Yahoo! Mail Beta - Rich Web Application
Yahoo! Mail Beta really seems to have come through and delivered on almost every need I had for a web-based email client. To recount my earlier requirements:
- Check multiple POP3 accounts with one click
- Folders that can contain subfolders
- Send email from any of my five accounts
- Spam filter
- Message filters
Granted this is still a beta, so a few features don't work fully cross-browser. In Firefox, I can't use spell check yet-I guess I will live. At the end of this article you can view a number of screen shots of my Yahoo! Mail Beta account, and don't forget to sign up for the beta too. I can't guarantee you will get in as fast as I did since I have a Yahoo! Mail Plus account ($20 a year for no ads or tag lines, plus pop3 access for those who are interested), but once you do, I am sure you will love it.
If you read the iMarc Communiqué much you might know I tend to dislike AJAX heavy web sites for a number of reasons. Interestingly enough, none of these have been an issue while using Yahoo! Mail Beta. Most of it has to due with the nature of the site. Yahoo! Mail Beta is what I would call a rich web application. It is not a web site with some over-the-top AJAX functionality, it is an application that has been realized in a web browser because of AJAX. I don't ever try to hit the back button because the interface is so easy to use and intuitive that I don't need to. I have even once or twice forgotten that I am not using Mozilla Thunderbird (I still use it here at work). Almost everything is accessible in one click, and it uses tabs with great success. I would be hard pressed to name another site I use on a regular basis that is as transparent and easy to use as Yahoo! Mail Beta. In addition, I can not ever foresee wanting to bookmark an email since priority flags and search can fulfill that need much more efficiently. So maybe there is more hope for AJAX-based sites than I originally thought, or maybe Yahoo! Mail Beta just happens to the right fit for AJAX.
As promised, here is some eye candy for those waiting to get into the beta. You can click on the image for the full screen shot. Please also note that I did erase some information (like some of the folder names) from the screen shots for privacy.
The main interface, checking my mail
Composing a message
Dragging some messages into a folder
A nice, clean, customized right-click menu
The search interface
Comments
Yeah, I hated Gmail from day one. Conversation model? Lame. The labyrinth to delete messages? Lame. I used to say that Google was better at everything except for mail.
Then IM came along. I love Yahoo!'s IM client and can't stand Google's. You showed me this sick interface and once I'm hooked up I think I'm upgrading to full on mail like you have.
Most people forget about Yahoo!, but they're really good at giving you the features you want and making them easy to use (and by the way, you can hook right into your address book and such right through Yahoo! Messenger).
This sounds great. But I am curious as to why you want a web client? What do you see as the main value in using yahoo mail over os based program?
Well, first off, I like to be able to get at all of my mail from any location and not have it "stuck" on a single computer. I could grab one of those USB thumb drive versions of Thunderbird, however then I would always have to make sure that was with me and that I always used a Windows computer. With Yahoo web mail, I can check it from any computer that can go online.
Second, data security. I know there is no guarantee that Yahoo isn't going to lose my data, however I have had an account with them for at least five years and never lost anything. I am sure they have a more robust backup setup than I do at home. Speaking of which, I should probably work on my backup system. I lost ALL of my data last summer to a hard drive issue. It would be best if that didn't happen again.
i am trying to get my mail beta back but i pressed a botton on the sceen on accident, So i wanted to ask you how can i get it back?
Read something more recent.
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That looks sick - I just signed up for the beta list too.
Even though it's "beta" the UI looks a lot nicer that Gmail "beta".