AOL Mail was rewritten in Microsoft Silverlight 2.0 and released today. It is better than Gmail.(webmail.aol.com)
webmail.aol.com
AOL Mail was rewritten in Microsoft Silverlight 2.0 and released today. It is better than Gmail.
http://webmail.aol.com/
16 comments
Can someone qualify the "It is better than Gmail" statement? I'm not opposed to the possibility that it is, but I would like to see what you think is better. Thanks.
It seems a little faster, but it's got image ads all over the place.
(Disclaimer: I work for Google, but not on Gmail.)
Edit: No, after rechecking Gmail's web interface (I use IMAP from home), it seems about the same speed. I'm not sure why someone would think it's better.
(Disclaimer: I work for Google, but not on Gmail.)
Edit: No, after rechecking Gmail's web interface (I use IMAP from home), it seems about the same speed. I'm not sure why someone would think it's better.
It's quicker and snappier. It has tasking, a better contact manager, and a full scheduler. It feels like a desktop application, and doesn't have any of the odd performance delays and quirks that you see with Java apps.
And I'll guarantee AOL/MSFT wrote it in a fraction of the time it took Google.
And I'll guarantee AOL/MSFT wrote it in a fraction of the time it took Google.
My favourite feature is the large, colorful ads scattered about my inbox giving me some real choices for lasik eye surgery. I appreciate that.
I prefer the "enhanced by Google" logo at the top.
Between the Flash ads (in the message content area, for some reason), animated GIFs (in both the margins and header), and little tooltips (that appear at random and don't go away until clicked), it's like playing a video game with right-click Block all over the place. Video games are big business, so I predict this will be a hit, especially with the male/under-18 crowd.
It doesn't take kindly to being in a small window: GMail reflows, for the most part, while AOLMail just starts overlapping elements. Also, it appears to be English-only (compared to GMail's 40+ languages), so it's fun to play with but I wouldn't use it on a daily basis.
It's flashy, but not as mature as GMail (which itself is a frighteningly low bar).
Between the Flash ads (in the message content area, for some reason), animated GIFs (in both the margins and header), and little tooltips (that appear at random and don't go away until clicked), it's like playing a video game with right-click Block all over the place. Video games are big business, so I predict this will be a hit, especially with the male/under-18 crowd.
It doesn't take kindly to being in a small window: GMail reflows, for the most part, while AOLMail just starts overlapping elements. Also, it appears to be English-only (compared to GMail's 40+ languages), so it's fun to play with but I wouldn't use it on a daily basis.
It's flashy, but not as mature as GMail (which itself is a frighteningly low bar).
You are kidding me right? I spent a few minutes playing around with it and there is no way in hell I'd switch to this from gmail. It has a few nice touches, but generally is slow and badly designed.
Cons:
1. Slow. Much slower to navigate around than gmail. This is killer.
2. Mail receiving is slow. Sending a mail to gmail, appears in under 30 seconds. Sending a mail to AOL mail took over 5 minutes to appear.
3. Interface is confusing. Create a contact and the button to actually do the create is above and to the right of the form?
4. Filtering is too hard to access, doesn't show you a preview of what will be filtered.
5. Way too much space taken up with ads.
Pros:
1. Calendar integration is good. Nice to have it right there in the same interface.
Cons:
1. Slow. Much slower to navigate around than gmail. This is killer.
2. Mail receiving is slow. Sending a mail to gmail, appears in under 30 seconds. Sending a mail to AOL mail took over 5 minutes to appear.
3. Interface is confusing. Create a contact and the button to actually do the create is above and to the right of the form?
4. Filtering is too hard to access, doesn't show you a preview of what will be filtered.
5. Way too much space taken up with ads.
Pros:
1. Calendar integration is good. Nice to have it right there in the same interface.
I found it faster than Gmail and like the interface better. I'm focusing more on the Silverlight vs. Ajax side of this so I ignored the pervasive ads and mail receive speed issues.
Does this run in Firefox on Ubuntu?
Probably not, since as far as I know silverlight has not yet been released for linux.
If Silverlight were released for Linux, that might mean MSFT has figured out how to bring DirectX 10+ APIs to Linux, which is a big deal as part of the problem with WINE is graphics performance.
I know, I know... blasphemy! But damn, it's a sweet little application.