December 3rd, 2008:

Your friend asked you to check out the email he sent you earlier. He said it was really interesting and hilarious. You excitedly went back to your house, turned-on your computer, and logged on to the Internet. After entering your username and password on the required fields, you suddenly see these words on your computer screen:

ACCOUNT DEACTIVATED: (WEBMAIL PROVIDER) ACCOUNT IS NO LONGER ACTIVE

Then, you ask yourself: “Why did my webmail provider deactivate my email account? Have I done something wrong?” Here are two of the reasons behind an email account’s surprising deactivation.

* Failing to log in for a long time

When you fail to check your emails for a substantially long period of time, your webmail provider will get the assumption that (for unknown reasons) you are no longer interested in using your email account. To save up on memory and space, your webmail provider will automatically deactivate your account after long months being ignored and unvisited. Although you still have the chance to reactivate your email account, you can no longer retrieve all the emails and contact information that were once stored in your account.

* Failing to pay email account charges

Not all email accounts are free. In fact, you are required to pay a fixed amount of money for simply using a premium email account. Failing to settle your financial obligations to your webmail provider is another possible reason for the deactivation of your account. If you still want to use your email account, then you have to pay your debt first before it gets reactivated.

So, which one is it?

When the word “customization” is mentioned in reference to your Yahoo! Mail account, the first thing that usually comes to mind is the color of the layout. “Customization” may also refer to the use of stationery, the insertion of emoticons, the addition of signatures, or the selection of fonts. The sad thing is that some of the more important features of Yahoo! Mail are usually left ignored. These features are those which are responsible not only for properly managing your emails, but also for thoroughly protecting your account. Here are some of the usually ignored (yet utterly important) features of Yahoo! Mail.

Protection from spam

Because they understand the growing need of protection against fraudulent spammers, the members of the Yahoo! Mail team have installed the SpamGuard anti-spam tool in your Yahoo! Mail account. All suspected spams are automatically moved to your Bulk Mail folder and are immediately deleted after a month. If you want to maximize your email’s protection against spam, then you should upgrade your account to Yahoo! Mail Plus to avail of the SpamGuard Plus.

Blocking of addresses

Another great feature of Yahoo! Mail is the Block Addresses mail option. In Block Addresses, you have the option to enter the email address of people from whom you don’t want to receive any email. All incoming emails from those who are included in your Block Addresses list will be automatically deleted from your inbox.

Filtering of emails

If you like to organize your emails into designated folders, then you should take advantage of the Filter feature in your Yahoo! Mail account. In Filter, you are given the chance to filter incoming emails into their designated folders by simply specifying the keywords to watch out for. The keywords will be searched in the incoming emails’ From header, To/CC header, subject, and body.

Who knew that waiting for the bus to arrive can be so entertaining? Well, that is the kind of reaction that the Gmail team was going for when it launched its Bus Stop Gmail theme: a comic-like theme showing what life is like at the bus stop. The common backdrop to the three versions of the Bus Stop features a green bench, a bus stop sign, and a garbage can. What makes the Bus Stop so special is its unique feature: it changes with the weather. So whether it is sunny or rainy in the city you live in, you can be sure that the weather is reflected on the Bus Stop.

Sunny day at the bus stop

The first version of the Bus Stop Gmail Theme features a sunny day at the bus stop. In this version, you will see that the sun is up (on the upper right side of screen) and the sky is blue. There are only two characters in this version: the little girl in pigtails who is balancing a tower of assorted-flavored ice cream and the young man in business suit who is experiencing a bad hair day with a scoop of ice cream on his head.

Cloudy day at the bus stop

Although it is still blue, the sky is evidently adorned with fluffy clouds that are pushing the sun farther away into the background. The two characters from the sunny version are still at the bus stop: the young man is impatiently staring at his watch while the little girl is happily riding a giraffe. An old man sitting on the green bench, a young jock wearing red sweatpants, and an old lady holding a black purse joins them in the scene.

Rainy day at the bus stop

It’s not always sunny at the bus stop. Sometimes, the rain pours down too. The five characters are not only waiting for the bus to arrive, but also trying their best to deal with the rain: the young man is covering his head with newspapers, the old man and the old lady are using parasols, the young jock is wearing a scuba suit, and the little girl is balancing a tower of umbrellas. A new character is added to this scene: a jacket-wearing black man with a pet bulldog.