Yahoo! Mail Beta - Rich Web Application
by Will Bond - January 4, 2006 / 4:35pm View more articles
After sitting on the Yahoo! Mail Beta waiting list for about two months, I was finally given access just before Christmas. I had been highly looking forward to this since earlier this summer I made the change from an OS email client (Mozilla Thunderbird) to a web client. I didn't want to just switch to a single web email account, I wanted to check all of my five pop3 accounts through a single web mail interface. In an earlier communiqué I expressed my frustration in finding a web mail client (even one with a yearly fee) that fulfilled all of my needs. One of my other early communiqués was a critique of the hype surrounding AJAX and its real usefulness on the web. This communiqué will cover both of these topics in relation to Yahoo! Mail Beta.
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:
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
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
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5 Comments
Even though it's "beta" the UI looks a lot nicer that Gmail "beta".
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).
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.