Image via CrunchBase
All comments are my own and do not reflect the views of any other organization or person...(honest!)
Gmail
Gmail is an offering from the Google group and in my opinion provides some of the best email organization on the internet. Their pride and joy feature is the interface. Instead of having a threaded list of back and forth emails between you and a friend Messages can be places into labels (folders), started, deleted or forwarded as needed.
Gmail also has integrated IM in the form of G-talk in the GMail interface, and continues to add other functionality as well (such as integration with Docs & Spreadsheets). Gmail is also consistently fast, offering the most storage and free POP-in and POP-out, meaning you can use Gmail to access your other email accounts, or access GMail from whatever email client you use. I tend to forward all my POP email to my Gmail account so that I have a copy of mails when I am on the move. Much quicker than copying folders to my laptop.
Google's security includes spam, virus and phishing protection. All spam is filtered into a spam folder that allows you to separate the good from the bad, all incoming and outgoing messages are scanned for known viruses, and suspicious messages that look like phishing scams are flagged with a big red banner across the top of the message. In the last month my Gmail account has caught more than 300 spam messages and not having to deal with these manually is very useful. Checks on the spam box also show that little or now wanted message find there way in there, another big plus in my book. Gmail lets you report both spam and phishing attempts to Google.
One contentious issue with Gmail is that they do place subtle ads based on the text of your emails on the right hand side of the page, this has lead to complains about the security of the message. Google insists human eyes never see your messages and the work is done by bots that scan the email; however, if you feel uncomfortable with this arrangement consider one of the other providers.
Gmail leads the pack when it comes to additional mail/message features and extras. Gmail was the only service of the three that included an instant messenger program without an additional download. If one of your contacts is signed into their account, you can chat with them. If you both have webcams, Gmail is equipped with video chat software too. With Gmail's docs and spreadsheet feature allows you to post an editable document or spreadsheet online and access it from anywhere, similar to online storage. This feature is great for group projects at school or work, where all members of the team can access the same material. Gmail is also available in dozens of languages from Arabic to Vietnamese.
Gmail provides a plethora of extras. Looks out for Picasa for photos, the calendar for scheduling and the iGoogle customizable homepage with personal tabs and literally hundreds of widgets.
Yahoo Mail
Yahoo Mail is our second test, older than Gmail it has recently been completely revamped with a new UI allowing users to access other email accounts but only some POP features are only available on the paid account for a fee. Storage is on the low side - only 1 GB, which is much less than Gmail offers.
On the upside, Yahoo Mail offers an intuitive, Outlook-like interface. Instant Messaging and RSS integration is available. One slight problem I found with Yahoo is that despite being on Firefox platform, as a Linux user, Yahoo reported that it had not been tested on my system and offered me the classic Yahoo look, there didn't seem to be a way avoid this notification every visit.
Messages can be sorted by all manner of criteria. These include unread, sender, date, size and so on, while searching through your Inbox simply requires you to enter a few keywords. Emails can be flagged for follow-up and you can create filters and folders to help keep everything organised.
Junk Mail is handled well, I checked my account before starting this article and since the last visit – about three days ago, Yahoo had caught 80 spam messages and not unwanted had managed to sneak through. Anything that gets through is easily banished by selecting it and clicking the Spam button.
Windows Live Hotmail
Windows Live Hotmail gives you 5 GB (and growing) of online storage, fast search, solid security, POP access and an interface easy as a desktop email program. When it comes to organizing mail, Windows Live Hotmail does not go beyond folders (to saved searches and tags, for example), its spam filter could be more effective, and IMAP access to all online folders would be nice. You can send from other email addresses using Windows Live Hotmail and includes fast search and it accessible via POP in any email program . On the downside it lacks virtual folders and tags for message organization. No IMAP access is available at the moment. One nice feature which will keep your spam content down is the ability to accept mail only from people in your address book. In addition Hotmail does not automatically download images from unauthorized senders, which is a very useful feature in avoiding viruses. A reading pane, drag-and-drop ease and rich text editing lend Windows Live Hotmail a desktop-like handling. You can set up additional addresses to use in the From: line of mail you send with Windows Live Hotmail. MSN also provides access using various browsers and mobile devices.
However, while technically good, actual operation is less impressive, pages were slow to load and operation felt clunky, especially if you were not using Internet Explorer on a Windows XP/Vista platform. The standard spam filter could do with some improvement. You can report spam easily using a "Junk" button, but that does not seem to have much of an effect and spam in my inbox remained as frequent as always no matter what I did.
Calendar integration is a little odd and not connected to the rest of the functions, which is a shame. One user wrote: "I've been using windows live or MSN or Hotmail for years. Although parts of the mail service have improved, other parts fail. Because its free, they are now adding adds in the email pages. I get a lot of junk mail and take the time to block each one, yet they still appear in my inbox. One such spam will automatically launch a fake anti-virus scanner when I try to delete the message. I'm fed up and changing my email to Gmail. I do NOT recommend Windows live unless you can find a way to block the SPAM yourself, because windows live doesn't."
Other users reported problems with Hotmail and their hardware, now to be fair, this may not be the fault of MSN – another reviewer commented "I can't get Hotmail email to come up on my computer ... I only get error on page. I can't even find out how to contact them to send them an email about the problem. If you're considering a Hotmail email account, forget it and move on ... your stress level will thank you."
Results.
And the winner is....Gmail, at least for now its the winner. Yahoo is snapping at its heels in terms of functionality. The ability to find any mail using Google's search function is a big plus and if you use the label feature – which takes a little getting used to – you can reference emails easily, copy to multiple labels and find your message with a couple of words in the search panel!
Coming in second Live Mail would still need to seem some work, but on the plus side the UI is uncluttered and clean where it falls down for this reviewer is the integration with the rest of the Live suite. This is fine if you want it, but if all you are looking for a quick and simple email client, the extras can get annoying. For myself I would actually rate Hotmail higher than Yahoo simply because the interface is more streamlined, but some of the adverse comments from users are worth taking on board.
Yahoo mail while being good has a UI which is a little cluttered and not as well implemented as the Google version but it may suit others. I found it a sluggish and slow to respond. All three do what they say on the tin, but Gmail and Hotmail do it a little more elegantly.
So if you want a webmail client, consider Gmail as your first point of call, chances are you will want to use one of the other Google features at some time, so you may as well jump onboard.
See you in the virtual world folks...
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=d22db86d-b37e-4be1-a8b8-200b543c360b)
No comments:
Post a Comment