Friday, November 2, 2007

Yahoo Mail Finding A Bigger Following Than Gmail

It's official; Gmail has moved from 1.0 Beta to 2.0. And guess what? Unless you are power user, I bet you didn't even notice anything changed!

I would consider myself to be tech-savvy and a power user (a common saying I seem to be using more often these days) and even I found it hard to find the true upgrade in features focused on in Gmail 2.0.

Honestly, someone please point out the features that could actually be 100% useful for an average user. Anyone? The user interface did not change to be more user friendly. The incorporation of other Google applications like Talk, Blogger or Reader really just remains in links at the top of the page. The contacts feature became a little easier to use but nothing outrageously revolutionary by any means. And the conversations feature is still the only thing that makes Gmail stand out.

Then we have the new Yahoo Mail. A completely new, Outlook-esque user interface. Complete incorporation between contacts and Yahoo Messenger and with this feature comes Yahoo Messenger embedded within the e-mail interface. Add in a decent RSS feeder and you have a more complete and easy to use service than anything Google is offering.

Gmail is defining itself as the online e-mail service meant for geeks, techies and all other power users, myself included. Yahoo, on the other hand, is enabling anyone from beginner to expert to utilize a more complete service. So power users versus the rest of the population. Which service is targeting a larger audience? Yahoo!

I love my Gmail account, but Yahoo is creating a wonderful product that is making me wish Google would just look at the competition and take some notes!

I could be wrong but I doubt it. Prove me wrong!

Have a great day!

4 comments:

esofthub said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
esofthub said...

I use Yahoo as my primary email because I like its easy to use features. Frankly speaking, I didn't even realize gmail upgraded. :|

Chris said...

Haha - yes I noticed the "Loading" font changed! What an update!

I use Gmail and have moved all my email to it. I must admit, compared to Yahoo mail, the Gmail interface is horrible. Interesting how they taking so long to provide the "export mail" feature.

Vichus Smith said...

I do like Yahoo mail, but Gmail is a good interface too. Why should Gmail just copy another design? BTW, Yahoo mail is just tabs put into e-mail. Where's the originality in that?

Oh, BTW, remember when we used to Yahoo? I think google has more things going for them than yahoo at the moment. Maybe yahoo mail is better, but who is to say that gmail will not be as neat as, or better than yahoo's interface by next year?