Introducing the Yahoo! Mail Web Service (Yahoo! Developer Network Blog)

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YDN YDN Blog Introducing the Yahoo! Mail Web Service

Yahoo! Developer Network Blog

March 28, 2007

Introducing the Yahoo! Mail Web Service

At Yahoo!, we pride ourselves on helping people around the world (over 500 million of them!) connect and communicate with each other using the vast array of communications platforms we offer. Of those platforms, the most popular is Yahoo! Mail, with nearly 250 million users worldwide, making Yahoo! Mail the #1 email provider in the world. I've had a Yahoo! Mail account for years, and for me, Yahoo! Mail passes the proverbial "mom test" -- my mother is a loyal Yahoo! Mail user. Chances are that you use Yahoo! Mail to communicate with someone you care about, and we're proud that Yahoo! Mail continues to be integral to so many lives.

While we are certainly proud of the success of Yahoo! Mail, today we are announcing how we are going beyond the boundaries of the Yahoo! network and enabling developers to build new tools or applications around Yahoo! Mail. We are thrilled to announce the open availability of the Yahoo! Mail Web Service, web service for Yahoo! Mail (accessible via SOAP or JSON-RPC) that we previewed to Yahoo! Hack Day attendees. With the Yahoo! Mail Web Service, you can connect to the core mail platform to perform typical mailbox tasks for premium users such as list messages and folders, and compose and send messages (you can also build mail preview tools for free users with limited Web Service functionality). In other words, developers outside of Yahoo! can now build mail tools or applications on the same infrastructure we use to build the highly-scaled Yahoo! Mail service that serves nearly 250 million Yahoo! Mail users today -- users who might want to help you make some cash with your application.

Yes, cash. With this release, Yahoo! Mail Web Service developers can earn referral commissions by building compelling applications targeted at our premium email users. For a trial period, Yahoo! Mail is offering an incentive for developers to build applications using the full functionality available for premium Yahoo! Mail accounts. Specifically, Yahoo! Mail is currently providing a commission of $10.00 for every new Yahoo! Mail Plus account referred by approved developers. Read the Yahoo! Mail Web Service documentation for more details on how to participate. As the program evolves, we will continue to evaluate and consider additional business models for developers, ISVs, and partners. Let us know what you would like to see in the comments, or post to our suggestion board -- we're listening.

The Yahoo! Mail Web Service is a big release for Yahoo! and the Internet, and it's only the beginning of what you'll be seeing from Yahoo!. Jump into our code samples for Java, .NET, PHP, Perl and Python, and build your dream mail app today, then be sure to give us feedback on your experience so we can continue to make the API even better. Be sure to leverage the online Yahoo! Mail Web Service support group where you can get help from the Yahoo! Mail Web Service team and your fellow developers. We can't wait to see what applications you will build when you add your imagination to the platform. Maybe you want to build an application that backs up Yahoo! mail targeted at a large number of Yahoo! users, or maybe you just want to add a niche feature that makes Yahoo! Mail better for your mom. For inspiration, we've gathered a few applications:

Yahoo! Mail Search (Mail Plus)
Flickr Postcard
Yahoo! Mail with Flickr Image Association

You can show your applications to the world by adding them to the Yahoo! Developer Network Gallery under the Mail category. This is an exciting time for us at Yahoo! as we continue to push innovations like the Yahoo! Mail Web Service to the developer community. By offering a platform that is scalable, reliable, and already being used by nearly 250 million customers worldwide, we're enabling developers of all types to harness the massive power of the Yahoo! network and platform. We can't wait to see what you build on the world's #1 email platform!

You can watch a short screencast here (or download the full video) with Ryan Kennedy as he explains more about the Yahoo! Mail Web Service in detail:

To post this video on your web site, use the following embed code:

And Hack Day hacker Leah Culver demonstrates her Flickr Postcard hack which uses Yahoo! Mail Web Service too (full download here):

To post this video on your web site, use the following embed code:

Chad Dickerson, Head of Yahoo! Developer Network

Posted at March 28, 2007 2:00 PM | Permalink

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Comments

Try my threaded Yahoo! mail reader (read only)

http://web32309.mail.mud.yahoo.com/tapestry/

Nothing else works except for viewing mails & threading.

(thanks to Ryan for putting it up)

Posted by: t3rmin4t0r at March 29, 2007 3:10 AM

So does this all affect in any way the non-premium or the non-paying users of yahoo mail? Except for the unlimited storage in May.
Actually, right now I'd prefer Yahoo! Mail to provide the free users with support for e-mail programs.

Posted by: dmitri at March 29, 2007 3:54 AM

Unfortunately the Flickr postcard hack has nothing to do with using the Yahoo Web Mail Services. It is an exercise in javascript via greasemonkey. The code that actually uses the web service resides in a PHP form submission handler. No details about this script are included.
Please either include the PHP example code that actually uses the API or eliminate this non-example.

Posted by: Toady at March 29, 2007 8:46 AM

We have been talking about Yahoo! a lot over at Highbrid Nation. You gotta admit they have really stepped up thier game against Google. As these big companies battle it out, it just means better products for us :)

Posted by: Evorgleb at March 29, 2007 8:52 AM

We forgot to mention that the Flickr Postcard hack was a collaborative effort, and, though Tantek Celik was unable to join us in the screencast, he certainly deserves a mention here. Here's his blog post regarding the hack:

http://tantek.com/log/2006/10.html#d05t1826

"We were so relieved to have successfully finished and demonstrated a hack: our first Greasemonkey hack, first Flickr DOM walking/scraping, and first Yahoo Mail API app, that we just sat back and enjoyed watching the rest of the demos. But surprise surprise, our simple little hack was deemed worthy of 2nd place Yahoo Mail API hack!"

Posted by: Matt McAlister at March 29, 2007 11:00 AM

Here's a sample Rails app (and plugin!). The plugin wraps up BBAuth and the Mail API and is your's at http://richarddcrowley.org/blog/view/124 The sample app is really just a sample and currently only views your inbox. Once I snag a premium account I'll add full message viewing.

Posted by: Richard Crowley at April 3, 2007 7:48 AM

Can we create a yahoo e-mail account using Yahoo Mail Web Service or using nay other APIs?

Regards
Sanjay

Posted by: Sanjay at April 25, 2007 11:12 PM

No, that's not allowed. It would make abuse too easy.

Ryan Kennedy
Yahoo! Mail

Posted by: Ryan Kennedy at April 28, 2007 11:26 AM

Is it possible to use this API to serve more than one user simultaneously if I am using a server (3-tier) for handling my users mail? If its cookie based authentication, I suspect its not possible.

Thanks.

Posted by: Manohar at May 13, 2007 10:49 AM

Manohar:

I can't see any reason why that shouldn't work. I'm not sure why cookies would make this a problem for you. Can you be more specific about what wouldn't work?

Posted by: Jeremy Zawodny at May 14, 2007 11:31 AM

I can't tell whether the terms of use for the new Yahoo Mail Web Service
API would allow someone to develop a JavaMail provider that
allowed access to Yahoo Mail using the JavaMail API
(http://java.sun.com/products/javamail).

Could someone please explain whether this would be allowed
by your terms of use?

For example, in your terms:

1. You must use the Browser Based Authentication API to enable access to the user's Yahoo! account through your Application.
2. You may not use the Yahoo! Mail Web Service API to mine or scrape user data from the user's Yahoo! account.
3. You may not use the Yahoo! Mail Web Service API to recreate a mimicked version of Yahoo! Mail on your site.
4. You may not use the Yahoo! Mail Web Service API to display the user's Yahoo! account information in a third party email client.

Does "user data" and "account information" include the content of email
messages?

Thanks.

Posted by: Bill Shannon at May 14, 2007 11:38 AM

Bill...the TOS doesn't seem to be very clear there. I'll see what I can do to get that cleared up. The short answer is yes...it's fine to write a JavaMail provider for the Yahoo! Mail Web Service.

Posted by: Ryan Kennedy at May 15, 2007 10:13 AM

i wish yall would make the home page to where you can personalize it the way you want to. like adding your aviator, and stuff like you would on yahoo!360, etc... BUT!!! u guys are making yahoo! mail even more awsome! i have been with you guys since i was 16 and now im gunna be 21 n oct. so yall have improoved alot since ive been with you all.

Posted by: kathleen Taylor at June 18, 2007 10:12 AM

How can I retrive contacts as shown on screencast? I didn't see anything useful in documentation. :(

Posted by: 0cool at July 6, 2007 9:48 AM

Where did you see the list of contacts retrieved? The address book isn't available via the Yahoo! Mail Web Service.

Ryan Kennedy
Yahoo! Mail Web Service

Posted by: Ryan Kennedy at July 7, 2007 10:22 PM

I see from the above that the address book is not available via Yahoo Mail Web Service. Is is accessible via any other API, even in a limited form ? My app presents the user's name / phone number list aggregated from various services they configure. Have had a request to include Yahoo address book. Is that (or will it be) possible ? Thanks!
Dave.

Posted by: Dave Curley at July 19, 2007 4:45 AM

Dave, it's been brought up many times. I've been asked that question a few times a month since we released the mail web service. There is currently no web service for the address book. That being said, it would be silly to offer mail and then not offer address book. So my guess is that you'll see one offered by us eventually.

Posted by: Ryan Kennedy at July 21, 2007 8:27 PM

i cant seem to open my mail

Posted by: winkie at July 24, 2007 1:11 AM

i cant seem to open my mail

Posted by: Rakhi at July 24, 2007 1:12 PM

If all I want is a summary of the inbox and sent items, would that fall under item 2 (You may not use the Yahoo! Mail Web Service API to mine or scrape user data from the user's Yahoo! account) of the TOS? For example, if I want to loop through the emails and identify the sender, the recipients and the date on which the mail was sent and show the summary to the user, would that be a "mine or scrape user data from the user's Yahoo! account"?

Posted by: Ramesh at July 25, 2007 3:18 AM

We have been talking about Yahoo! a lot over at Highbrid Nation

Posted by: 三洋伺服 at August 12, 2007 2:52 AM

Hello,
I have implemented an application in ruby and one part of this is concerned to import my self contacts from yahoo! to convert them in my contacts in my application to create groups and share information, like a blog but personalized with my self contacts from yahoo mail
So my question is how can I have access to the Address book using APIs??

Posted by: Mauricio Chica Patiño at August 24, 2007 2:24 PM

whenever my friend from japan sends me mail using yahoo, she has some very colorfull background. I need to know how to get some of those too. Is it thats she's using a different yahoo?

Posted by: candy at November 27, 2007 1:50 PM

Does yahoo APIs allow programatic access to body of mail.I mean if I have one mail in my yahoo account.Can I access the body of mail through yahoo APIs.

Posted by: Pratik at December 16, 2007 10:13 PM

how did the author of 'tapestry' write that?

Posted by: Nathan Moos at March 9, 2008 3:09 PM

I have an email error pl do help me.

Posted by: badar at March 30, 2008 3:09 AM

Does there any other provision to read yahoo address book since it is not available from web service api?

amar

Posted by: amar at March 31, 2008 4:25 AM

I want to use my yahoo contacts in my own site . is there any provision for that?

Posted by: mani at March 31, 2008 10:39 PM

can i import my yahoo contacts to my own site using web service api?

Posted by: vmanikandan at March 31, 2008 10:43 PM

This is exactly what I was looking for developing the email stuff. I think with this much much resources could be saved for a small scale business.

Posted by: Keral Patel at June 4, 2008 9:59 PM

I am in bangkok on a radio HUTCH modem suoper slow, ( more than 1 hour to load 5oo ko )
Please remove me the norton Antivirus as quickly as you can, I asked many times all ready, it is urgent
many thanks joe

Posted by: Joe schott at September 25, 2008 9:04 PM

Excellent

Posted by: Sushant at October 7, 2008 3:47 AM

This is something that's cool to read about, and although it's not "new" news, for those of us who are meddling with coding as a hobby, open API's like this look to be a fun challenge.

Posted by: Rob at October 29, 2008 7:41 PM

My company has blocked accessing direct yahoo email viewing...Is there an alternative way I can check my emails on yahoo???

Posted by: Firoz at June 8, 2009 11:47 PM