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
Google doesnt win…. their in the honey moon stage people just love them…. but they suck Google talk is a joke.
I Say Let There Be Competition. The Better For Me. I Don’t Want Anybody To Win…I Just Want Innovation =)
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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
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…
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.
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.
gmail wins again
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.
Google is evil. Google ate my cat.
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.
GMAIL > Good
Hotmail > Evil
Yahoo > Deceptive
GMAIL WINS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
GOOGLE ALL THE WAY!!!
i’m all about minimalist and clean designs.. my choice: google.
googles the best
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).
Yea GMAIL WINS!!! wooo!! haha yea i use my yahoo account for junkmail and email confromations….as for gmail
.mac mail wins.
g-mail wins. yahoo has a slower load time, too many ads.
I’ll stick with GMail..
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).
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.
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http://linuxhelp.blogspot.com
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?
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!
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!
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
Google is one-up,
but Yahoo! is chasing.
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.
I use yahoo and Gmail, I like gmail for my personal e-mail…Yahoo is very spam prone
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.
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.
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.
Yahoo bought oddpost. so the new yahoo is based off of outpost, but upgrated. It looks nice. I wonder if google will “respond”.
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.
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.
Yahoo! beta rocks! You need a invitation for google.
Google Yahoo
Style win
spam win
Simplicity win
space win
speed win
Overall win
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.
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
YMail Supports iPhone push!!! So I’m close gmail and go to ymail and apple rules