If you're a webmail user (and if you're online, you probably are), you might be interested in Microsoft's announcement today of Microsoft Office Outlook Live.
It seems what MS has done is combine the rich-client functionality of Outlook with the portability and flexibility of web-based e-mail, in this case Hotmail. Pricing is almost 60 bucks a year, but is discounted 25% until April 19, 2005.
It's hard to believe that it's taken the portals so long to introduce this hybrid e-mail service. I've been praying for Yahoo to do something like this for years. I find the online webmail interface to be extremely limiting, even after several impressive upgrades at Yahoo Mail and Hotmail in years past.
Yahoo fans got taste of such functionality when Yahoo last year snapped up Oddpost, "a web-based email and news aggregation application that combines the rich, responsive interface of a desktop program like Outlook with the available-from-anywhere convenience of a web mail service like Hotmail," according to the Oddpost FAQ page.
And before that acquisition, webmail users lucky enough to get invited to try Gmail got another glimpse of a better webmail solution. I'm still not sold enough on Gmail to make the switch fully from Yahoo Mail, but I'm waiting for Google to introduce external POP3 account access, and then I just might.
But, if Yahoo relaunches its mail service this year using Oddpost technology, as promised on July 9, 2004, I might never switch... unless, of course, Google creates their own hybrid service. Oh, my head hurts.
Posted by Cory Kleinschmidt
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