Webmail Smackdown! - Comments Page 1

Your Webmail Feature Comparison table indicates that Yahoo mail does not have keyboard shortcuts. Not so with the newest free version of Yahoo mail. Typing N will start a new message; M will check mail; F will forward a message, and so on. There are many keyboard shortcuts!

EDITOR'S NOTE: Thanks for the info. I've updated the table.

gmail has 18 features the others have only 16,i use both yahoo and gmail

You failed to give credit to ISPs which permit both POP and webmail.

Comcast gives me both, he ability to use MS Outlook and Comcast webmail at the same time, with advantages of both.

20 Gb mail attachment limit is a bit generous...I think it is Mb

EDITOR'S NOTE: Thanks for pointing out my typo. I was only off by three orders of magnitude! :-)

You don't have to pay for pop access for Hotmail any more, it is now free for select countries.

You can find the details at:
http://arstechnica.com/microsoft/news/2009/02/next-up-hotmail-pop3-support-arrives-in-the-us-brazil.ars

The direction from the above site are:

If you want to start using it now, there are some details you should be aware of:

* POP server: pop3.live.com
* POP SSL required? Yes
* User name: Your Windows Live ID, for example yourname@hotmail.com
* Password: The password you usually use to sign in to Hotmail or Windows Live
* SMTP server: smtp.live.com
* Authentication required? Yes (this matches your POP username and password)
* TLS/SSL required? Yes.

I've had all 3 services for at least 2 years now.

Hotmail is my "throw away" account that I use when I don't want to use my "real" email accounts.

Gmail was used for a youth organization I ran. I really liked the theaded mail feature.

Yahoo is my all-round favorite. Probably because I've used it the longest. I pay the $20 for full-featured access and use MS Outlook to download and sort/store my email.

I would never consider going to "online-only" email. It's useful for "quick 'n dirty" but I can access my desktop from anywhere with RDC and use my Outlook client.

I love Gmail. I've been using it for years and haven't found one better suited for me yet.

It's really easy to use and has a great interface.

What is right click action. If you are indicating that you can command using mouse right click that there is a error in yahoo mail you mentioned. You can you can command reply, forward, flag, read/unread and many things after clicking right key of mouse on a mail.....

Yahoo mail has another ability too. You can write and attach at the same time. I will also recommend you to add another feature. It is address block. Yahoo and hotmail is giving the service but gmail is not giving.

I have a question In hotmail is it really possible to chat instant?? I am using it from bangladesh but I have not seen anything like it.

At last the time is to mention what is my fave webmail service. I am using all the three for several years. But I think yahoo is the Best. Gmail is very near to Yahoo. They may be the first. But Hotmail is too boaring. I hate hotmail. It is not user friendly.

I have Y and G. (I break out in hives if people mention Hotmail.) Gmail is good, and I use it for my primary email address, but my favourite for usability, accessibility, security and simplicity is fastmail.fm. That's the one /I/ pay for!

Yahoo also allows you to search through your emails for any word or phrase. It works great.

I've not been able to find a way to sort my Gmails into folders, which is how I want to organize my emails. I don't believe they offer them. It only lets me label them. Also, I don't want my emails displayed in threaded conversations, but I don't see any way to override it.

I use online email exclusively. I can access my email from any computer in the world. To prevent accidental loss, I have all my email first go to my Gmail account, then I set Gmail to automatically forward from there to my Yahoo mail account. Voila, instant redundancy and duplication, so if one system should ever lose my mail, I still have it all available on the other one.

I didn't know about the disposable Yahoo email addresses. Thanks for the info! I usually use mailinator.com for disposable email addresses; no signup or registration required, but you still have to remember to access the site. With Yahoo, it all will go to your main account for you.

The interface of GMAIL is nice, an easy. That's really important. Hotmail has ads in the botton of the mail. FAKE.

EDITOR'S NOTE: What's fake about it? (GMail has ads on the right hand side of the window.)

no one has mentioned MAIL.COM..a terrific webmail service..check it out.

Bob, not a word about G-mail's privacy concerns?! Messages kept indefinitely in G's memory even if deleted, robotically searched for ad-targeting, all records subject to subpoena forever...etc. A message to you mentions a drug bust and you may see ads for defense attorneys as you surf the net.

http://www.google-watch.org/gmail.html

EDITOR'S NOTE: I don't think the privacy concerns with Gmail are any different than any other webmail provider. In fact, not different than any ISP for that matter, because ALL your email and web page requests pass through them, and we don't even KNOW what their data retention policies are! See http://askbobrankin.com/search_privacy.html

Hi bob,

Love your articles. Another web base mail utility I like is mail2web.com

I've used Gmail for several years, though I rarely use it online. One thing that no one else has mentioned is Gmail's spam filter. Gmail forwards all my email to my Mail account on my iMac andit is rare that any spam gets through. I periodically sign in to Gmail and go through the spam folder just in case it grabbed something that I wanted, but it seldom does. Last night I emptied my husband's spam folder on Gmail of nearly 1000 spam messages--not one was there by mistake.

You wrote that gmail does not have disposible addresses:

yo can both write your address as xxx.yyy@gmail.com
and xxxyyy@ or Xxx.Yyy@ and you can add a + and whatever tickles your fancy:
xxx.yyy+amazonorders@gmail.com
xxx.YYY+imusic@gmail.com
XxxYyy+SpamfilterSUB@gmail.com
and all will get to your gmail inbox...

(where you can create a filter just to monitor these also of course.

No mention of IMAP? Gmail has it for free. I crank up Thunderbird once a week and download my email via IMAP and voila! Instant offline backup including labels and all changes. POP? A waste of bandwidth.

Not to mention using Gears (or Prism for Firefox) to make Gmail an offline app in it's own right.

You left out Mobile Me; I just started using it, and Mobile Me syncs my iPhone and Apple Macbook Pro over the ether without wires. I forward my regular email through MobileMe and have been quite pleased with it so far.

mb

I just switched to Gmail because Yahoo insisted that I have an alternate eddress. I will be keeping a Yahoo eddress as a secondary one but it will not be the one I've had for eleven years. That one is drowning in SPAM which goes not only to the SPAM box but also to the Inbox. Yahoo's once-friendly abuse department has ceased responding...things have deteriorated since the company changed its CEO. It has been increasing the size of its ads and has dropped the marvellous Briefcase feature. It also wants me to use its new version despite the fact that it recognizes that the new version will not function on my computer.

I am somewhat uncomfortable with Gmail being a beta version. I like the threading. Labels make it possible to file a message in more than one category. However, the screen of the Netbook I use as my primary computer makes labelling difficult; I have to go to a computer with a much larger screen to accomplish that task.

I will not touch Hotmail because it is a Microsoft product. I have a Microsoft operating system but avoid using other MS products, partly because it wants me to do things its way, not the ways which have worked well for me for decades. I do not share MS's passion for bells and whistles.

My fave email is www.imap.cc

good layout. great spam filters. fast page displays. different service levels - free or pay.