14 DAY TRIAL // Everyone, pay attention! If you don’t update and upgrade your web browser, Yahoo will force you to use the old Mail version starting next month.
This is incredibly funny considering just how many people hate the new Yahoo Mail anyway and how many have just resigned themselves to using the Basic version on a daily basis.
“The Yahoo Mail team strives to provide the best and safest inbox to our users. But to do this effectively, we are dependent on the frequent and important advances in the web browser. Whether it is security, speed or functionality, there have been countless key improvements in the past few years,” writes Yahoo’s Senior Vice President for Communication Products, Jeff Bonforte.
That being said, starting with June 5, Yahoo Mail will be updating its supported web browser policy to cover only the two most recent versions of Firefox, Internet Explorer, Chrome and Safari. Users who cannot perform the update or simply refuse to do so will be automatically switched by Yahoo from the full-featured version of Yahoo Mail to Basic Mail.
Not sure if you’re going to be affected by the change? Well, Yahoo Mail users will start seeing notifications with instructions on how to upgrade their browsers. The company states that the largest group of users affected by the updated policy is still running Internet Explorer 8, a browser that was launched five years ago.
“We understand that this policy update may be frustrating for some affected users. We appreciate their help in upgrading their browser and hope that the subsequent improvements in security, speed and functionality not just in Yahoo Mail but across their entire web experience will be welcomed. And we are happy that going forward these current version browsers include ‘auto-updating,’ so users get the safest and most current browser without the hassle of manually upgrading,” Bonforte explained.
Truth be told, leaving the controversy surrounding the quality of Yahoo Mail aside, it is important, from a security point of view, to upgrade the browser to include the latest protections. To add to the problem, Yahoo has been one of the most affected platforms when Heartbleed was unveiled and it took the company quite a while to make sure everything was patched up again.
The new Yahoo Mail was rolled out with little notice of users’ demands and has been a disaster since launch. While some of the features that users considered essential were returned to the service several months after the initial release, users continue to be irritated with the Internet giant.
Nowadays, aside from the extreme hate that some people have towards the new Mail version, more pressing issues are related to the service stability, which is rocky at best. Some people haven’t been able to connect to their accounts in a long time, as Softpedia readers have complained.