An interesting thing happened while I was checking my Yahoo! Mail this morning. A little notification popped up telling me that I had an extra feature named “Applications” and asked if I would like to see the “Gallery”. So I had a look and it appears that Yahoo! has integrated some applications in the their Mail program. To my delight, as I was scanning the (short) list of apps, and the oh so familiar WordPress logo seemed to call right to me. Could it be? WordPress inside my Yahoo! Mail!?
I forged ahead with configuring the WordPress application and thought you might like to see the process. In fact, I am writing this entire post from within of my Yahoo! Mail client. I just tried to insert an image, which it will allow you to do, but you can only insert an image URL, not browse your machine and upload let’s say, a screenshot of Yahoo! and WordPress in action. Strike one. I am now writing from within my WordPress installation.
First things first. In the left side of your Yahoo! Mail page (assuming you’re using the “New” Yahoo! Mail), you will see a new section named Applications. Click the word Applications and you will be presented with the application Gallery.
WordPress in the Yahoo App. Gallery
After reading through the descriptions of the various apps, I eventually clicked Add next to WordPress and was presented with a standard legal agreement message.
Of course I agreed, it’s WordPress;) I then went back to the left side of my Yahoo! Mail screen and now saw WordPress listed under the Applications menu.
After clicking on WordPress, the Blog Settings screen appears and you are prompted to add your blog connection information. Please note that this will work for both WordPress.com and WordPress.org blogs (or self-hosted). There is one slight difference in the Blog URL that you will enter depending on what type of WordPress blog you’re connecting to.
If you’re connecting to a WordPress.com blog, simply enter the standard URL: http://example.com
If you’re connecting to a self hosted version of WordPress, enter the domain name and the path to the xmlrpc.php file. This is usually found in the root of your WordPress install. Look at the second screenshot below to see what I mean…
Yahoo! WordPress Blog Settings
Yahoo! WordPress Blog Settings (Self-Hosted)
Yaay! We’re connected. Let’s have a look at the Write Post panel. It pops up as an additional tab in your mail screen. You should notice a few things about the visual editor here. First, it’s not the same as the visual editor as in the normal WordPress dashboard. It has some limitations, but I didn’t feel like anything major was missing. That’s what I thought before trying to add an image.
As you can see below there is an Add Image icon, and you can add images, but as referenced above, you are required to add an image URL. I do not see any way to browse to an image on my local machine and upload. Not cool, and yes, it’s kind of a big deal as I use WordPress to create screenshot-laden posts just like this one. We’ll see what happens in the coming weeks, maybe this feature is just over the horizon.
Yahoo! WordPress Write Tab
There was another little feature that caught my eye on the bottom of the Write Post tab as seen in the screenshot below. You can drag an email from your inbox to the WordPress app in the Yahoo! Mail sidebar to blog it. I can’t think of a time I would need this, but it seems like a pretty slick little option.
I wonder what happens if the email has images attached?
Yahoo! WordPress Tags and Email Post Options
This looks like a great start to using WordPress inside Yahoo! Mail, and I would definately use this if I could upload images. I have Mail open all day long and this is a welcome addition. However, there are many questions and room for improvement.
- Please let me upload images!
- Are Drafts being saved as they are in the Dashboard?
- What about categories? Didn’t see that option. Although tags are possible?
- How about multiple blog connections?
Can you think of anything else that should be included? We’d all love to hear your thoughts!
21 Comments
Can I do this in Linux Computer? Is it use any Windows Software?
I just have so much trouble with yahoo mail all the time that I barely use it nowadays. I think I might give it a try again since it seems like this might be a pretty useful feature.
This is from within your web browser. Operating system doesn’t matter.
I understand your frustration with Yahoo. I have had my share of ups and downs with them as well, but they finally seem to be adding some very nice features to Mail. I’m glad I’ve stayed with them so far:)
Inspite of the fact that you couldn’t upload images, I believe this is a pretty nifty feature Yahoo has added. I am sure social networks will be next in adding it (linkedin already has).
BTW, I see a magnolia link in your ’social buttons’. Didn’t they go down after loosing all the data? You should probably remove the button and save some real estate.
Wow. Just checked it out to confirm. Thanks for making me aware of this:) I just removed the link!
Look forward to reading more from you in the future. Join us in Facebook page and disscuss more. It is all about stop dreaming and start action.
Very useful,this is what i am look for. Thank you.
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I’m trying to imagine a time when I would need to use my Yahoo mail account to write my blog posts. It seems like if you are at a computer and able to log into Yahoo mail, then you are also able to log in to Wordpress. I think it would probably only be useful for the feature that you noted but didn’t try… publishing an email by dragging and dropping it into the WP application. It would theoretically save a little time rather than copying and making sure the formatting was right in WP. I’ve blogged about emails that I’ve received in my San Diego real estate business from time to time. And I agree with you that it would be nice to be able to upload images. Rarely do I include an image in my blog post that is already on the website or blog. Thanks for pointing out another very interesting WP app.
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Hi Geoffrey,
Thanks for the comment, and I think you’re right. There are very limited moments when writing a post in Yahoo mail would be a valid alternative to writing from directly within WordPress. Seems like too little too late from Yahoo doesn’t it?
Is the application no longer working? I had it installed and then it went away! Anyone have an answer???
Thanks,
Jessica
Wow Jessica, you’re right! I just checked and I still get the WordPress name and logo listed under applications, but just to the right of it is the “revoked”. If I hover it tells me that “this application has been removed by the developer”.
Strange indeed, I wonder what’s going on? Thanks for the heads up:)
WordPress can be configured to use e-mail to post to a blog. To enable this functionality, you need to:
Create a dedicated e-mail account to be used solely for posting to your blog,
Configure WordPress to access that account, and
Configure WordPress to publish messages from the e-mail account
Car Transportation
apparently its still not workin anyone know whats up with this?
hello, i’m still trying to know how to use wordpress.
i wanted to upload a video from yahoo.
is it possible?
thankz for the info by the way.
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Hi chLy,
Do you mean embed a video from Yahoo? Also, are you using wordpress.com or do you have you’re own hosted version of WordPress?
hi mr Adam W. Warner,
ah yes, i mean embed.. i wanted to post a video in my wordpress from yahoo or from other sites. (not youtube). i do not know how to do it..TT
Hello everybody… here i`m at india .,. and i cant find any of the wordpress application in my yahoo mail even i changed my timezone to US .. can u any body tell me what can i do for getting the yahoo wordpress application in my yahoo mail ….. please
Hi Simon,
It looks like this was removed shortly after it appeared. See the comment above.
Seems like a pretty neat feature for Yahoo Mail. I was wondering if there’s a way to make WP posts by simply inserting a few records into the db using a mysql query? That would be awesome, as posting can then be automated.