are knowing it.
But many koreans are bought off by illegal issuing stocks or bonds.)
The team are knowing it.
Korean special investigative team must investigate this.
But they are trying to conceal it.
I ask for asking for this criminal investigation to prosecutors in any
country.
And help the shareholders.

P.S)
Three companies are hacking me and trying to kill me.
And are suspicious to use my name and email illegally.
If you receive another message that I dictated above are not true,
it is not from me, but from three companies.
The things I dictated above are true.

Posted 11:00 pm on 20 February 2008 - #6
Zeb said...

Yahoo definitely cares. They responded earlier and now they fixed the short-hand issue. I hope someone can wake gmail up

Posted 2:10 am on 24 February 2008 - #7
A Gabay said...

I used a number of email systems. I found Thunderbird’s display more user friendly, ergonomic, the lettering bolder and clearer. Yet Yahoo has a more professional approach and responds promptly. `could`I have the best of these two “worlds” ? Please!!! - ag

Posted 8:48 pm on 24 February 2008 - #8

I can’t seem to get negative text-indent to work in Yahoo! when it seems to work most in other web clients. Was this part of the test?

Posted 4:00 pm on 26 February 2008 - #9
Plopi said...

Good news.
Hotmail, yahoo mail ... waiting for gmail ;)

Posted 7:38 pm on 26 February 2008 - #10
Alex Leonard said...

That’s great to hear one of the mail teams being so responsive. It’s a shame that the Gmail team have stayed so quiet and it really reflects poorly on them IMHO.

Get it together Gmail.

Posted 12:57 am on 27 February 2008 - #11
Mark Wyner said...

@ Joshua:

Unfortunately that wasn’t part of our test. We wanted to ask for fundamental support to set a foundation for web standards. Once we see broad support for these fundamental properties, we hope to move into some additional requests.

@ Plopi and Alex Leonard:

We hear you. Google would benefit from considering our recommendations. Let’s hope they hear our calling.

Posted 3:57 am on 28 February 2008 - #12
kiki said...

Please add The Bat mail client to test.

Posted 9:47 pm on 29 February 2008 - #13
Blair said...

I want to go back to yahoo mail classic.Your new yahoo mail does not work.I thouhgt it was my computer,but iv’e been to three different computers, and it still wont let me delete my messages.It only lets me read them.I only tried it because you told me there were more advanages to having the new yahoo mail instead of the classic. So if you could just tell me how to get back into the classic version.It would be very helpful cause the go back to classic mail button in the top right hand of the screen wont even let me choose it. it keeps telling me error on page

Posted 9:28 pm on 04 March 2008 - #14

Very impressed with the response from Yahoo. Lets hope Google play catch up but i guess we’ll have to wait and see....

Posted 10:51 pm on 04 March 2008 - #15
Nimish said...

i had switched to yahoo beta, since than i cant compose new mail, cant reply or forward mails, neither can i switch again to yahoo mail classic.
I can only read mails that i recieve.
Waiting for positive & helping response.

Posted 9:36 pm on 25 March 2008 - #16
artikboy said...

Indeed, Yahoo! definately cares about the comunity…
It’s totally visible from the way Yahoo! products comunicate with their users… Take Flickr for instance. In my opinion, it has some of the greatest and smoothest features any web app should take as granted.

I’m not defending the “destkop likness” side of the question. I just believe that we, web designers, should be held responsible for creating another step on the way people see the web, using small and simple things that make everyone’s life easier and more fun.

Posted 4:41 am on 12 April 2008 - #17

Glad to hear about Yahoo!  Hopefully Google will follow suit…

Posted 5:18 am on 03 May 2008 - #18
Burnham said...

Yahoo needs to resist this buyout.  Look at the debacle with windows vista.  If I conducted my business the way microsoft is doing now I would be out of business.

Posted 8:27 pm on 03 May 2008 - #19

Flickr is an amazing site.  Thanks yahoo for taking care of us!  I look forward to teh added functionality.

Posted 8:29 pm on 03 May 2008 - #20

You know, I have had some problems with the new Yahoo mail.  You have to wonder why the email providers (AOL also) insist on making us deal with slow-loading pages when all we need is something simple.

Posted 8:31 pm on 03 May 2008 - #21
Wholesale said...

This is great.  Thanks for everything you folks are doing, it is much appreciated!

Posted 12:09 pm on 06 May 2008 - #22

I’ve been using Yahoo mail for years.  They’ve always been very helpful and I do think they have the best interface and tools available in regards to the free online email clients.

Posted 1:38 am on 07 May 2008 - #23

I LOVE yahoo, however i’ve been having a problem with the mail.  It has started to load really slow and returns an error message.  That being said I will never use any other mail service, because Yahoo mail has always been reliable.  I’m 100% positive that they will fix the issue!  BTW thanks to yahoo’s CEO for not accepting microsofts offer.  If microsoft gets their hands on Yahoo, they will ruin it just like they did with Vista.

Posted 10:54 am on 11 May 2008 - #24
Dog Clothing said...

I think this is fantastic and have used Yahoo for years.  I have had my share of issues with the free mail however, but after I upgraded to the Plus version for a whopping $19.99 a year - this solved all my problems.

Posted 12:39 am on 14 May 2008 - #25
SEO Expert said...

I love Yahoo! since 2001 i have an email account with them and they are getting better and better all the time.
Interesting information, thank you for sharing.

Posted 1:07 pm on 24 May 2008 - #26
anket said...

I’ve been using Yahoo mail for years

Posted 9:34 am on 12 June 2008 - #27
swim said...

hi , great post , and very good news !
Yahoo rulz !

Posted 10:11 pm on 14 June 2008 - #28
Photo Fan said...

Its important to have a support from The Bat. I use all: hotmail, yahoo, gmail - waiting for messages in web standards!

Posted 7:50 pm on 26 June 2008 - #29

thank you for the good news

Posted 2:28 am on 30 June 2008 - #30

great post!

Posted 2:29 am on 30 June 2008 - #31

wow thank you!

Posted 2:29 am on 30 June 2008 - #32

good for you!

Posted 2:30 am on 30 June 2008 - #33

Well, I think your post is a good reason to check out the yahoo mail at last.. Thanks for a useful info!

Posted 8:33 am on 05 July 2008 - #34

Interesting, I use gmail and hotmail. maybe it’s time 2 get started with yahoo mail as well!

Posted 8:39 am on 05 July 2008 - #35
Wholesale said...

Alright Yahoo MAil!  Again I am very satisifed, although the amount of spam received is outrageous (not yahoo’s fault).  ANyone heard about the new yahoo email doamins?  Good idea!

Posted 12:30 am on 07 July 2008 - #36

i realy liked that guy’s opinion:
I LOVE yahoo, however i’ve been having a problem with the mail.  It has started to load really slow and returns an error message.  That being said I will never use any other mail service, because Yahoo mail has always been reliable.  I’m 100% positive that they will fix the issue!  BTW thanks to yahoo’s CEO for not accepting microsofts offer.  If microsoft gets their hands on Yahoo, they will ruin it just like they did with Vista.

Posted 7:31 pm on 10 July 2008 - #37
HTMLeando said...

Thanks a lot Yahoo! Mail by offering 100% compliance of acid test. Email Developer network need same effort by Gmail and Outlook Teams

Posted 5:55 am on 16 July 2008 - #38
hair loss said...

It will be a really nice day when there is more uniformity across all mail software, programs and browsers. I develop websites and created design, and find it very frustrating dealing with so many different

Posted 5:18 pm on 16 July 2008 - #39

Uniformity in software, programs and browsers will never be a reality in my opinion. It is a good thing that Yahoo offers compliance now.
@ Online Psychic: I use both Gmail and Hotmail, just like you. Why should anyone want to start using a third email program?

Posted 8:12 pm on 16 July 2008 - #40
Oyun said...

Very impressed with the response from Yahoo. Lets hope Google play catch up but i guess we’ll have to wait and see....

Posted 3:54 am on 21 July 2008 - #41
Criss Angel said...

I want to go back to yahoo mail classic.Your new yahoo mail does not work.I thouhgt it was my computer,but iv’e been to three different computers, and it still wont let me delete my messages.It only lets me read them.I only tried it because you told me there were more advanages to having the new yahoo mail instead of the classic. So if you could just tell me how to get back into the classic version.It would be very helpful cause the go back to classic mail button in the top right hand of the screen wont even let me choose it. it keeps telling me error on page

Posted 3:56 am on 21 July 2008 - #42
dantel said...

Thanx you

Posted 2:48 am on 23 July 2008 - #43
oyun indir said...

thanx

Posted 2:55 am on 23 July 2008 - #44
oyun indir said...

thnx

Posted 2:59 am on 23 July 2008 - #45

I want to go back to yahoo mail classic.Your new yahoo mail does not work.I thouhgt it was my computer,but iv’e been to three different computers, and it still wont let me delete my messages.It only lets me read them

Posted 3:00 am on 23 July 2008 - #46

Thanks a lot Yahoo! Mail by offering 100% compliance of acid test. Email Developer network need same effort by Gmail and Outlook Teams

Posted 3:01 am on 23 July 2008 - #47
oyun indir said...

thanxxx

Posted 3:02 am on 30 July 2008 - #48

I want to go back to http://www.zhqyml.com.cn yahoo mail classic.Your new yahoo mail does not work.I thouhgt it was my computer,but iv’e been to three different computers, and it still wont let me delete my messages.It only lets me read them.I only tried it because you told me there were more advanages to having the new yahoo mail instead of the classic. So if you could just tell me http://www.fsqyml.com.cn how to get back into the classic version.It would be very helpful cause the go back to classic mail button in the top right hand of the screen wont even let me choose it. it keeps telling me error on page

Posted 12:18 pm on 04 August 2008 - #49
goedadvies said...

@handbags replica: Strange to read that you have problems with the new Yahoo mail. Most users of Yahoo that I know are very satisfied with the new email. The new Yahoo mail works very well for me as well.

Posted 8:32 pm on 04 August 2008 - #50
Voyance said...

It’s very interesting !

Posted 12:46 am on 21 August 2008 - #51

Nothing will prevent google from taking over this niche completely. They have the best UI, applications and let’s face it soon enough everyone will have an account so why not use it also for mail?!

Posted 8:49 am on 21 August 2008 - #52

Why not go back to yahoo mail classic? Or use GMAIL instead.

Posted 9:15 pm on 21 August 2008 - #53
Criss angel said...

Mortal Kombat 9 henüz resmi olarak duyurulmasa da bir çok oyun şirketi çıkacağından emin. Ancak bir çok oyun sever oyunun yeni versiyonunu 4 gözle bekliyor diyebilirim. Ve benim oynadığım ilk bilgisayar oyunu olması yüzünden Mortal Kombat 8’i sabırsızlıkla bekliyor olucam.

Posted 9:29 pm on 21 August 2008 - #54

trés interessant comme blog, merci

Posted 8:50 pm on 28 August 2008 - #55
Sexe porno said...

very mice !

Posted 8:17 pm on 29 August 2008 - #56
kktc said...

Thanks, i like it.

Regards.

De Manuel Pablo Kktc

Posted 8:01 pm on 02 September 2008 - #57

Very nice blog !!!!

Posted 8:42 pm on 03 September 2008 - #58

Yahoo needs to start worrying about how their spam filter is eons behind gmail instead of these stupid small issues. Giving unlimited storage is nothing when the majority of that will be for spam.

Posted 8:08 am on 04 September 2008 - #59
Funny sms said...

Yahoo! Mail Classic lacks a powerful plain text editor
Digital signatures and message encryption are not supported
Yahoo! Mail Classic does not thread messages and lacks virtual folders

Here are few benefits as well.
Yahoo! Go Mail brings rich and always up to date email to mobile phones
Yahoo! Mail Classic offers unlimited storage for free

Posted 5:58 pm on 08 September 2008 - #60

Reliability, storage space, security and precise spam filtering are the features you should look for in a free email service.

Yahoo! Mail Classic offers most of them

Posted 6:00 pm on 08 September 2008 - #61

I like this feature alot, Yahoo! PhotoMail, available for everyone, makes it easy to share photos from your computer, Yahoo! Photos and the web by storing full copies on Yahoo! servers while mailing only thumbnails

Posted 4:22 pm on 09 September 2008 - #62

Thank you for taking the time to publish this information very useful!

Posted 7:04 pm on 10 September 2008 - #63

Very pleased to read this article!

Posted 7:05 pm on 10 September 2008 - #64

Thanks very interesting post!

Posted 9:52 pm on 13 September 2008 - #65

i really like what you say about that.

Posted 1:49 am on 17 September 2008 - #66

Great post. Made sense in a lot of ways.!

Posted 1:22 am on 22 September 2008 - #67
voyance said...

Thanks very interesting post! Thanks

Posted 2:33 am on 24 September 2008 - #68
earth4energy said...

Meh, yahoo is got some serious catching up to do. Its technology is lacking.

Posted 6:14 am on 24 September 2008 - #69
Oyun indir said...

Uniformity in software, programs and browsers will never be a reality in my opinion. It is a good thing that Yahoo offers compliance now.
@ Online Psychic: I use both Gmail and Hotmail, just like you. Why should anyone want to start using a third email program?

Posted 6:42 pm on 24 September 2008 - #70

Thanks very interesting post! Thanks ..

Posted 6:44 pm on 24 September 2008 - #71

thanks..

Posted 8:27 pm on 25 September 2008 - #72

Didn’t know people still used long hand

Posted 9:04 am on 27 September 2008 - #73
Forex Killer said...

Very interesting information, great share

Posted 9:04 am on 27 September 2008 - #74

I much preferred Yahoo Classic. The new system strives to be too much and thus comes up short. Simplicity is better.

Posted 5:10 pm on 28 September 2008 - #75

Nice post, interesting read.

Posted 2:00 pm on 07 October 2008 - #76

Good post. Made a lot of sense!

Posted 5:56 am on 09 October 2008 - #77
Car Donation said...

Fabulous stuff.. Thanks a ton for putting this out.

Posted 9:13 pm on 09 October 2008 - #78
peyzaj said...

Think. Its important to have a support from The Bat. I use all: hotmail, yahoo, gmail - waiting for messages in web standards!

Posted 7:37 am on 15 October 2008 - #79

yangin Merdivenleri Kategorisindeki Firmalar, Firma Ekle | iskele kalıp dünyası..

Posted 7:45 am on 15 October 2008 - #80
chat room said...

Great post. Yahoo is evolving well in face of the challenge of Google and AOL!

Posted 1:24 am on 18 October 2008 - #81

Great information, hope yahoo can improve their mail and compete with gmail.

Posted 5:56 pm on 18 October 2008 - #82

Could you explain how you do the acid test? Then how did you discover that list-style-image was not working. Yahoo is a very professional company.

Posted 3:16 am on 21 October 2008 - #83

i prefer the long hand CSS. I guess in a way i just make things hard on my self that way. But, i can never remeber where exactly each property goes for the short hand. It is my own fault and things take a bit longe but atleast if i have to check the code i’ll know exactly what io am looking at.

Posted 4:42 am on 21 October 2008 - #84

i prefer long hand as well

Posted 4:43 am on 21 October 2008 - #85

Deri firmaları rehberi, iskele kalip dunyasi.. thanks a lot

Posted 8:19 am on 21 October 2008 - #86

Finally Yahoo jumps on board with the email designers! I just created some high quality free html email templates that render properly in Yahoo and 15 other email clients.

Posted 7:32 am on 24 October 2008 - #87
IS ILANLARI said...

Thanks. a lot. IS ILANLARI iskele kalip dunyasi is ilanı is ilanlari…

Posted 6:59 am on 01 November 2008 - #88
Mechanical said...

interesting, nice.

Posted 8:51 pm on 01 November 2008 - #89
franck said...

i’m agree with you !
very good job ;)

Posted 3:26 am on 02 November 2008 - #90

Yahoo! Go Mail brings rich and always up to date email to mobile phones
Yahoo! Mail Classic offers unlimited storage for free

Posted 6:36 pm on 03 November 2008 - #91
Voyance said...

I like yahoo :)
Good article !!

Posted 5:01 am on 04 November 2008 - #92
wow goold said...

92384 wow gold

Posted 7:40 pm on 06 November 2008 - #93

You can say what you want about yahoo but they have really put out a great product. Your article points to that fact. The primary draw to yahoo portals is their email. They really have to keep up with the trends or they will loose business. It truly is all about the email.

Patrick
Cheap Baseball Bats

Posted 8:01 am on 07 November 2008 - #94

I really like yahoo’s email service. i have been using it since the dawn of time. It will be sad to see them baught out by microsoft. Yahoo was a giant in its industry when microsoft was just a fledgling. Anyway, it is good to see that they are keeping up with important standards and reacting positively to criticism.

Mark
Digital Frames For Sale

Posted 8:04 am on 07 November 2008 - #95
horoscope said...

Yes i’confirme ! I speack on my blog voyance and voyance gratuite !

Posted 12:15 am on 08 November 2008 - #96
battery said...

thanks from power laptop batteries

Posted 8:59 pm on 10 November 2008 - #97
Pabodie said...

When I send the acid test email to my yahoo account via a mail service, it displays all content <center>-ed.

Posted 8:52 am on 12 November 2008 - #98
Lipodissolve said...

I have mixed feelings about Yahoo’s email service.  It has good and bad things about it.  Although I am probably biased because I don’t like yahoo in general.

Posted 5:33 am on 15 November 2008 - #99
inşaat said...

Thanks a lot..

inşaat
inşaat

Posted 8:22 am on 17 November 2008 - #100
Payday said...

Yahoo mail has been in use from time immemorial. Before the mail services that are popular now came, yahoo has been in service and is popular. It has been trusted by all. Though users get new id’s from other services, yahoo is still popular!

Posted 5:11 pm on 17 November 2008 - #101
Oyun indir said...

The primary draw to yahoo portals is their email.

Posted 4:33 am on 18 November 2008 - #102

Well, the Yahoo! team again puts their best foot forward and shows us they care about our initiative. They have remedied this bug in both the “classic” and “new” versions of Yahoo! Mail, offering 100% compliance of our acid test. Our hats off to you, Yahoo! Mail.

Posted 4:47 am on 18 November 2008 - #103
Paul Stieven said...

I have been using my MSN Hotmail acoount for ages, and I still do. Some years I ago I started to use Gmail too. From that day untill today, I prefer Gmail. It’s just the better product.

Posted 7:15 am on 18 November 2008 - #104
wow gold said...

frey frey d d d Thanks to everyone who emailed us about Mobile Me, including Georg Stadler and Stefan Kremer who both sent in screengrabs.

Posted 1:06 am on 20 November 2008 - #105
Site Ekle said...

Go Mail brings rich and always up to date email to mobile phones
Yahoo! Mail Classic offers unlimited storage for free

Posted 5:57 am on 20 November 2008 - #106

Thanks very interesting post! Thanks…
Tercüme bürosu yeminli çeviri.

Posted 5:22 am on 22 November 2008 - #107

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