With all due apologies to the Googlemaniacs out there, I do believe Yahoo has outdone Google and Gmail with the latest beta rev of its e-mail application. Moreover, Microsoft may just have a little more reason to worry about its e-mail market share.
Notably, Yahoo's new e-mail interface looks remarkably like that of Microsoft Outlook, but hey, Microsoft's new Live search engine looks a lot like Google's. Let's just chalk that near-emulation up to the highest form of flattery, like Homer Simpson's similarities to Fred Flinstone (who bears resemblances to Ralph Kramden from "The Honeymooners".)
So here are some of my first impressions on the refurbished e-mail interface. I like how Yahoo has injected drag-and-drop simplicity to e-mail sorting, which is handy, and something you don't see in Gmail. You also can drag an e-mail over the Contacts icon on the Outlookish left-side toolbar to add the sender to your address book. Also convenient.
Perhaps more interesting in terms of potential: Yahoo has better integrated its calendar with its e-mail. The link to the calendar is also in the left-hand toolbar, making it one click away.
Now, unlike with Outlook, you can't drag an e-mail over to the Calendar icon to automatically create a new Calendar entry (yet?). Also, clicking the Calendar button opens a new browser window, and the Yahoo Calendar hasn't changed much. Again, at least not yet. Yahoo spokesperson Karen Mahon tells me (via e-mail) that the calendar is still in its first rev and changes will emerge in coming months. She wasn't any more specific. ("We are planning some exciting new features but we don't want to spoil the surprise. We hope to make the product generally available in the coming months." Aw! Thanks, Karen. I do love surprises! ;-) )
Yahoo also added a Notebook tool to left-hand toolbar, and a tool for adding RSS feeds. Other neat features include tabs for sorting through multiple e-mails; search tools for finding words in e-mail body, subject, and header; the ability to view a map of a meeting or event location within the calendar timeline. And it's still free.
So what could this all mean? Well, as Microsoft has chased Google on the search front, Google has made a clear play to challenge Microsoft in the e-mail/communications space with its release of Google Apps for Your Domain last month, which comprises Gmail, Google Talk, Google Calendar, and Google Page Creator -- as well as an administrative interface for managing users. The target is small organizations, though Google also has plans for a product aimed at larger companies.
The tools in that Google package, however, don't have much in the way of slick interoperability between, say, the e-mail and calendar, and nor slick drag-and-drop tools.
Then again, Google's a step ahead in terms of the central management features, plus it offers Writely and Google Spreadsheets, potential additions to a Web-based Office rival.
Now Yahoo may not have as many apps to offer, but it's done a very nice job with e-mail, and there's clear potential for a rich e-mail/collaboration/calender package here. Perhaps Yahoo is poised to follow the same path as Google toward challenging Microsoft's e-mail dominance. Mahon wouldn't comment on it, saying only, "We don't have any specific plans that we can share at this time."
Maybe she didn't want to ruin the surprise?
Posted by Ted Samson on September 14, 2006 12:10 PM
