Are you ready for the state of the art, next generation email services which are very comparable to your desktop clients (Microsoft Outlook or its free brother Outlook Express or Mozilla's Thunderbird)? If yes, then you have few choices.
This review of three major free web-based email services will hopefully help you decide which one to go with.
We are talking about, Yahoo Mail Beta (YMB, an upgrade to your yahoo account), Gmail (web-based email service from Google) and Windows Live Mail Beta(WLMB, an upgrade to your existing Hotmail and MSN e-mail accounts).
We will evaluate them based on a set of parameters and see which one excels.
User Interface - Yahoo Mail Beta has probably the neatest interface which gives a non-cluttered look and feel. Their multi-tab view feature makes it very convenient for a user to stay on the same page.
Both Gmail and Windows Live mail lack this feature. Infact, Gmail has the most basic text interface and does not use icons which may help end users easily associate with actions like Reply, Forward, etc. [Winner: Yahoo]
Spam Controls - The spam control filters in Gmail and Yahoo Mail Beta seem to be more efficient than those in Windows Live Mail. But despite all the rules, all these services are found to mark genuine emails as spam so make sure that you check your spam folder at regular periods. [Winner: Gmail]
Storage Space - GMail offers more than 2 GB of storage space which is continuously increasing while Yahoo Mail Beta and Windows Live Mail both provide just 1 GB of storage space. All three email services let you send email attachments up to 10 MB in size. [Winner: GMail]
[If you want more space, try Lycos - it offers 3 GB of storage space and they have removed all restrictions on the email attachment size.]
Speed - In terms of response to user actions and speed of loading, Gmail's AJAX interface is the fastest and then comes Yahoo followed by Windows Live mail. Infact, the AJAX implementation of Windows Live Mail seems to have some bugs and many a times you get a message saying "Working on your request" but nothing really happens. [Winner: GMail]
Advertisements - Both Yahoo and Windows Live Mail have banner advertisements. Gmail has contextual advertising based on the content of your email. The ad placements are non-intrusive and sometimes even help in getting additional information. [Winner: GMail]
And here's a list of additional features that are found in one email service but missing in others:
» All email services provide support for sending email in rich text format thought Gmail does not have support emoticons and smileys.
» Windows Live Mail and Gmail let you send email using another email addresses but Yahoo Mail Beta does not.
» With Windows Live Mail, you can flag flag messages as "High Importance" and "Low Importance". Gmail has a similar feature where can star a message.
» Only GMail provides you POP access to access your email messages from a client like Outlook or Thunderbird.
» Only GMail lets you forward emails automatically to another email account.
» Yahoo, Gmail and Windows Live Mail integrate well with their corresponding messenger clients but Gmail provides their messenger even in their web-based email client.
» Yahoo and Windows Live Mail support folders but Gmail has taken a different route, it supports "labels". This allows end user to apply multiple tags to a single message. With folders you are restricted to putting messages in only one folder
» Google Mail can scan your email and automatically suggest events for adding to the Google Calendar. Yahoo Mail shows up any important events for current date from the Yahoo! calendar which is really useful.
» You can open Word/Excel documents received, as attachment, directly in GMail using Google Docs and Spreadsheets. Gmail also provides the ability to view PDF, Word or Excel spreadsheets as text HTML. This feature is useful on machines which do not have Microsoft Word/Excel/Acrobat Reader installed locally or the attachment is too large for downloading.
» Gmail provides a threaded view of the email correspondence, which allows user to keep track of entire conversation. The email conversation can be updated even while the message is open.
Final Thoughts - Although all three email providers have significantly spruced up the email offerings, Yahoo and Gmail are definitely better products.
Yahoo has the best interface - simple, elegant, very easy to use and resembles your desktop software. Like Outlook, you can preview message in the lower third pane without leaving the Inbox view. You can drag and drop messages into folders, messages open as tabs in the same window plus there's an integrated RSS reader that's connected to your MyYahoo! account. Very impressive overall.
Gmail has a simple no-frills interface but offers loads of storage, excellent search capabilities, seamless integration with Google Docs, POP access and powerful labels. This is for geeks and power users.
The author, Vikas Sah, is a Chemical Engineer from IIT Delhi and is currently based in US. He blogs at Technacular.com on technology and start-ups.
Reader Comments
I completely dis-agree with your assessment. The article is poorly researched and doesn't take into account the key-board short cuts/grease monkey extensions to gmail. Gmail is the choice for power users. Threaded conversation, pop3 access, automatic forwarding..the list goes on and on.
i would have expected better re-search from the author.
Written on 5/2/07 9:28 PM
A few points of clarification on your comparison:
1) You can send mail from other email addresses using Yahoo! Mail if you upgrade to Yahoo! Mail Plus (http://help.yahoo.com/help/us/mail/plus/plus-11.html).
2) Yahoo! Mail allows you POP access and mail forwarding if you have a Yahoo! Mail Plus account.
Otherwise, great writeup on the three major webmail providers.
Ryan Kennedy
Yahoo! Mail
Written on 5/2/07 10:28 PM
If you want to have forwarding, POP access from you Yahoo account, then create a yahoo id from any portal other than USA one. example@yahoo.co.in or example@yahoo.co.uk offers those features, while example@yahoo.com doesnot.
Infact UK Yahoo mail also allows you to import your emails from another email account; irrespective of service provider.
Written on 5/2/07 10:30 PM
Hmmm in my opinion Yahoo takes so long to load... It could take forever. I luv Gmail for its simplicity. Classy without effort.
Written on 5/2/07 10:35 PM
Yahoo does allow you to send from a different account.
Written on 5/2/07 11:02 PM
YAWN...
Written on 5/2/07 11:33 PM
always Yahoo rocks !
Written on 6/2/07 7:55 AM
Yes.. The article is very very poorly researched. In addition to GMail Keyboard shortcuts, it does not talk about the very very poor Spam filtering capabilities of Live mail.
Microsoft should be ashamed of this spam filter. A kid can surely write a better spam filter.
Written on 6/2/07 11:22 AM
1. As the other reader said, the spam filters at Live Mail is the worst ever.
2. Yahoo stops the system process for 5 - 10 secs when it loads in p4 2 ghtz, 512 mb RAM.
Written on 6/2/07 11:49 AM
Gmail scores the worst out of the three for mail delivery reliability :|. And this isn't just me. Has happened with me as well as others. Check out my post on gmail/gtalk bugs.
Written on 6/2/07 6:16 PM
MM yahoo mail can't even compare to Gmail. Gmail is the great for power users that simply want to use a email client, yahoo mail is loaded with too much junk which only make the ui slower for no real reason except looks, which at the end of the is useless for people like me that only want to use email. I great that when I get an email for an online order with the tracking number a link automatically appears to USPS, Fedex or UPS, if any address is listed on the email a link to it in google maps is also given, if dates are posted in the email a quick google calendar link is also included.
Gmail standalone is great, but there many, many great add ins out there that allow you to do so much more if you want. Gmail is simple and effective and thats way it's better than others.
Junk email filter!! yahoo's is a joke I get hundreds and hundreds on the in my inbox, but in my gmail account I get maybe couple a week if that.
Written on 6/2/07 8:07 PM
i totally agree with u
Written on 7/2/07 12:00 AM
1. yahoo filters are limited in number.
2. number POP3 access and reply from another email id is available in yahoo mail plus i.e not free
3. I guess.. Spams are the sponsors of Yahoo Mail. (Even in Yahoo Messenger you will get spams)
4. Yahoo mail takes more time to log in..
5. Integration of IM with mail only in Gmail.
6. Gmail has mobile application (you will love it, coz even from mobile itself word, excel, image files can be viewed) that can be used on any J2ME supported mobile. Yahoo Go! does not supports low end mobile phone e.g. Nokia 6020.
Read an interesting incident from my blog
In current scenario there is no comparison to GMail.
Written on 7/2/07 1:05 PM
I have never disagreed more with such an ill advised, short sighted and completely biased account.
How anyone can think that Yahoo is a superior mail system is beyond me. I have accounts with all three and in Yahoo, I have never been able to control the spam levels.
I believe that if you select items, and click 'spam' - this means to Yahoo, "I'd really like some more please, double my allocation!"
I cleared my yahoo inbox at 7am yesterday. By 9am, I had 328 new mails - none from anyone I know. I've had the account for 8 years.
With Windows Live, there is an easy to set filtration system where it automatically filters emails containing words I don't want to read about - viagra, XXX, medical, etc.
Also there are 2GB in Windows Live, not 1, so I have no idea where Vikas has received his information, because it is certainly not through using these systems.
Stick to Chem Eng buddy, at least you have a qualification in that!
MCM
Written on 20/2/07 5:14 PM
yahoo is way better, and now it has unlimited storage! plus their shortcuts match those from Outlook!
Written on 13/6/07 2:49 AM
I used to think that Yahoo!Mail Plus ($20/year) email service was a much better alternative than Gmail, but my opinion is now the opposite after my recent experience with Yahoo: they lost 6 continuous weeks of ALL the emails sent to AND from my account during 2006. I lost hundreds of emails, which I was informed were “corrupted”. I learned this after repeatedly reporting the problem to Yahoo Help (4 email exchanges on same topic with Yahoo’s “help” staff, all save the last resulted in the same false “problem solved” form-letter reply). The final insult was Yahoo’s proposed solution - that I contact the senders and recipients of my lost emails and ask them to send me a copy of each correspondence.
Written on 20/10/07 11:41 PM