Labs

Yahoo! Mail provides unlimited storage, so even if you receive lots of messages with large attachments, you needn't worry about an overflowing inbox. As with all the services on test, however, Yahoo! Mail imposes a maximum size for attachments. This is currently 10MB per email, rising to 20MB with the Yahoo! Plus service. As with other services here, Yahoo! inserts a small advert at the bottom of all sent mail unless you pay for the Yahoo! Plus service.

Yahoo!'s interface is similar to Hotmail's. It includes

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drag-and-drop email management and folders to catalogue your messages. Each element of the interface is fixed relative to the browser window, so you don't lose sight of the important controls when you scroll down a message. There's a decent-sized preview pane below the inbox but, unlike the Inbox preview pane, this doesn't prevent you viewing all your email information easily.

Although there's no dedicated storage space or photo-sharing utility, Yahoo!'s Calendar, contacts and notes tools are well executed and integrate well with the main application. All the services here allow you to import and export contacts lists in .cvs format, but Yahoo! lets you sync the address book, calendar and notes tools with Outlook or Palm Desktop. This could prove invaluable if you rely on Outlook to manage your working life, particularly if you are often away from the office.

There's little difference between the Yahoo! and Hotmail services. If you want close integration with Outlook, Yahoo! is the best option, but if you want separate file and photo storage, Hotmail is the better choice.