Yahoo Email Delivers That Desktop Feel Most Users Expect
Web-based email programs, like Yahoo Mail, have long been inferior to email programs that take the form of standard applications installed on your computer. The Web offerings have been short on features, short on email storage and clumsy to use.
Lately, however, that has begun to change. A number of major Web-mail providers have introduced versions that offer much more of the ease of use and power of desktop email programs like Microsoft Outlook. Yet they still retain the core advantage of Web-mail services: They can be accessed from any computer, Windows or Mac, with your settings and preferences always present. All you need is an Internet connection and a Web browser.
Google kicked off the trend last year with Gmail, which for the first time offered to store, free, a huge volume of old email messages -- 1 gigabyte, which was raised to 2 gigabytes or more. Other Web players boosted their free storage limits.
Now, the Web-mail competition has taken a new turn, going beyond storage. Yahoo, EarthLink and AOL all have recently introduced versions that lift their functionality well beyond the old model of Web mail. All are using new programming techniques that turn them from simple Web pages into something resembling the fluidity of desktop applications.
For instance, these new email offerings allow you to drag and drop items, and do most things without waiting for a Web page to refresh or a new page to open. That's a big change from the old system, where any significant action was performed in circuitous ways and required the Web page containing the email program to tediously reload.
This is a major breakthrough, and one that will extend beyond Web mail. More Web sites will be revamped to look and work like regular desktop programs, hastening the day when most applications may reside online.
I've been comparing the new version of Yahoo Mail, which claims to be the leader in Web mail, with Gmail, the challenger Yahoo most fears. My verdict: The new Yahoo Mail is far superior to Gmail. Yahoo more closely matches the desktop experience most serious email users have come to expect. Gmail, by contrast, is quirky and limited. Its only advantage is its massive free storage, which exceeds what most people will ever need.
Both products are officially in "beta," or test, status. Neither is easy to obtain and use. If you want a Gmail account, you have to be invited by an existing account holder, or go through an odd sign-up process using your cellphone. Yahoo's new version, just a week old, is -- for now -- available only to Yahoo Mail account holders the company selected, though the user pool will be expanded later this fall.
The new Yahoo Mail retains the basic terms of the current version. You get 1 gigabyte of mail storage free of charge, and the program displays ads. For $20 a year, the storage doubles to 2 gigabytes, and the ads disappear.
The new version is radically easier to use. For example, there's a preview pane, just as in desktop programs, that allows you to view the contents of an email without opening it. You can open multiple emails at once. You can drop messages into folders you create. You can right-click on various items to see short menus of useful tasks, like "add sender to address book." You can delete multiple messages at once by selecting them and clicking on a trash-can icon.
By contrast, Gmail has none of these new, fluid, desktop-like features. You can't scroll through all of your messages' headers without loading a new Web page. And there's no preview pane, only a feature that shows a snippet of the content of an email.
To delete groups of messages, you have to wait for multiple consecutive pages to load, showing new headers. You can't drag and drop. And Gmail's address book, unlike Yahoo's, doesn't allow you to collect contacts into group addresses.
But Gmail's limitations go beyond this. On several key issues, Google's engineers have decreed that familiar email practices are no longer useful, and have substituted approaches they prefer, arrogantly denying users any choice.
Gmail doesn't allow folders, only color-coded labels, as an organizing technique. It forces you to view all of your email in groups of related messages called "conversations," instead of viewing them individually as they arrive. Other email programs also allow such grouped views, but they permit users to choose. Not Gmail, where "option" is a term too rarely employed, except in reference to employee compensation. (Yahoo plans to add an optional grouped view soon.)
Similarly, Gmail forces you to view ads alongside your emails. Unlike Yahoo, it offers no paid option to avoid the ads.
I'm sure Gmail will get better and better, and will eventually adopt the new programming techniques that allow desktop-like ease of use. But I'm not sure Google's arrogance will ever make room for user preferences on things like folders or ads, or how emails are grouped.
Yahoo's new email program would blow Gmail away if it were widely released today. That's partly due to its features, but also to its respect for user choice.
Yahoo Mail想用户所想
长期以来，Yahoo Mail等基于网络的电子邮件系统一直落后于安装在电脑上的标准电子邮件软件。网络电子邮件系统的功能和存储空间十分有限，使用起来也很麻烦。
然而，近来情况出现了变化。一些大型网络电子邮件供应商推出了新版邮件系统，它们不仅使用便捷，而且功能也不逊于Microsoft Outlook等电脑内置邮件系统。更重要的是，它们还保留了网络电子邮件的核心优势--用户可在任何一台电脑上收发邮件，无论是Windows还是Mac操作系统，同时用户的特定设置也依然保留了下来。只要用户能上网，就可通过网络流览器进入自己的邮箱。
Google去年推出的Gmail邮件服务掀起了这股潮流，这个免费邮箱的存储容量高达1G，后来更是扩大到2G以上。其他网络运营商也相继扩充了免费邮箱的容量。
现在，网络邮件又展开了新一轮的竞争，重点已不再是邮箱容量。雅虎(Yahoo)、EarthLink和美国在线(AOL)最近推出了功能远胜于老版本的新版邮件系统。它们都采用了新型编程技术，使简单的网页具有类似于桌面软件的灵活性。
例如，用户可以随意移动或删除邮件，而不必像过去那样等待网页刷新，或是要打开新的网页。这是一大进步，以往任何重要的步骤都是迂回进行的，邮件网页必须不厌其烦地重新载入。
这无疑是一项重大突破，它的应用前景不仅限于网络邮件。越来越多的网站会改头换面，工作方式更接近常规的桌面软件，从而加快让大多数软件在网上运行的进程。
新版Yahoo Mail自称是网络邮件的领导者，而它的死对头是Gmail，因此我对两者进行了测试比较。结论是：新版Yahoo Mail远远优于Gmail。Yahoo Mail更接近多数用户企盼获得的桌面邮件系统的效果。相比之下，Gmail比较古怪，功能有限。它的唯一优势就是免费存储空间很大，大部分人根本用不完。
两种产品都处于试验状态，都不容易获得。如果你想拥有一个Gmail帐号，必须得到现有帐号使用人的邀请，或是通过手机经历一个非常古怪的注册过程。新版Yahoo邮箱推出才一个多星期，仅仅针对公司选定的一些邮件用户，不过今年秋天晚些时候会扩大用户群。
新版Yahoo Mail保留了现有版本的基本特性。用户将拥有1G的免费存储空间，邮箱里带有广告。如果用户一年交纳20美元，邮箱的存储空间就会增至2G，广告也会消失。
新版邮箱使用起来非常方便。例如，它有一个预览视窗，让用户不用打开邮件就可以流览其中的内容，与桌面邮件系统如出一辙。你还可以同时打开多封电子邮件；把邮件放入自己创建的文件夹里；或是点击右键，查看各项快捷任务栏，如“把发件人加入位址簿”。你还可以同时选中多封邮件，然后点击垃圾箱的图示加以删除。相比之下，Gmail根本没有这些新颖的功能。在Gmail系统中，如果你不载入新的网页，你就无法流览所有的邮件标题；此外也没有预览视窗，你只能看到邮件的小部分内容。
若要删除多封邮件的话，你必须等待多个连续网页载入，显示新的邮件标题。你不能拖曳。Gmail的位址簿与Yahoo的不同，无法对联系人进行分组归类。
Gmail还有其他局限。在一些关键功能上，Google的工程师们认为那些熟悉的邮件操作不再适用，他们用自己喜欢的操作取而代之，傲慢地不给用户任何选择。
Gmail不允许用档夹对邮件进行归类，用户只能贴彩色标签。Gmail有一项名为“conversations”的功能，把所有相关邮件的都放在一起，当有新邮件到来时，你不得不浏览之前所有相关邮件，而不是一封封单独阅读。其他邮件系统也有类似这样的功能，但是用户有权选择用或不用。Gmail则不然，'选择'对它来说是个很生僻的字眼，除了是涉及到员工的薪资时。（Yahoo很快也将添加这一功能。）
同样，Gmail迫使用户接收邮件内的广告。与Yahoo不同，Gmail的用户无法通过交费来免受广告的侵扰。
我相信Gmail会不断完善，最终会采取新的编程技术，使之像桌面邮件系统那样方便。但是，我不知道自大的Google是否会在档夹、广告及邮件分组等事项上考虑用户的偏好。
如果新版Yahoo邮件系统现在全面推广，它必将打败Gmail，这不仅是因为它功能优越，而且还因为它尊重了用户的选择权。
