YMail Beta Screenshots (Oddpost and Gmail too)

Today Yahoo!, who you may be familar with from their line of DVD players, just released the new beta of their webmail product. While they don’t come out and say so, is obviously the work of the OddPost team (who big Y! bought last year). Oddpost was a standout webmail company whose primary claim to [...]

Today Yahoo!, who you may be familar with from their line of DVD players, just released the new beta of their webmail product. While they don’t come out and say so, is obviously the work of the OddPost team (who big Y! bought last year).

Oddpost was a standout webmail company whose primary claim to fame was a super slick AJAX (but back in the old days of 2004, we didn’t call it that) interface. One big issue with OddPost was that it only worked with Internet Explorer (they were bought largely before the Firefox explosion had taken hold).

I thought it would be interesting to contrast the changes between OddPost and YMail! and threw in some comparative shots of GMail for the heck of it.

OddPost Main Window

Yahoo! Mail Main Window

GMail Main Window

Logo Comparison

Toolbar Comparison

Option-Click Comparison (OddPost, YMail!)

Yahoo! Ajax Search

Create Contact Screens

OddPost

Yahoo!

Google

WHAT TO DO NOW?

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94 Comments

  1. Hayo added these pithy words on September 15, 2005 | Permalink

    google wins

  2. SmartGuy added these pithy words on September 15, 2005 | Permalink

    Anyone who says Yahoo is not the best, has not used it. I have used all 3, and Yahoo blows them all away.

  3. CMHDave added these pithy words on September 15, 2005 | Permalink

    Gotta hand it to Yahoo, it’s a nice clean interface. I love my GMail but I have never been crazy about the interface. Function over form with Gmail.

  4. Tadpole added these pithy words on September 15, 2005 | Permalink

    Wow… I love google, but that’s rough… Thier interface is starting to look pretty clunky. I never heard of oddpost, but I will have to check it out.

  5. Irate added these pithy words on September 15, 2005 | Permalink

    Oddpost wins this bout. Googles asthetics are garbage and cheap looking. I like a little bling with something I spend a lot of time with. Hence I would venture to say that Inbox would kick the tar out of all of these.

  6. Raffi added these pithy words on September 15, 2005 | Permalink

    Are you kidding? Yahoo! Mail Beta looks slicker than any mail service to date. I can’t wait to either beta or run the final version!

  7. Kevin Rose added these pithy words on September 15, 2005 | Permalink

    I love Alex! ;)

  8. michelle added these pithy words on September 15, 2005 | Permalink

    i really like g-mail, the interface may not look like it’s so impressive, but the way that multiple replies to one e-mail stick together for one example, is a hugeeee selling point for me.

  9. w00kie added these pithy words on September 15, 2005 | Permalink

    Google always wins!

  10. Yeap added these pithy words on September 15, 2005 | Permalink

    Yeap must agree

  11. Shawn Honnick added these pithy words on September 15, 2005 | Permalink

    There was a contest?

  12. shakattack1056 added these pithy words on September 15, 2005 | Permalink

    second that

  13. Kamal added these pithy words on September 15, 2005 | Permalink

    Gmail looks much cleaner and it is powerful at the same time.

  14. stephen dolenc added these pithy words on September 15, 2005 | Permalink

    google just pwned the alternatives. Sorry yahoo.

  15. stephen dolenc added these pithy words on September 15, 2005 | Permalink

    I’m really looking forward to see what hotmail is going to do — both on storage improvement and the interface, but I think I’m going to stick with gmail anyway

  16. booya added these pithy words on September 15, 2005 | Permalink

    it looks like gmail is child’s play compared to the new yahoo.

  17. greg added these pithy words on September 15, 2005 | Permalink

    Gmail rocks. Yahoo blows. Give up already.

  18. Jim added these pithy words on September 15, 2005 | Permalink

    Anyone with pop3 wins. The cool thing about Gmail was that you could get some cool names that hadn’t already been registered 7 years ago.

    I dislike the Google web interface. It’s clunky, and I *like* having a folder paradigm for my mail.

  19. the virus added these pithy words on September 15, 2005 | Permalink

    google wins hands down

  20. clickwir added these pithy words on September 15, 2005 | Permalink

    Yup. Google for teh win. The others are better than before, sure…. but GMAIL is tons better.

  21. Stratus added these pithy words on September 15, 2005 | Permalink

    Yes, Google does win.

  22. Hiro added these pithy words on September 15, 2005 | Permalink

    Google is taking over the world. Die Microsoft

  23. kubedawg added these pithy words on September 15, 2005 | Permalink

    google wins, but i like yahoo’s toolbar better.

  24. Hayo_is_Dumb added these pithy words on September 15, 2005 | Permalink

    google email sucks. no one-click reply to all? please.

  25. Damien Benoit added these pithy words on September 15, 2005 | Permalink

    Google Wins for sure.

  26. McNamron added these pithy words on September 15, 2005 | Permalink

    I’ve always kind of used my Yahoo! account for junk e-mail, and never really gotten attached to Gmail, but the new Yahoo! screen caps look REAL nice; so I say Yahoo! wins.

  27. matt added these pithy words on September 15, 2005 | Permalink

    yeah … google wins … at horrible interface design

  28. Mark added these pithy words on September 15, 2005 | Permalink

    Google is definately starting to lose ground to YahooMail, the new beta looks really nice

  29. anthony de rosa added these pithy words on September 15, 2005 | Permalink

    yahoo wins, google is so overrated.

  30. derek added these pithy words on September 15, 2005 | Permalink

    Yahoo is trash…

    They love to show adds and ruin pages.

  31. Jibran Ilyas added these pithy words on September 15, 2005 | Permalink

    Yahoo wins this one in design. Outlook users will lean towards yahoo.

    p.s. why yahoo n google on FF and oddpost on IE?

  32. Appsbyaaron added these pithy words on September 15, 2005 | Permalink

    Still gonna use Google.

  33. n0ah added these pithy words on September 15, 2005 | Permalink

    I trust yahoo more.. for some reason.

    Although I use both Yahoo! and GMail.. I’ve been using Yahoo! since I was a wee one.. (10 years or so..)

  34. Yahoo added these pithy words on September 15, 2005 | Permalink

    Yahoo Wins!

  35. Nieton added these pithy words on September 15, 2005 | Permalink

    I would definately second that…it’s just so Awesome!!!

  36. Joe added these pithy words on September 15, 2005 | Permalink

    Google is the best. BTW I love Firefox.

  37. darren added these pithy words on September 15, 2005 | Permalink

    google is better, and i’m not just saying that because I have their e-mail. I just like what google’s done with it.

  38. Sam added these pithy words on September 15, 2005 | Permalink

    I vote for google as well. Clean and simple wins.

  39. Anthony added these pithy words on September 15, 2005 | Permalink

    By far, the beta version of Yahoo! wins in my opinion. You can’t beat the way Yahoo does things.

  40. loom001 added these pithy words on September 15, 2005 | Permalink

    If you are saying the google wins for being the most stripped down and feature lacking email Service out there today. Then you are correct.

    If you are saying they win because they have the best email service you are WAY off.

    Yahoo would have to win then. I love how blind google users are.

  41. Andrew added these pithy words on September 15, 2005 | Permalink

    see i love google, i mean really love google. but i think they should really redesign GMail… it frankly sucks, the idea of never throwing out email, i mean all that spam and shit is so annoying, having to archive it first, that’s at least the spam that get’s through the filters. YMail and OddPost look more functional than GMail… saddly… :’( please google do something!

  42. VoLCOF added these pithy words on September 15, 2005 | Permalink

    Just use gmail in outlook, for free.

  43. Alex added these pithy words on September 15, 2005 | Permalink

    Oddpost is looking very slick.

  44. luxuryluke added these pithy words on September 15, 2005 | Permalink

    My only complaint with Gmail is that they don’t interactively (nor efficiently) utilize the space of my browser window, especially when i have to resize the window. This, however, is probably still one of the hurdles of integrating a flavour of CSS that is fluid and ‘aware’ of the window size.
    It looks like Y! and Odd both do that, however… It’s a draw.

  45. Brian added these pithy words on September 15, 2005 | Permalink

    “google email sucks. no one-click reply to all? please.”

    Um… If you’re looking at a message with more than one recipient it’ll say “Reply to all” right next to where it says reply. It’s amazing how many people who responded just don’t know how to use their email program.

    I prefer Gmail purely for it’s conversation view. Great way to organize things. I also love being able to apply multiple labels to one message.

  46. TimmyTim added these pithy words on September 15, 2005 | Permalink

    Should have also included AIM Mail. The interface is surprisingly slick.

    (Or maybe also even the new Hotmail beta?)

  47. Dan added these pithy words on September 15, 2005 | Permalink

    I have used Yahoo, not all that great. Google is more straight to the point and has whst I need, without all the extra non sense.

  48. B Himself added these pithy words on September 15, 2005 | Permalink

    I use Thunderbird (AS ALL OF YOU SHOULD), so web interface means nothing to me. GMail wins with its infinity-billion-gigs of space. As soon as any gmail accounts reach 2 gigs, they’ll up it.

  49. Stratus added these pithy words on September 15, 2005 | Permalink

    # loom001 Says:
    September 15th, 2005 at 2:53 pm

    Yahoo would have to win then. I love how blind google users are.
    ——

    I love how overconfident Yahoo users are.
    Big head, small brains.

  50. Paul added these pithy words on September 15, 2005 | Permalink

    I have to admit, Yahoo! Mail has the best features of the three.

  51. Your Dad added these pithy words on September 15, 2005 | Permalink

    Google doesnt win…. their in the honey moon stage people just love them…. but they suck Google talk is a joke.

  52. Dyo added these pithy words on September 15, 2005 | Permalink

    I Say Let There Be Competition. The Better For Me. I Don’t Want Anybody To Win…I Just Want Innovation =)

  53. Chris added these pithy words on September 15, 2005 | Permalink

    I agree with Dyo. Also if I wanted my webmail too look like a desktop mail application, I would run one. I love the way GMail looks, and I don’t like the way its competition looks. Simplicity is beauty, and I am comfortable with my GMail account, very comfortable.

    Also, I like GTalk.

    Just an opinion.

  54. dustin added these pithy words on September 15, 2005 | Permalink

    I have a gmail account but I never use it, because I don’t like the layout of it, and I get almost as much space with my yahoo account. The new yahoo interface looks awesome, can’t wait for it to be finished. It kinda looks like outlook web access 2003, which is the best i’ve seen. way to go yahoo.

  55. mike added these pithy words on September 15, 2005 | Permalink

    I think it’s amazing that I can do ANYTHING in google using only keystrokes. They have very simple hotkeys for all functionality so i don’t even have to worry about right-clicking on anything. It makes e-mail way faster than i ever used in Microsoft Outlook Express, which is what the yahoo mail thing is completely based on

  56. mtdrew added these pithy words on September 15, 2005 | Permalink

    I agree with Dyo, rather then someone winning, having competition to have more innovation is better. It’s like when I run into people that are anti-Apple because it can’t game or whatnot…the more competition and the more new services that come out, even though they won’t always be the greatest, create so many more ideas and the end user profits from this with all these cool things to play with. Also, there won’t be one email service that serves everyone’s needs, no matter how great they get, people will like features of one that someone else won’t like and vice versa…that’s the beauty of competition and the internet.

  57. Adam added these pithy words on September 15, 2005 | Permalink

    GMail obviously loses this competition. Everything takes up more space is less functional. However, you can use it with POP3, which makes it infinitely better.

  58. Johnny added these pithy words on September 15, 2005 | Permalink

    Gmail still wins…Yahoo’s looks too cluttered, and you know that by the time it goes public they’ll have scattered banner ads all over it. it’s definitely an improvement over the old one..but still, nothing can touch gmail.

  59. Mike added these pithy words on September 15, 2005 | Permalink

    Gmail wins no contest I have over 2.5gB on my account. Plus the interface is much cleaner yahoo’s setup looks way to overcrowded with icons and buttons gmail is nice simple and clean and it has the most storage.
    -Digg or Die

  60. Matt added these pithy words on September 15, 2005 | Permalink

    The new yahoo interface is definitely an improvement over the old. It looks good, but it is a bit overcrowded. The Gmail interface is simple and fast. I like Gmail but I cant say I will stay with it forever. That’s what I said about yahoo, now look at me. I think Gmail/yahoo/so-on need a better way of keeping users with them…

  61. Ron added these pithy words on September 15, 2005 | Permalink

    Yahoo! Beta is the slickest yet. And it works on all my desktops, Windows and Unix. Its very intuitive very much like Outlook. Gmail action buttons are all over the place and is just confusing.

  62. Chris added these pithy words on September 15, 2005 | Permalink

    I have to say that Gmail wins. Even though I don’t like the “label” aspect instead of the folders, I will say that Gmail has less clutter. I mean seriosuly, why so many buttons for doing anything? Also how can you compete with the storage space? You can’t so with that alone it should win.

  63. Bobby added these pithy words on September 15, 2005 | Permalink

    gmail wins again

  64. Clackablog K7AAY added these pithy words on September 15, 2005 | Permalink

    Uhh… my blind ham buddies tell me they really appreciate Google; the simpler interface works much better for text-to-speech.

    As for me, I’m often out in the boonies at oh-dark-thirty trying to summon elementals…. err, uh, summon volunteer team members for an emergency response. They don’t have pagers, and sometimes they’re ordering pizza in EverCrack, Craigslisting, or whatever. Gmail works very nicely from my stripped down browser on my PalmPhone when I need to send a message to the team to get off the line and answer the calldown.

  65. Google added these pithy words on September 15, 2005 | Permalink

    Google is evil. Google ate my cat.

  66. nano added these pithy words on September 15, 2005 | Permalink

    Guess who will be the winner once Yahoo turns on the ads? Have you seen their current UI? It’s freakin’ OVERLOADED with ads.

    Also I like google’s “always growing” mailbox, message grouping and search features. So it’s google for me even now, even though Yahoo doesn’t show the ads yet.

  67. MaZa added these pithy words on September 15, 2005 | Permalink

    GMAIL > Good
    Hotmail > Evil
    Yahoo > Deceptive

    GMAIL WINS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  68. jason added these pithy words on September 15, 2005 | Permalink

    GOOGLE ALL THE WAY!!!

  69. bryan added these pithy words on September 15, 2005 | Permalink

    i’m all about minimalist and clean designs.. my choice: google.

  70. trevor added these pithy words on September 15, 2005 | Permalink

    googles the best

  71. Dazed added these pithy words on September 15, 2005 | Permalink

    Gmail wins, hands-down. But perhaps not because of it’s interface (which is not too bad), but because of a) space, and b) **FREE** and secure pop3/smtp access. And besides, if you pop your mail, the web server has no opportunity to a) scan your mail for keywords and b) display the ads. :)

    Gmail does need some improvements to the web interface, especially when it comes to deleting mass-quantities of mail (such as from high volume mailing lists).

  72. Jagged Edge added these pithy words on September 15, 2005 | Permalink

    Yea GMAIL WINS!!! wooo!! haha yea i use my yahoo account for junkmail and email confromations….as for gmail

  73. apple added these pithy words on September 15, 2005 | Permalink

    .mac mail wins.

  74. g added these pithy words on September 15, 2005 | Permalink

    g-mail wins. yahoo has a slower load time, too many ads.

  75. Nooon added these pithy words on September 16, 2005 | Permalink

    I’ll stick with GMail..

  76. Dave added these pithy words on September 16, 2005 | Permalink

    The Yahoo! one certainly looks like an improvement over it’s current version, but more buttons does not mean more better. The Yahoo! one seems like just another version of the same mail app. It’s outlook express with ajax. That’s all well and good, but that model doesn’t really work anymore considering how much email people get nowadays. Things like the conversation view and labels are what makes GMail awesome, even more that ajax (although the ajax stuff is nice).

  77. Ravi added these pithy words on September 16, 2005 | Permalink

    The real success for any website is rooted in its simplicity. People are drawn towards those websites that have a simple uncluttered interface and which lets you concentrate on reading or writing the message rather than the various advertisements sprinkled all over the page.

    One very good example of simple interface getting popular is del.icio.us (the bookmarking tool). And gmail’s USP is it runs text ads instead of images in the user interface which makes it less distracting while reading the message. This combined with keyboard shortcuts, huge space (2.5 GB and counting), tagging mails using labels, pop3 support, search support for your mails and a pleasant user interface makes it a winner in the web mail shoot out.
    –
    http://linuxhelp.blogspot.com

  78. Shrontzy added these pithy words on September 16, 2005 | Permalink

    Does it really matter? I mean come on try all three and pick the one that you like the most the only thing you’ll lose is time. And plus if you are already using one of the said services and you are happy with it then why change?

  79. googler added these pithy words on September 16, 2005 | Permalink

    Gmail is incredible! If you send and receive more than 40 emails a day, you realize just how great this webmail service is…
    I’ve used many many webmails; yahoo, hotmail, you name it, I have used it. Google was innovative, and made something like nothing else had.
    Give it up for Google, the soon to be ruler of the world!

  80. muarty added these pithy words on September 16, 2005 | Permalink

    gmail pwns!!! i hate yahoo and never used the other one but they cant beat gmail EVER! and i stick by my statement i will never change it!

  81. Stars added these pithy words on September 17, 2005 | Permalink

    Yahoo does blow them all away…right now yahoo has a slow response time but one this is in effect it will be faster or as fast as gmail

  82. Jerry added these pithy words on September 17, 2005 | Permalink

    Google is one-up,
    but Yahoo! is chasing.

  83. Ernesto added these pithy words on September 17, 2005 | Permalink

    What I’ll say is repetitive, but for the sake of making a balance (like a poll), I’ll give my opinion:

    Yahoo: cluttered interface, folders instead of labels (BAD), no conversations follow-up (BAD). Gets on my way while helping me out.

    Gmail: simple, uncluttered, encourages organization, labels, conversations instead of stand-alone emails. It’s out of the way but helping you out.

    AJAX is nice, and is good that Yahoo used it, but it’s not the big deal about Gmail. It’s the rest of it.

    I’ll keep both: Gmail my personal webmail, Yahoo for subscribing to web sites and all that.

  84. Kelly added these pithy words on September 18, 2005 | Permalink

    I use yahoo and Gmail, I like gmail for my personal e-mail…Yahoo is very spam prone

  85. Someone added these pithy words on June 10, 2006 | Permalink

    Completely agree with SmartGuy. Soooo many people say that Yahoo! sucks, just because they have never used/wanted to use it.

    The only problem with the mail beta is that they haven’t quite changed everything from oddpost to the way they want it.

  86. Someone added these pithy words on June 10, 2006 | Permalink

    Hey, Ernesto, your an idiot. You have probably never used Yahoo in your life. Plus it’s more than just a search engine and a free web based mail host. It’s more than google will ever be. So what if it doesn’t provide 2gb storage…do you even use all of that?!! If you do, you are even dumber.

  87. brownknight added these pithy words on June 15, 2006 | Permalink

    have been using yahoo ever since and am not using the beta for 2 months now. at the same time i just started using gmail for a month now. yahoomail really looks great and i love that i have 2 GB but the current problem is it’s too slow and have some problems loading some pages or images (well i guess because its still in the beta stage), on the otherhand, gmail doesnt look good but i have to say im starting to love gmail and have been using it now more often than yahoo. the replies bundled in 1 email is really very useful for me as well as the clean and uncluterred interface.

  88. goose added these pithy words on June 23, 2006 | Permalink

    Yahoo bought oddpost. so the new yahoo is based off of outpost, but upgrated. It looks nice. I wonder if google will “respond”.

  89. S. G. added these pithy words on July 3, 2006 | Permalink

    Although yahoo’s new mail system is nice, it just doesn’t have the personalized feel that gmail gives me. I can have pictures of the people that I am writing emails to, and it just feels better. But everyone has their own preference. At least we can all agree on one thing… Hotmail sucks.

  90. DLoc added these pithy words on July 12, 2006 | Permalink

    Yahoo lovers: compare Yahoo and Google’s Calendars, Google’s is much better and doesn’t look so clunky. Also with google, I can see conversations combined and also if you click on a contact it shows all the mail from that address right under it. Google makes it easy to organize my mail and now that I can delete mail it’s even better. One of my favorite features in gmail is how when you press spell check it highlights misspelled words and you can click on the word for suggestions, just like microsoft word. Also applying multiple lables is good. Yahoo has a much better home page, but as far as mail goes, google still looks down on the yahoo beta.

  91. Young Lee added these pithy words on July 20, 2006 | Permalink

    Yahoo! beta rocks! You need a invitation for google.

    Google Yahoo
    Style win
    spam win
    Simplicity win
    space win
    speed win
    Overall win

  92. Some Guy added these pithy words on October 14, 2007 | Permalink

    Yahoo Mail (beta?)–Great interface as always, but more attachment size is needed. 10MB is just not enough, it’s a complete joke. Also, they need to get rid of that premium service crap. Paying for 20MB of attachment space among other things? Get real. Overal: great look and product, but rather minimal service.

    GMail–interface totally sucks and is asolutley crappy. 20MB of attachment size is great. Plus all those dang labels really throws you off…it’s way too clunky and confusing. And why not just offer unlimited storage space. Yahoo and AOL/AIM do it, why not Google? Overall: crappy look and interface, but pretty generous service.

    AOL/AIM Mail–pretty nice interface, but not as good as Yahoo’s. 16MB of attachment space is good (although it seemed to have increased mysteriously for me). Overall: nice product and service, but still has alot of catching up to do or would fare great with a merger with one of the above mentioned.

  93. Matthew added these pithy words on June 30, 2008 | Permalink

    Gmail is the best web-based email ever, regardless of how Yahoo claims the Ymail is good in this and that.

    There is no need to compare Gmail to Ymail because Ymail is not even up to the par.

    Gmail user forever,
    Matt

  94. Seif K. added these pithy words on September 29, 2008 | Permalink

    YMail Supports iPhone push!!! So I’m close gmail and go to ymail and apple rules

6 Trackbacks

  1. Lucif4’s Evil Blog » Blog Archive » Yahoo! Mail Beta on September 15, 2005

    [...] See some comparison screenshots here. [...]

  2. TechZap on September 15, 2005

    [...] This article compares the new Yahoo Mail, Gmail, and Oddpost. [...]

  3. M1K3¥’s Blog » Blog Archive » Yahoo! finally stepping up to Google? on September 15, 2005

    [...] A good comparison of Google, Yahoo! and OddPost (which is the company Yahoo! bought, and whose IP they’ve used for this “new” look) [...]

  4. marjerine.homeip.net » Blog Archive » Yahoo! Mail vs GMail vs OddPost - Screen shot Shootout on September 16, 2005

    [...] read more | digg story [...]

  5. Toni Schneider’s Blog » Yahoo Mail Beta on September 16, 2005

    [...] The former Oddpost team and many people on the Yahoo Mail team have been working overtime to launch the new Yahoo Mail to public beta users this week. It’s very exciting to see such a high quality product launch to one of the biggest audiences on the web. You can sign up to try it here (not sure how long it will take to get an invite). In the meantime, there are lots of good reviews popping up. One of my favorites so far is by Paul Kedrosky (who seems quite unimpeachable when it comes to product opinions – make sure you click through, he’s got one of the best review opening lines I’ve seen in a while). [...]

  6. Yahoo Mail Beta « Toni’s Garage on April 28, 2007

    [...] Friday, September 16th, 2005 in Yahoo The former Oddpost team and many people on the Yahoo Mail team have been working overtime to launch the new Yahoo Mail to public beta users this week. It’s very exciting to see such a high quality product launch to one of the biggest audiences on the web. You can sign up to try it here (not sure how long it will take to get an invite). In the meantime, there are lots of good reviews popping up. One of my favorites so far is by Paul Kedrosky (who seems quite unimpeachable when it comes to product opinions – make sure you click through, he’s got one of the best review opening lines I’ve seen in a while). [...]

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