yahoo.com

WWW.Yahoo.com, the symbol of our digital times. Yahoo.com is probably one of the most well known services on the Internet. Various television advertising Campaigns have made it more famous than MSN Hotmail. The most recent was of which was a sponsorship of Channel Five Movies - the Gerbil thing… I am still struggling to work out the relevance of that.

Any way on we go… Firstly an introduction…

Yahoo.com is used by most primarily for two functions one is for the excellent free email service, and the second is the search engine on the home page (which incidentally is powered by http://www.google.com - see my review on google). Whilst being a huge site, it is still very easy to navigate; the main tool bar consists of just six carefully chosen icons. And even though it is surprisingly easy to navigate round, it does have something for everyone. I guarantee that there will be something of interest to you.

The Home Page…

Well as I mentioned above, all the navigation is done from here (using the six icon toolbar). Yahoo is split up into separate local “sub-yahoos” if you like, this can be very useful when you are sick and tired of having to sift through the oodles of details etc on the “.com” site which has little or no relevance to you because you only live in one country. Skipping between these local sites can be done via the list at the bottom of the page. Another feature included on the Yahoo Homepage is the Yahoo Search Engine…. The searches when carried out work in much the same way as the Google.com results - see my Google.com Review.

Below the six icon toolbar are, all the advanced and more detailed sections of yahoo can be found– They are as follows…

AUCTIONS….
Buy/sell/bid/etc, all the joys of an auction in the convenience of your home. Simply place a bid for the item of your choice and continue as you would in any auction.
AUTOS….
Similar to the Yahoo Auction in that you can buy and sell things although in this case the product being sold is Cars.
CLASSIFIEDS….
Well this is pretty self explanatory – Classified adds. People can place personal advertisements to sell things.
REAL ESTATE….
Buy and sell housing.
SHOPPING….
Online shopping – Just about everything you could ever want available over the net.
TRAVEL….
Online holidays, booking, Day trips, Places to go. Everything you will ever need to no when booking a holiday.
YELLOW PGS….
A section of yahoo not unsurprising that it works in exactly the same way as the yellow pages own website. This section of Yahoo is provided by the Yellow Pages.
FINANCE….
The stock market, insurance, banking, bill paying, loans and money management. A carefully planned and well-organised section of Yahoo.
NEWS….
All the latest news from around the Globe. Up to date and up to the minute news reports about events as they happen.
SPORTS….
Listings of Match Fixtures, Scores, news on different sports personalities. This page is currently at quite a high usage capacity due to the hype generated by the World Cup.
WEATHER….
The weather in your area. Or even the weather not in your area, its all here.

CARREERS….
This page functions in a similar way to the Job Centre. Employers post adds for employees, Qualification Courses can be found, different career paths looked at.
CHAT….
A multiplex of chat rooms for people of all ages. Chat rooms offer the function of a Microphone so you can talk to people in the chat room via your own Microphone.
GEOCITIES….
Build your own homepage. A web hosting service available to anyone who wants to build a website. If you are looking at a professional web host I suggest http://www.homestead.com.
GREETINGS….
Greetings Cards, send your friends comical greetings absolutely free, for a larger selection you might be better off to visit an e-car greeting website.
GROUPS/CLUBS….
This is the equivalent of the MSN Communities section. Share Photos, documents, jokes etc online.
MAIL….
The free email Service – see below for more details.
MEMBERS….
A section where you can meet/ find other yahoo members. View member profiles. Start discussions.
MESSENGER….
Download Yahoo Messenger free, Yahoo messenger is a simple IM service available to Yahoo Members. – Similar to MSN Messenger.
MOBILE….
Perchase Mobiles. Set up free text alerts. View the latest models. Check flight times with your phone, receive updates on the stock Market.
PERSONALS….
Personal advertisements set up by members, like a dating service without the middle man.
PEOPLE SEARCH….
A more advanced version of the member search.
PHOTOS….
Create your own online photo albums, post pictures of yourself and your entire family. Best of all its completely free, You do need your own account though.

The following sections are primarily for yahoo members…
ADRESS BOOK….
Keep the names, addresses, telephone numbers etc all stored safely in your Yahoo Address book, Names can be found quickly and easily due to the fact that they are all separated into alphabetical order.
BREIFCASE….
Save space on your home computer by storing documents etc onlne.
CALENDAR….
Set up your calendar preferences, then add dates and times as you wish, reminders are then sent directly to your inbox.
PAY DIRECT….
How to pay for the pay to use yahoo services.
MY YAHOO….
View yahoo’s content as you want to view it, check your emails. Everything can be viewed from this one single page. Another example of easy navigation.
GAMES….
The yahoo games section, again totally free, enables members to play games via a java applet. Games such as Pool, chess, and various card games are all part of this huge section.
HOROSCOPES….
Check your online Horoscope, see what the stars tell about your future.
KIDS….
The kids section of Yahoo, “Yahooligans” Jokes, games revision, Television, music, its all here, displayed in a uniquely colourful environment.
MOVIES….
What’s on at the cinema? Film listings and times. Film release dates. Screen shots. Behind the scenes look at the latest film releases.
MUSIC….
Music, artists, Radio, the charts.
TV Listings. Latest updates on what is happening in the soaps. Recent dramas.
MORE….
The equivalent of the yahoo index.

Ok, the free email service….
This in my opinion is so much better than the MSN Hotmail Email service. Luckily for yahoo, Hotmail is its main email competitor, and well, Hotmail doesn’t even come close to yahoo. Yahoo offers 6MB of free email space, enough to store hundreds of emails. Unlike Hotmail which offers a measly 2MB. The emails can be sorted into a variety of folders. Yahoo automatically sorts Spam emails into the “bulk mail” folder, and the rest go directly to your inbox. New folders can be created and emails from specific addresses forwarded to those folders. Emails can be sent out quickly and easy via the compose section. The yahoo address book can also be used in conjunction with the yahoo email service.

And there you have it. A small insight into the world that is Yahoo. My advice is go and have a look, for a more personal service, go and view the relevant sub yahoo category to your area, I promise you wont be disappointed. Signing up is quick and easy, and this site is great for teenagers. Hours and hours can be spent surfing this site. And with its endless array of things to do, I cannot believe it possible to get bored whilst on the net.

Thanks for reading, and please comment, All comments are gratefully received, good or bad.

Again many thanks and keep surfing.

Desolate Cash