Global battle over webmail is getting tougher

The fight over webmail is entering a new round. Microsoft is arming itself, Google is attacking Facebook and Twitter, and Facebook's counter-attack is not long in coming.

November 2010

Facebook wants to outdo Gmail with "Titan"

Rumor: Own webmail service will be presented on Monday

Webmail services such as Gmail or Yhaoo Mail are threatened with new competition from Facebook. The social network has to an event as part of the Web 2.0 Summit http://web2summit.com loaded. In technology blogs, it is unanimously assumed that Facebook will present a major innovation in its inbox on Monday. With "Project Titan" a full-fledged webmail client is to start.

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As early as February of this year, it was rumored that Facebook was working on its own e-mail service. In view of the apparently imminent start, the rumor mill is now simmering. ZDNet wants to have learned from a source close to Microsoft that Facebook's e-mail service will offer integration with Microsoft's Office Web Apps.


Personal overview
According to TechCrunch, Titan will not just offer a revised user interface with additional POP access, but a full-fledged webmail service with its own "@ facebook.com" addresses. A potential advantage is that Facebook knows exactly the relationships of the user in the social network. This knowledge is valuable for sorting messages. The social network could offer users a better personal overview of the latest news in the inbox than the webmail competition.
As a potential Gmail killer, Facebook's web email is also said to rely on an alliance with Microsoft. According to ZDNets Insider, the service will offer direct access to the free Office Web Apps. Accordingly, the integration should go even deeper than Microsoft's Docs for Facebook. Even without a locally installed Office package, users would have the same comprehensive access to Office documents as Microsoft offers in its own Hotmail webmail service.

 

May 2010

Microsoft is arming itself in the webmail battle

Hotmail is becoming clearer and relies on direct content display

Microsoft previewed the next version of its webmail service Hotmail yesterday, Monday evening http://www.hotmailpreview.com given. In the fight against competitors such as Gmail, upgrading is taking place on all fronts, with Microsoft trying to reinvent the somewhat outdated service according to the requirements of modern users.

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Among other things, the redesigned Hotmail promises a better overview of different types of e-mail in the inbox. When sharing photos or documents, Microsoft relies on the connection to its own online hard drive SkyDrive. A lot of content such as Office attachments or YouTube links can be opened directly in Hotmail in the future.


More overview
As more and more different communication channels converge in today's e-mail inbox, Microsoft relies on one-click filters. This means that users can only display a single type of message in a targeted manner, be it conventional emails from contacts or updates from Facebook and Co. In addition, a sweep function promises the handling of advertising newsletters and other not necessarily wanted messages that are actually not spam To represent the senses, to facilitate.
In some points Microsoft has apparently borrowed from the competition. In the case of the possibility of arranging e-mails in conversation threads similar to Gmail, the company addresses this quite bluntly. Compared to the Google competitor, the aim is to score points with the fact that users can deactivate this sorting on Hotmail, unlike Gmail, if they wish.


Direct access
Microsoft is also working with partners to ensure that users can do more activities directly from their Hotmail inbox. If a user receives a link to a YouTube video or a Flickr photo album, for example, the content is displayed directly in an "Active view". Microsoft promises similar things for other online offers such as parcel tracking.
Office documents can also be opened directly in Hotmail in the future. Microsoft relies on the technology of its Office 2010 Web Apps, with which the company has already launched its Docs attack on Facebook. The fact that Hotmail allows up to ten gigabytes of attachments when sending photos or documents is not entirely practical, since many mail servers do not accept such large messages.


SkyDrive attachments
For the problem of such large amounts of data to be sent, Microsoft is of course providing a solution in the new Hotmail. Images or Office files that are intended as e-mail attachments can also be easily uploaded to Microsoft's SkyDrive online hard drive instead of directly to Hotmail. In addition to previews in the case of photos, the message itself only contains an attachment link instead of sending a large amount of data directly.
Other Hotmail innovations include the synchronization of e-mails between mobile phones and Hotmail via Exchange ActiveSync as well as improved security, including through SSL encryption, during the entire Hotmail session. According to the Windows Team Blog, the rollout of the new Hotmail will begin "in the coming weeks".

 

February 2010

Gmail takes on Facebook and Twitter

Google brings social networking features to webmail service

Google's webmail service Gmail http://mail.google.com will soon be expanded to include some social networking functions. The internet company has been pursuing a comprehensive social media strategy for a long time, away from conventional social networks. Recently, for example, the social search functions were expanded.or

According to media reports, Gmail will now receive various new features, including a status update channel modeled on Twitter and Facebook. Officially, Google has not yet published any information about the new Gmail functions, according to insiders, in addition to status reports, users will also be able to share photos and videos in the future.


Churn unlikely
It is unlikely that existing Twitter or Facebook users will migrate in the future and use the Gmail channel instead. The sites are so established and users are so familiar with them that probably only a few would want to get used to a new Gmail interface. The decisive factor will therefore be the extent to which Google links its social functions to the existing services (Twitter, Facebook, etc.).
If users could access different pages centrally via Gmail or keep an overview of all messages from there, this would certainly be an advantage. Competitor Yahoo already offers something similar in its mail program.

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