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Yahoo vs. Gmail

I love Google, and use it as much as possible: Gmail, Google+ (although I seem to be one of the only ones), Docs, Maps, Picassa, etc.  And except for my non-upgraded-slowly-dying computer at work that isn’t modern enough to support any Google features, I’ve never had any problems with any of their products.

Except one tiny, easily overlookable, glaring problem – I can’t send emails to Yahoo accounts.  I noticed this a couple years ago – I sent a few emails and the recipients never responded to them.  A month later I asked them about it, and they said they never got them.  So I switched to other forms of contact – mainly Facebook – and didn’t worry about it.

Until last week, when I was checking my submissions on Duotrope and noticed that a story that should’ve gotten a response within a month had been sitting for almost five.  I went to send a query and noticed that the publisher’s email had changed, from a Yahoo account to one on their own server.

Sure enough, the editor’s response was that they’d never received my initial submission.

Turns out I’m not the only one with this problem; according to a quick Google search, Yahoo and Gmail routinely block each others’ emails.

So, morals of the story:

  1. Yahoo sucks.  Don’t use it; switch to Gmail instead.
  2. If you don’t hear back about a submission, don’t necessarily assume the editors are ignoring you; it’s possible they never even got it in the first place.
  3. I guess if possible, submit to publications that use the same email server as you, or Submishmash.  Because you never know when the internet gods will strike.

Have you ever had this happen to you?

1 Comment

  1. Wow. That would drive me crazy. Fortunately, I don’t believe this has ever happened to me, but seriously, those two should stop feuding. *rolls eyes*

    I use Comcast and Yahoo email accounts depending on what I’m sending and who to. I’ll have to keep an eye on this.

    Thanks for the heads-up.

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