Dec 13, 2005

Yahoo Mail Beta - Where is it?

It has been really a long time since Yahoo announced that it will be rolling out its beefed up version of web-based email. When I first checked their sign up page where you can submit your email address to be invited to try the program as a beta tester, they said that it was being offered to US users only. A few weeks have passed since that and when I checked it again, it is still the same thing.

Google offered its Gmail as an alternative to Yahoo and Hotmail and I don't know how successful they have been in whisking away users from these services. One thing I know for sure is that I have found it quite useful, although sometimes the site is awfully slow to respond and even times out at times. I don't care much for their thread-type email 'conversations', but a lot of people apparently like it. I use their POP services frequently and it is the one of the few free and reliable services out there.

Yahoo, apparently, needed to respond fast to the Gmail threat and did. They expanded the storage to 1 GB too. (Gmail went one step ahead, and is offering 'infinite storage space', which grows everyday, all the time. Just check their home page.) Their Beta offering is rumoured to look like Microsoft's Outlook email client, with drag and drop functionality and quick preview and everything else. As someone said (I don't remember who), Yahoo's mail service is designed to look like an email client that nobody should be using in the first place. So Yahoo's service better be really good if it intends to fight off Gmail's persistent attempt to siphon off its userbase.

4 comments:

Kate said...

I really wish they'd hurry up and unveil it. I signed up for the beta as well, but that was like a month ago. I've had a yahoo e-mail for years, so I won't switch to Google or anything, but I'm really looking forward to AJAX powered e-mail.

Ranjit said...

Kate: Yes, I agree with you very much.

Guess what! Within a few of days of my writing this post, I got an email from Yahoo saying that I am in queue for the beta testing. Well, that is good news, but then again, I have been waiting for all this time anyway. I hope to have some of the action soon. I will definitely give my thoughts on how I felt using the new version. Be sure to check back.

shadow20002 said...

Another great enhancement from Yahoo? I will to test it too (just hope i am in te beta service also).

Ranjit said...

Shadow20002: You can be a beta tester too. Sign up here and you will be invited in a few days. But be ready to wait patiently. :)