The internet is very separated in the way it works. What I mean by that is certain things require you to login to different places.
If you centralize, your overall internet experience will be easier to manage. To centralize what you do on the internet means to use one service provider to do most of the things you ordinarily use the internet for.
Being that people like things that are free, the “big three” for all-in-one services are Google, Microsoft and Yahoo.
If you’re of the Mac persuasion, they have .Mac, but you have to pay a minimum of $99.95 a year for it.
Centralizing your user experience means the service provider you use should provide the following:
“Google-izing” your ‘net experience
Google has a large selection of service offerings. They offer much more than just internet search and Gmail. You can easily centralize a big chunk of what you do on the internet via means of Google services, from blogging to photos to patent searching and even building 3D models.
Google’s only major drawback is their chat client, Google Talk. While it’s nice to have it to check e-mail, it’s general usage for chat on the internet isn’t anywhere near Yahoo or Microsoft in respect to how many people use it.
A minor nitpick I have about Google is that the interface for almost all services is boring. It works wonderfully, but it’s yawn city when looking at it. However I would not change it due to the fact it works so well and loads so quickly.
“Microsoft-izing” your ‘net experience
Microsoft has more or less dumped its MSN brand name and has opted to go with Live instead.
Live basically includes e-mail (Hotmail), blogging (Spaces) and a service they call OneCare.
Most people have used Hotmail. Either they use it now or did in the past.
(Quick Internet Trivia: The name “Hotmail” is a word built from the abbreviation HTML, as in HoTMaiL. This is what Microsoft used to create the name.)
The key feature aside from Hotmail is the use of Spaces. With it you can share photos, files, create a blog and so on. Another feature is “SkyDrive,” allowing you to upload and share files easily. And I do admit it works well.
The advantage to using Live is that everything is in the Spaces service. You don’t have to jump around from page to page or type in separate web addresses just to get to certain stuff.
The Windows Live messenger (formerly MSN Messenger) is at a point where they finally got the design right. It’s clean and easy to use. Moreover it stays out of your way when doing other things on your computer and runs smoother than Yahoo’s instant messenger.
The drawback to using Live services is:
- Slow. With the exception of the messenger client, anything accessed thru the web browser is slow to load. Once loaded it works great, but too much eye candy slows down many page within the Live system to a crawl.
- Not enough service offerings. This may be addressed with the introduction of Windows Live Gallery (think of it as Yahoo Widgets inside the browser,) but at present there’s not enough to consider it a true all-in-one for your internet stuff.
“Yahoo-izing” your ‘net experience
I saved the best for last. Yahoo is by far the best way to centralize what you do on the internet. Their services listing is humongous. I guarantee as you read through that list you will say “Whoa… I didn’t know Yahoo did that” at least five times.
It is absolutely amazing how much Yahoo offers for free. Most people simply know Yahoo for instant messaging and mail, but what really stands out is that you can truly get to stuff that’s more life-centric. Everything from loans to small business to pets to taxes to a “kid” version to NCAA football to podcasts to your personal health to finding courses & degrees and on and on and on.
Yahoo is the only one that is a true-blue all-in-one service provider that essentially does everything.
The drawbacks to using Yahoo are:
- Too separated. Many services on Yahoo require you to remember where they are and can be difficult to integrate into the my.yahoo.com account.
- Instant messenger client is too bloated. The Yahoo Instant Messenger or “YIM” for short is ridiculously large and draws too much system resource.
- Mail is nice but slow at times. Yahoo wins all around for having the best user interface for their mail, but having that means slow load times periodically.
- Too much? Yahoo offers a lot. A whole lot – but it may be too much for some because it does take time to learn everything that Yahoo does. Are people patient enough to sit down and learn the system?
. . .
If you were aiming to find an all-in-one, Yahoo is your best bet due to the fact they have so much stuff (and moreover stuff that actually works.)
Google is in second place because their chat client doesn’t have as much widespread use and the interface isn’t as friendly as Yahoo’s. But remember, Gmail and Google Docs really really work well. And of course being #1 in internet searching helps out quite a bit. 
Microsoft is dead last. They need a complete re-work of the interface into something that loads faster and, simply put, offers more stuff. Granted, they are headed in the right direction but have a long way to go. Their only saving grace is the instant messenger client. It’s faster than Yahoo’s and has much more widespread use than Google Talk. It also makes for using Hotmail very easy.
One final note on instant messaging: The Live messenger and the Yahoo chat client do “talk” to each other. You can send messages to/from Live to YIM users and vice versa. Google Talk, while fast, is unfortunately left in the dust behind the other two.
Like what you read?
If so, please join over 28,000 people who receive our exclusive weekly newsletter and computer tips, and get FREE COPIES of 5 eBooks we created, as our gift to you for subscribing. Just enter your name and email below:
