I use yahoo a lot. I have several e-mail accounts which are free. They are good for getting your junk mail or if you belong to something that you want just that mail to be in the mailbox such as a club or group.
Although the mail service is free (you can buy more space)you must keep check of it or you will go over the mail quota and if not taken care of fairly soon you will lose your account.
Basically the e-mail is okay. You can use stationery and little smiley faces to brighten up the mails. However if your looking for your mail in a hurry don’t hold your breath. It is very slow.
I use yahoo groups for various things I am interested in and all the messages are by e-mail. Sometimes they come through fast and an actual chat can take place and other times posts will show up hours and even days later. This happens more and more often. The service is free so no need complaining about it but it is a pain at time.
Then yahoo has a homepage I like. You can check your mail from their, your groups, news, play games, darn near anything you can think of. I don’t usually have a problem loading this page at least and for a long time it was set as my homepage.
Of course there is the yahoo messenger also which of all the chat programs is my favorite. You can log in and stay invisible if you like so you can pick just those you wish to talk to. You can also talk outloud rather than type if you wish and even see each other on camera which is great for families that live far apart. If you are a woman be aware there are some perverts on there that want to do other things with the camera which I have found on other sites as well.
Then of course there are chat rooms. Been in a few to check them out and usually they are pick up places from what I can see with very harsh language and not my type of place.
So if you dont mind slow on some things than its yahoo, yahell if you do mind. Never had a problem with the messenger or being able to log on and if someone is not there you want to message you can leave one for them and they can see it the next time they are online.