Connecting With Others
| What Are... | Adding Connections | Acting on Connection Suggestions | Responding to Connection Invitations | Viewing a Connection’s Profile | Removing Connections |
What Are Connections and Why Do I Want Them?
Connections are contacts with privileged benefits. They’re the people you spend the most online time with and the people you care most about sharing information with. Connections can view more information on each other's profiles than is visible to the general public and can easily share information through Updates.
You send and receive invitations to connect. Once you send invitations, you begin to receive each person’s public Updates (they don’t receive yours unless they send you an invitation or accept your invitation). When you’re connected (invitations are accepted), you can easily view and converse with your connections, and, equally important, keep on top of what your connections are doing through more personal Updates and learn of changes to their contact information.
Connecting Safely
Remember that your connections should be the people with whom you feel most comfortable sharing personal information. This means that you should only connect with folks you really know, not with people you’ve barely met. Even with people you know, be thoughtful about the information, messages, and images that you share. Are they really things you want all your connections to see?
You should also feel free to break a connection with any user at any time if you feel uncomfortable. See Removing Connections for more information.
What’s Next
Can visitors to my profile see my connections?
Your profile on Yahoo! displays up to eight of your connections in the Connections area of the page. When your connections visit your profile, they see these connections in the same area and can view all of your connections by clicking the View All link.
Visitors to your profile who aren’t connected to you never see your connections.
What’s the difference between Getting Updates and Connecting?
Nothing! In Yahoo! Mail, you "Get Updates" from your friends. When you start that process, an invitation is sent and you immediately begin receiving public Updates that the person might be sharing with anyone. If the person accepts your invitation, you’re connected and you begin sharing more privileged information. Getting Updates is the same as connecting.
Words to Know
- Contact: a person with whom you interact; someone to whom you might want to send an email, instant message, or text message.
- Updates: brief messages about profile changes and other activities on Yahoo! that are can be shared with your connections or everyone.