We live in a busy world in which we are always on the move. Whether you are a fast paced student zipping to Starbucks to get your bi-daily coffee and then off to class or a traveling businessman in London one day and New York the next, there is one thing we can all agree on. We want immediate access to our friends, co-workers, and family via email. With the popularity of free online Webmail providers constantly growing, there is a lot to take into consideration when applying for a Webmail account. Some areas of consideration are spam prevention and protection, security, storage space, accessibly and user friendliness, and speed. In the following article I will compare some of today’s most popular Webmail providers with a goal of helping you narrow down which Webmail fits your needs.
What’s the deal with Webmail?
Webmail is basically an application accessed within a web browser in which one can utilize all the necessary tools needed for sending and receiving email. Most Webmail services allow users to create new mail, receive mail from others, file messages into folders, add attachments, and reply to messages. More advanced features include spell check, automatic virus scans, sender blocking, spam prevention, and quick reply functions. Webmail is unique because you can access it from any computer, anywhere in the world, at any time, simply by logging into your personalized Webmail account. Additionally, Webmail uses online storage, so your accumulation of mail doesn’t start to take up disk space on your computer.
Is one better than the others?
Like mentioned above, there are many free Webmail providers which let you choose a personal email address and store your messages on a dedicated server. Generally, the application process is very straight forward. You enter a little information, create your desired email address and password, and within seconds you have a free, fully functional email account. But, what is it that separates one provider from another? Don’t they all accomplish the same thing? Read on and I will compare the features of some of today’s most popular free Webmail providers and help you choose which service is right for you.
The Webmail Face-Off
The contestants: Google’s GMail Beta, MSN’s Hotmail, Yahoo Mail, Lycos Mail, Netscape Mail
The competition: The competition will consist of two rounds. In Round One I will state my first impressions, elaborate on the user friendliness, compare the appearance of each individual Inbox, and detail the login and loading speeds of each provider. In Round Two I will compare the features and functions of each provider in a comprehensive chart. Some of these features and functions will include Inbox size, difficulty of the application process, attachment size, spam filtering and prevention, and many more.
The Winner: At the end of Rounds One and Two I will give each Webmail provider a score out of ten. The winner of the Webmail Face-Off will be the provider with the highest overall score at the end of the face-off.
Let the Webmail Face-Off Commence!
ROUND ONE
GMail:
GMail, provided by Google, is currently in a Beta state and there has been no mention of when a final version will be released. Yet, it is fully functional and offers the user a variety of advanced functions which aren’t common to other Webmail providers. GMail fully supports Internet Explorer, Firefox, Opera, Netscape, and Safari. It also allows for plain HTML viewing for older versions of Opera, and older versions of IE and Netscape. Being strictly an email service, a GMail account doesn’t come packaged with an interactive organizer or notepad.
In appearance, the login and Inbox interfaces are just as plain and simple as Google’s search engine. The light colors are easy on the eyes and do not distract from the important content (your Inbox). What makes GMail really unique is that it uses an advanced search function which groups emails of the same conversation automatically and displays them on the same page. The search function also allows you to search through your emails instead of making endless numbers of folders. This, in my opinion, is a big plus.
When it comes to user friendliness, GMail is top-notch. Links within messages are automatically underlined for easy access, text based attachments can be viewed in HTML rather than having to download the files, and the settings provide understandable descriptions of what they do, so you aren’t aimlessly guessing at which options are right for you. To top it off, GMail is available in 38 languages ranging from traditional Chinese to French. GMail logs in and loads messages very quickly. A normal login takes around 4 to 5 seconds on broadband and the same stunningly fast speeds apply when opening messages. Sadly there is a downside to GMail at the moment; to become a member you have to be invited by someone who already has an account. Or, you can apply for a free account via cellular phone.
Hotmail:
Hotmail was originally started in 1995 and was the first official Webmail available. Later when it was bought out by MS and became MSN Hotmail, it gained lots of popularity and currently holds 33% of the Webmail market. While Hotmail is intended to work with most browsers, I ran into one issue while trying to open my Inbox. I had Javascript permanently disabled in Opera 8.5 and Hotmail would not display my Inbox until Javascript was enabled.
The login page contains a little more content than that of GMail, however still easy to follow. Allowing for three sign in options pertaining to the storage of your email address and password, you can choose to permit your computer to remember your sign in information or always request it. From my point of view, this is a very handy feature for those of us who like to check our Inbox in public places. Disappointingly, once you login, your Inbox turns into a billboard, plastered with graphical advertising. Though easily blocked in Firefox, I can’t say the same for Internet Explorer, and quite frankly I am sick of cheap insurance offerings and online gambling contests. Another disappointment is that when you login you aren’t automatically redirected to your Inbox, rather you are taken to an “entrance” or “welcome” (for lack of words to describe it) page, which displays nothing of importance.
For the most part, Hotmail is easily navigational and maintains a decent level of user friendliness. Your folders are clearly displayed on the left and you can switch between viewing all messages to viewing mail from people on your contact list. However, Hotmail fails to display snippets of each message and messages of the same conversation are not automatically grouped, meaning you have to sift through a list of emails, all with the same subject title, with nothing else to help you find the special message you are in search of. On the bright side, Hotmail loads fairly quickly, taking around 5 seconds to open my Inbox and even quicker when opening individual messages. Additionally, with your Hotmail account, you have access to an online organizer, where you can have Hotmail notify you X number of minutes before your scheduled event.
On a whole different level of annoyance, I am extremely upset MSN and Hotmail. While logging into your Hotmail account in Internet Explorer, magically the process msnmsgr.exe (MSN messenger) starts up and it’s notification icon appears on the task bar. Did I ask for MSN messenger to start? No, I simply wanted to check my Inbox for new mail. Did I want another process to start using valuable RAM without my consent? No. Then when I try to exit out MSN messenger I get a pop-up telling me that other programs are using features of MSN messenger and that I must close those first before closing the messenger program. For people like myself who rarely use MSN messenger, let alone would want it to be running without a purpose, this is a major upset.
Yahoo Mail:
The latest version of Yahoo Mail was launched in July, 2004. Later, feeling the heat when Google released GMail, Yahoo Mail bumped its free Inbox storage size to 1 GB. Yahoo Mail holds a large chunk of the world’s current Webmail users’ messages on their servers, toping out at just around 30%.
Yahoo Mail’s login page is easy to follow and though it does contain one distracting graphic, the ability to log in isn’t hindered in any way. Similarly to Hotmail, Yahoo Mail contains graphical advertising with a banner spanning across the page, just above the Inbox. Also like Hotmail, Yahoo Mail automatically loads to a “welcome” page displaying how many new email messages you have in your Inbox. Yahoo Mail isn’t on the slow side either. While the loading times didn’t break any records, they were on par with those of GMail and Hotmail.
Like the two preceding Webmail providers, Yahoo Mail displays your folders along the left side of the page, in plain view. Unlike GMail, Yahoo Mail does not display snippets of email messages to help the user locate certain messages quicker. However, Yahoo Mail makes up for it with their comprehensive tutorial services comprised of step by step instructions mingled between helpful images to assist even the most thick-headed Webmail beginner. Yahoo Mail also contains a built in search function to assist in finding a certain email, from a certain sender, about a certain subject.
Right about now, I am starting to think that Yahoo Mail was modeled directly from Hotmail. With many similar features and a nearly identical interface, Yahoo Mail also has a Calendar in which you can schedule events, important dates, and so forth. With the additional ability to synchronize your Yahoo Mail’s Calendar with your hand held device, it is apparent that with your Yahoo ID, you get much more than just an email account. Another little add-on is Yahoo Mail’s Notepad, where you can jot down even the most trivial piece of information for later reference.
The PCMech.com weekly newsletter has been running strong for over 8 years. Sign up to get tech news, updates and exclusive content - right in your inbox. Also get (several) free gifts.
Pages: 1 2
