Internet News

Google Gmail adds Voice

Google adds regular phone calls to Gmail, Pandia (

Google aims to be your number one communication centre as it expands the Skype-like voice-and-video chat that can be used to reach anyone, whether they use Gmail or not.

"All you have to do is to install a voice and video chat plug-in, and you can use your computer’s microphone, loudspeaker and — if needed — video camera to communicate. And yes, a dedicated head set with mike is useful."

Will be great for Gmail and Gtalk users.

Gmail's Phone Feature: A Logical Addition, PCWorld (Aug 28) -- says that the quality is "sensational".

Google sets its sights on Skype with phone service, Toronto Star (Aug 26)

"Google promised free calls to U.S. and Canadian phones from Gmail for the rest of this year and said it would charge low rates for calls made to other countries."

Thunderbird Contacts Social Networks

Thunderbird gets web-savvy with Contacts, Seth Rosenblatt, Download Blog (Aug 4)

Thunderbird users can have deeper integration with social networking friends lists with the new addon, Contacts.

From download page - "Thunderbird Contacts lets you pull in your "web contacts" from sites like LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. It also lets you connect to your mail contacts inside of Yahoo or GMail. As each contact is extracted from a site, the Contacts add-on tries to merge the contacts from different sites together into a single contact on your system."

Hotmail vs Gmail

How Does the New Hotmail Stack Up to Gmail?, Lifehacker (Jun 16)

The best part of the new hotmail might be the integration with MS Office - "The new integration offers a lot more than just opening and editing Office documents; it also handles versioning, corrections, collaborative editing and seamless transferring of files between the web and desktop apps (if you're using a Windows PC, anyway) thanks to SkyDrive."

Gmail, on the other hand, has speed in reading and composing and in searching.

Reviewer found them to be equal on spam filtering now that Microsoft has added SmartScreen.

Hotmail vs Gmail

Hot To Trot - The new Hotmail gives Gmail a run for its money., Farhad Manjoo, Slate (May 24)

Reviews features of the new Hotmail, to be released this summer, and compares to Gmail. Manjoo votes for Hotmail but won't be switching from Gmail.

There is a point at which switching from a service or product is too much work - we have too much vested in what we are using today.

Yahoo Mail Users receive the least spam

It’s official. No one fights spam harder, smarter, or better than Yahoo! Mail., Yahoo Mail Blog (May 20)

Good news for Yahoo webmail users - "The Fraunhofer Institute, an independent research firm, found that Yahoo! Mail users saw the least amount of spam out of the five providers tested, with nearly 40% less spam than Hotmail and 55% less spam than Gmail – meaning Gmail users in the study saw more than twice as much spam as Yahoo! Mail users."

Google Wave for All

Google Wave: Now open to the public by Stephen Shankland, DeepTech (May 19)

"Google Wave, a Web-based tool to let people chat and collaborate in real time, is now open to the public. "

Much more information at Google Wave Overview.

Hotmail Changes In The Works

Microsoft hopes upgrade will give Hotmail an edge , Michael Liedke, AP via Globe and Mail (May 18)

Hotmail users - get ready for change this coming summer.

"The upgrade, expected to be available in July or August, will automatically sort incoming messages into different categories devoted to users' key contacts and Internet social networks. It will also provide previews of incoming photos, videos and other material without having to open an attachment or click on a link."

The Coming Hotmail

What's next for Hotmail by Ina Fried, Beyond Binary (May 3)

Microsoft is giving out hints of the next version of Hotmail. Already quite social through live.com, it will become even more so with connections to social networks and more include more content creation options.

"According to the LiveSide report, users will be able to edit Office documents and view a Flickr slideshow or a YouTube video, all from within the new Hotmail. "

Of interest: ""It's a two-horse race at this point in e-mail," discounting Yahoo, even though it is still the leader in the U.S. market. Gmail, he said, continues to outpace Hotmail's growth, increasing 20 percent last year. However, he said that Microsoft still grew 8 percent, adding more than 50 million in-boxes to remain the global leader. Yahoo Mail, he said, was relatively flat. "

GMail Account for Your Business

Gmail for business,
Amber MacArthur, Globe and Mail (Apr 22)

Pretty persuasive argument for Gmail - access from anywhere, send messages as large as 25 MB (though will your receipient be able to accept?), 7GN storage, integration with other Google tools (but beware of Buzz fiascos), lots of features, combine with other email accounts.

GMail Desktop

7 Simple Steps To Use Gmail As A Desktop Email Client
by Varun Kashyap, Makeuseof ( on Mar. 22nd, 2010)

You'd really want to make GMail a desktop app to do this - but seems there is a way.

"First and foremost, create a desktop application for Gmail. This as easy as clicking on "Create Application Shortcuts" for Chrome users. Firefox users can install Prism and create applications henceforth. This would give you start menu entries and nice desktop icons to access Gmail quickly. You will be able to use applications like Launchy to launch Gmail if you so prefer."

Avoid E-Mail Fraud

Top five tips to avoid e-mail fraud , Ian Harvey, Globe and Mail (Mar 23)

"In recognition of Fraud-Prevention Month, here are top five ways you can protect yourself against e-mail fraud. "

It's common sense - no one is giving you a million dollars, don't change password or check your account because someone asks you to even if it is your bank or the Paypal guys (it's a ruse), don't open attachments from people you don't know - and sometimes not from people you do know, say no to drugs.

Do read the article. Be email smart.

Book: The Tyranny of Email

Message undeliverable . Alison Motluk. Globe and Mail (Mar 9)

"The Tyranny of E-mail: The Four-Thousand-Year Journey to Your Inbox, by John Freeman, Scribner, 244 pages, $32.99"

Some figures on email just in case you didn't know that it overwhelms everyone.

"He also provides convincing data, in case you were in any doubt, that e-mail has invaded and changed our lives. The average office worker today sends and receives 200 e-mails a day, he reports, which takes up roughly 40 per cent of our working life. Both in and out of the office, that adds up to about 35 trillion messages a year, and it's growing. The bad news is that about 50 per cent of the time we misunderstand the tone of what we're receiving – that's 17.5 trillion misunderstandings – emoticons notwithstanding."

Changes to Gmail

Google Upgrades Six Gmail Features, Cuts Five Others, Ian Paul, PCWorld (Feb 25)

"Google has made some changes to its Gmail service, upgrading six Gmail Labs experiments (like YouTube previews) to become standard Gmail features, while permanently dropping five others (including location-based signatures)."

Google Buzz recap

Google Gets Stung by Its Own Buzz, by David Mattison , Newsbreaks (Feb 22)

The whole story about Google Buzz in one article - background, launch, reaction, and how to use it. The reaction to Buzz has been largely negative because it was forced on people, but Google users are bound to try it out once a few fixes are in place.

Conclusion:

"Mashable's Ben Parr admirably summarized the impact of Google Buzz on the social media landscape: "Gmail integration, real-time commenting, ease of use, and a new base of users that might not have been as socially engaged are now part of the Buzz universe. ... The social media landscape has been permanently altered. To ignore Buzz would be a costly mistake, because Google has finally created the definition of a game-changer""

More Buzz

On the other hand, if you are a Gmail user you might want to learn how to use Google Buzz.

Buzz features compared: Just the important stuff, by Josh Lowensohn, Web Crawler - CNet (Feb 12)

Compares Google Buzz to Twitter, Facebook and FriendFeed for composing a message, setting privacy, follower management, search, and content discovery.

"Buzz is, in many ways, highly derivative of existing, and quite popular services. The three biggest ones that come to mind are Twitter, Facebook, and FriendFeed, with the latter two being the same company. Though to Google's credit, it has done something none of these companies has managed to do in integrating it deeply into a popular e-mail service. "

How to Use Google Buzz, by Patrick Miller, PCWorld (Feb 12)

Basics on what to do with Buzz - "... we have the tips you need to make it work for you. And if you're wishing it would buzz off, we'll show you how to remove it from your Gmail account."

Of interest: "As of this writing, you can officially link only Blogger, Flickr, Picasa, your Google Reader Shared Items, GChat status, and Twitter accounts to your Buzz feed, though WordPress blogs can connect to Google Buzz with a little more work."

How to turn off Google Buzz

Buzz off: Disabling Google Buzz, by Jessica Dolcourt, Webware (Feb 11)

If you use Gmail and don't want your email address book to turn into status updates, you'll want to read this article on how to "silence Buzz".

Google Buzz

Google Buzz Won't Weaken Facebook, by Douglas MacMillan, Business Week (Feb 10)

Google Buzz - Google's new social network is to be called Buzz , and it will have features of Facebook and Twitter - as well as the GMail base. See the video [1:56]

Course it is all about a place to put advertising, something which Google excels at.

Of interest:

"Indeed, Gmail has gained ground on rivals in Web e-mail. It had 176 million users in December, according to ComScore (SCOR). That left it behind Microsoft's Hotmail, which had 369 million, and Yahoo! Mail, with 304 million. Still, Google grew 44% over the same month in 2008—more than triple the average rate of growth for the category, according to ComScore."

Microsoft and Yahoo have social sharing. Hotmail users can bring in updates from Facebook - and there is the whole community thing at Windows Live. Yahoo has Yahoo Updates tool.

Google might have an edge through a recommender system.

"Google pledges to add something unique to social. One original feature of Google Buzz is what it calls the "Recommended Buzz," which uses a computer algorithm to surface posts and multimedia that friends-of-friends found interesting. With the constant barrage of musings offered up by social media users, there "has become a relevancy and ranking problem," said Google Vice-President of Engineering Vic Gundotra during a briefing for journalists. With its background in search, that's the kind of problem Google is good at solving."

Full description and of Google Buzz and what it will mean to Google and users in Rafe and Josh debate Google's Buzz, Webware. Has a first look video showing the features and integration with other Google pieces.

Yahoo response shows in Google Buzz? MSFT, Yahoo Say ‘Been There, Done That’, Matt McGee, Search Engine Land

Yahoo blew its own horn about its social network endeavour, Yahoo Updates.

"It’s been almost a year and a half since we first launched Yahoo! Updates – a social feature that lets people share their status, content and online activities and stay connected to what their friends and family are doing on Yahoo! and across the Web – and we wanted to share the latest on what’s happening with Updates:"

Social GMail

Won't be long before GMail is a full mail, discussion, chat, social-network service.

Google to make Gmail a little more social by Tom Krazil, Webware (Feb 8)

"Gmail users can already set their status within the service, but Google plans to expand that into a stream of status updates found in services like Facebook and Twitter, according to sources familiar with the company's plans. Users will also be able to share photos and videos through the service, which is expected to launch shortly."

5 Hopes for a More Social Gmail by Ian Paul, PCWorld

Dream on - "Google should build on already popular social networking tools (Facebook and Twitter) rather than trying to convince users to build a Google-centric network."

Google to get social, report says, by Juan Carols Perez, itWorldCanada

Fierce competition. AOL, Yahoo and Google are trying to become full social networking sites - ala Facebook, but users think of Google and Yahoo in terms of the apps - IM, Email. For they complete experience they go to Facebook. Will users completely switch to Facebook, or will they use many services?

"Facebook is increasingly seen as a serious Google competitor, as Facebook has broadened its scope of services and offerings into Google areas. For example, people increasingly search the Web from within Facebook using Microsoft's Bing engine. Meanwhile, many news publishers are also delivering their content within Facebook, rivaling the Google News article aggregation site. Facebook also provides internal messaging and IM capabilities, as well as photo and video sharing features."

Frankly, there is no way that the news you can get through Facebook updates comes anywhere close to the breadth of coverage and features at Google News or Yahoo News.

Yahoo Mail and MB Attachments

Send Really Big Attachments with Yahoo! Mail by Andrew Molyneux, Yahoo Mail Blog (Jan 29)

Yahoo Mail allows attachments upto 100 MB - very big. Sounds like it is using space on a server where the recipient can pick up the attachment.

"Once the files have finished uploading, the Attach Large Files app will open up a new message with the files already attached. The files will be available for downloading for 30 days after you send them, and your upload history is saved so you can resend again if you like. And you don’t have to worry whether or not your recipient’s Inbox can handle these attachments because the attachment is stored over at our app partner drop.io."

Brilliant.

Searching Google Wave

5 Google Wave Search Tips for Research, Trends & Tracking by Ann Smarty, Search Engine Journal (Dec 28, 2009)

Google Wave, the web-based collaboration tool, is developing as a resource for people to mine for topics in discussions. This post shows how to search the "public wave" for topics, keywords, tags, by date, with attachments, and for urls mentioned.

Following one of Ann Smarty's links uncovers a guide book - The Complete Guide to Google Wave by Gina Trapani. Individual chapters may be viewed online.

Thunderbird Email V.3

Mozilla's Thunderbird E-mail Client Comes With Tabs, PC World (Dec 9)

"Mozilla Messaging on Tuesday released version 3 of its Thunderbird e-mail client, which comes with a tabbed user interface and improved search features."

Available from Mozilla Messaging.

Also Mozilla lets Thunderbird 3 fly, by Seth Rosenblatt, CNEt (Dec 8)

Strong endorsement - "Thunderbird 3 rates as a top-notch e-mail client, and it's definitely the best freeware one around. It will require some fidgeting to get it to be usable in a corporate environment, but it's far more scalable to user needs than anything else currently available. "

Shift from Email

Why Email No Longer Rules… And what that means for the way we communicate by Jessica E Vascellaro, WSJ (Oct 12)

Less email, and more IM or tweets or Facebook - whatever is most instant.

"Email has had a good run as king of communications. But its reign is over.

In its place, a new generation of services is starting to take hold—services like Twitter and Facebook and countless others vying for a piece of the new world. And just as email did more than a decade ago, this shift promises to profoundly rewrite the way we communicate—in ways we can only begin to imagine."

People used email unproductively. They'll do the same with all the new message tools - maybe more so.

However, also consider Study: 54 Percent of Companies Ban Facebook, Twitter at Work in Wired (Oct 9)

"According to a study commissioned by Robert Half Technology, an IT staffing company, 54 percent of U.S. companies say they’ve banned workers from using social networking sites like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and MySpace, while on the job. The study, released today, also found that 19 percent of companies allow social networking use only for business purposes, while 16 percent allow limited personal use."

Voice Chat in Facebook

Voice chat app Vivox comes to Facebook by Don Reisinger, Webware (Oct 5)

"A voice chat application launched on Monday in open beta enables Facebook users to place and receive calls within the social network."

Information Overload

How to Beat Information Overload, Nathan Zeldes , IEEE Spectrum (Oct 2009)

Some commenters found this article was overload.

However there are some figures that might startle and some points about what some companies are doing to control email that will surprise.

+ Intel "assessed the loss [of time] due to unnecessary e-mails and unproductive interruptions at 8 hours a week".

+ "Information workers typically receive 50 to 200 work-related e-mails daily. Surveys at Intel showed that people spend some 20 hours a week processing work-related e-mail messages, of which about a third are unnecessary. Processing this third took workers about 2 hours a week."

Solutions? Probably no good ones - but the author has some suggestions drawn from Intel

+ guidelines on e-mail management
+ time management training
+ controls on amount of email
+ setting aside no-interrupt time
+ tools for classifying and handling email

The Information Overload Research Group is about reducing information pollution.

Corporate Web Mail Systems

IBM Aims at Google, Microsoft With New Webmail, IDG via PCWOrld (Oct 1)

Companies are adopting web mail to replace inhouse systems - and IBM has a new and cheaper alternative for them.

"IBM has launched LotusLive iNotes, an on-demand e-mail, calendaring and contact management system meant to compete with the likes of Gmail and Microsoft Exchange, the company said Friday.

Pricing starts at US$3 per user per month, undercutting Google Apps Premier Edition, which costs $50 per user per year."

Voice at Facebook

Voice chat coming to Facebook, Daniel Terdiman, Webware (Sep 15)

Chat comes to Facebook.

"Sometime in the next few weeks, the social network's tens of millions of users will begin to be able to have high-quality voice conversations, even as its third-party developers are able to start including voice in their applications. "

Will require a plugin.

Google Wave Collaboration

The Real Meaning Of Google Wave, Dan Woods, Forbes (Sept 9)

Google previewed its collorative work tool, Google Wave, a couple of months ago. People may have had the impression from it that Google Wave is about a new way to share and work on content. However, it's more than that - as Tom Mornini, chief technology officer and founder of Engine Yard, says - "Wave is a new way to build distributed applications, and it will open the door to an explosion of innovation."

Full demo video is at Google Wave, and an abridged version (10 minutes) at YouTube.

Yahoo Messenger Video Calling

Yahoo Messenger 10 beta: A legitimate Skype rival? by Jessica Dolcourt, Webware (Aug 31)

Yahoo Messenger is moving into social networking and, more importantly, video calling. This article has details and screenshots.

"VoIP and PC-to-landline calls aren't new to Yahoo Messenger, but the icon that calls out video chats is. Most of the major IM clients support voice-over-Internet calls with Webcams. It is Yahoo's attention to video quality makes this build a closer competitor to Skype for Windows, which is a VoIP client first, enriched by chatting, file sharing, emoticons, and games. Yahoo Messenger (and Windows Live Messenger, and so on, for that matter,) are chat apps at the core that have layered on other P2P features."

IM Etiquette

Instant Messaging Etiquette: Five Simple Rules by Christopher Null, PCWorld (Jul 28)

Yes - there is an etiquette.

Microsoft Outlook Tips

Be More Productive in Microsoft Outlook by Rick Broida, PC World (Jul 28)

"Learn how to turn off new message alerts, tweak e-mail subject lines, access Twitter from within Outlook, and add a spell checker."

Thunderbird 3 beta

Thunderbird 3's latest beta out nowby Seth Rosenblatt, Webware (July 22)

"Thunderbird 3 beta 3 is now available to download for Windows, Mac, and Linux users. The beta introduces some significant improvements to the open-source desktop client, from performance to interface. "

Your Own Email Archiving System

Archive your e-mail from almost any account by Jessica Dolcourt, Webware (July 8)

MailStore - free program that will archive email messages from any of your online webmail services and a corporate account (POP3 and IMAP accounts) and display them

"Why use it? You can clear away old messages and attachments, but easily search to find them again when that inevitable moment arrives. Until universal offline in-boxes like Yahoo's Zimbra Desktop start addressing consumers on a wider scale, MailStore Home is also a good way to read mail offline in areas of spotty Wi-Fi, or to use as a de facto message backup."

MailStore Home is available from CNEt Download where there are more reviews.

There Jessica Dolcourt wrote:

"The program's management is straightforward. When you archive an in-box, a wizard walks you through special configuration steps and lets you enter folders to archive or exclude if you want some backed up, but not all. MailStore Home skips your spam, trash, and junk folders by default, and it checks for duplicate messages while going about its business."

Multiclient IM Tools

6 multiclient IM apps to chat about by Don Reisinger, Webware (June 15)

Mix of multi-client IM services - join any service but use one of these IM clients to talk with others.

+ Adium for the Mac. Can customize

+ Digsby - Windows -

+ EBuddy - "Web-based multiclient instant-messaging app through which you can connect to AIM, Yahoo IM, MSN, Facebook, ICQ, and MySpace."

+ Meebo - Web-based - AIM, MySpace, Yahoo, and MSN, Facebook and Google Talk. Can use on iPhone

+ Pidgin - install

+ Trillian - "desktop IM client that supports instant messaging on AIM, ICQ, MSN, Yahoo Messenger, and Internet Relay Chat" - WIndows. Looks good.

More at Meebo

Meebo: We're making bank, by Rafe Needleman, Webware (Jun 9)

"Meebo has had a third-party embeddable (and free) chat product that Web sites can use to give their readers the capability to chat with each other in real time. It works much like Facebook chat, and looks much the same as well. One new feature lets users connect a site-specific chat service into their main Meebo account, which then can connect them to friends from other sites and services. "

Yahoo Email Filter

Yahoo Mail gets in-box filtering by contact, Webware (June 3)

"Yahoo has added a small but useful feature to its Web mail service that lets users filter the contents of their in-box to see only the messages from their contacts. This means that if someone's not on your contacts whitelist, you don't see their message."

Google Wave - viewpoints

Debating the power of Google's Wave by Rafe Needleman and Stephen Shankland, Webware (June 4)

Many views of Google's Wave for communication and collaboration:

"People will see Wave in different ways. For some, it's a clever take on e-mail. Others will see it as instant messaging with new features. Developers will look at Wave's open specs and APIs, and see a framework for new collaborative apps. But is it really any of these things, or just a crazy experiment from Google's Australian outpost? "

iLook Outlook

iLook struggles to make Outlook more social by Seth Rosenblatt, Webware (May 28)

Tall order to make Outlook social-networking friendly.

"The free Outlook plug-in iLook Social and Outlook tries to make Microsoft's ubiquitous e-mail client a bit more sociable by including souped-up searching and filtering, Skype integration, e-mail controls, content and attachment exporting, and Facebook support. "

More on Wave

Lots of excitement about Google Wave as a new approach to communication and collaboration that integrates today's multiplicity of tools.

Google's new Wave by Matt Hartley, Globe and Mail (May 29)

Matt Hartley says -

"The end result is nothing short of an ambitious rethinking of online communication, one that makes e-mail and instant messaging seem as stale as last night’s pizza crust.

It’s as if Google took elements of e-mail, instant messaging, videos, maps, photos and document production, threw them in a blender with a sprinkle of Web 2.0 thinking, added a dash of the usual Google flair and spat out something with the potential to make Twitter’s surging popularity seem like a passing fad. "

Google releases Google Wave demonstration video, by Tom Krazil, Webware (May 29)

Video from Google I/O about Google Wave - communication and collaboration tool - [ 1 hour 20 min ] - includes demo, the APIs, and the protocol. Demo starts at 7:32 min.

Google Wave for Communication

Google Surfs New Wave of Web Communication by Richard Martin, VoN (May 28)

Google is developing a new platform called Wave "that unites various forms of real-time and persistent communications with many of the rich interactive features of social networking sites in a single place, allowing for both business and personal relationships that need not be scattered across different sites and different media."

"Wave is essentially a Web application that creates a shared online desktop where users can exchange real-time messages, share and edit text documents, images, and graphics, incorporate online Widgets, and keep track of ongoing projects and conversations. The technology is being released to developers immediately and will be open to the public later this year."

Google's Wave an online 'Swiss Army knife' By: Juan Carlos Perez, ITWorld Canada (May 28)

Ultimate objective: "a collaboration and communication tool that consolidates features from e-mail, instant messaging, blogging, wikis, multimedia management and document sharing.early version of a collaboration and communication tool that consolidates features from e-mail, instant messaging, blogging, wikis, multimedia management and document sharing."

Zimbra Bi-dextrous email

Yahoo's Zimbra Desktop 1.0 released by Jessica Dolcourt, Webware (Apr 29)

Zimbra Desktop is an email client to watch - works online and offline.

"Zimbra differentiates itself from Mozilla's Thunderbird e-mail client (Windows|Mac) and from Gmail in its amphibian nature as both an online and offline in-box. It also sees itself as a central in-box for all your e-mail, contacts, and calendar information. As such, you're able to access Yahoo and Gmail contacts, calendars, and messages in Zimbra, plus POP or IMAP e-mail from AOL, Hotmail, or your office."

GMail - more viewing power

Gmail now properly reads PowerPoints, TIFFs, Josh Lowensohn, Webware (Apr 24)

GMail is another degree more all-purpose viewer with this latest change.

"Gmail can now open up PowerPoint presentations as well as .TIFF-formatted images that have been received as attachments in its HTML, multi-page document viewer."

"Google continues to build in more ways for users to view and access links and files within Gmail, keeping them within the service or using it inside of another Google product."

Web-Based IM

Microsoft adds Web-based IM to Hotmail, Stephen Shankland, Webware (Apr 21)

IM is becoming part of email.

"Microsoft has begun adding the ability to hold instant-messaging conversations to its Web site.

The company already has added the feature for users in France, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Spain, and the U.K., and has begun gradually adding to user accounts in Brazil, Canada, China, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, and the United States, the company said in a blog post Monday.

The feature is available through Hotmail and also through the people page that lists a Windows Live user's contacts. "

Gmail Suggested Searches

Gmail's search gets suggestive with labs add-on by Josh Lowensohn, Webware (Apr 2)

Gmail is becoming irresistable.

"Gmail has released a new labs add-on (the fifth this month) that tweaks the service's search tool, providing suggestions for contacts and search modifiers as you type. This means that when searching for messages from a specific person it will automatically begin to provide suggestions of who you're trying to search for, just like it does when you're composing a new message."

Gmail Direction

Gmail: Expect bigger changes in next 5 years by Stephen Shankland, Webware (Apr 1)

Todd Jackson, product manager for Gmail. talks about what Google has accomplished with Gmail and what direction will be.

Consider - "But I will say it's a core mission of Gmail to be a powerful tool for all the ways a user wants to communicate. We know that goes beyond mail. This is something that's very much on our minds. We started with e-mail because it's something everybody used and we saw a lot of room for improvement. We're going to be similarly looking for other things like that as new communication technologies emerge. "

Email tired, Social networking wired

The medium is no longer the message by Omar Al Akkad, Globe and Mail (Mar 10)

E-mail is sagging, and social networking surging.

Nielsen reports for December 2008 show percentages of global use:

+ Search - 86%
+ General interest portals and communities 85.2
+ Software manufacturers 73.4
+ Member communities (ie social networks) 66.8 - and had the greatest growth in the last year, up 5.4%
+ Email 65.1

""Increasingly, e-mail is yesterday's messaging platform," said Carmi Levy, technology analyst at AR Communications Inc., adding that the medium has become flooded with spam, forcing users to spend lots of time clearing out junk messages and making sure that spam filters haven't mistakenly directed legitimate messages to the garbage bin. "[With social networks], you don't just connect in static manner, you connect in a dynamic manner - you're taking part in a community."

E-mail appears increasingly passé as social-networking sites overtake it for fourth place in overall online activity

Zimbra Email and Collaboration

Zimbra tops Google's Gmail with 40 million paid mailboxes by Matt Asay, Webware (Mar 6)

Zimbra has a suite of email and collaboration tools. Owned by Yahoo. Who knew? Email is part of Desktop - free download.

Managing Email

Simple Rules to Avoid an Email Avalanche by Gary M. Stern, LinkUP Digital, Information Today (Mar 2)

Wise advice on dealing wtih the rising volume of email. The more we get, the more we answer, and the more we get. Have to prioritize (and there may be tools to help), and implied in this is to send less.

Gmail Downtime

Google users hit by mail blackout , BBC (Feb 24)

Gmail went down for 2 1/2 hours affecting more than 113 million users .

Of interest:

+ "According to comScore, Google has the world's third most popular web mail service behind Hotmail with 283 million users and Yahoo with 274 million e-mail users. "

+ "More than a million business around the world use Google's professional suite of applications, including e-mail. Google itself relies on the service and press spokespeople for the firm were unable to e-mail journalists with statements regarding the problem. "

Fighting Spam and Malware

Worst Spam Countries by Bruce Einhorn, Business Week (Feb 11)

Worst countries for spam are the US (20%) and China (10%)

"That's not that surprising, since the U.S. is the world's largest economy and China has the world's largest online population. "You would expect those countries to dominate," says Paul Ducklin, head of Asia-Pacific technology for Sophos."

Canada is the source for 1.8%.

It's one thing to receive spam that is junk; it's quite another to receive malware or malicious software.

Waledac is a trojan that spreads through email and infects the computer to act as a spam-sending bot. It has been spreading through email cards and greetings.

See:

Waledac Shifts Gears. - Symantec describes changes in Waledac and its the latest Valentine version

F-Secure Malware Information Pages: Email-Worm:W32/Waledac.A - F-Secure gives a short technical description

CA Security Advisor Research Blog - CA Security Advisor shows what it looks like and why you want to avoid love.exe.

Latest Web Threat: Is Waledac the New Storm? - Trend Micro describes how it works and finds strong similiarities to Storm. It also tells us clearly why we should be very careful.

"Being part of a botnet technically takes full control of PCs away from their owners and gives control to bot authors, who are then able to manipulate these infected systems for their own malicious purposes. These activities range from spamming to infect and recruit more computers, to conducting denial of services (DOS, DDOS, EDOS), to perform further cybercrime like information stealing and phishing. "

Postbox - new email client

Using Mozilla code, Postbox rivals Thunderbird by Seth Rosenblatt, Webware (Feb 10)

Postbox is a new email client -- said to be attractive for its social networking capabilities.

"There aren't a lot of Microsoft Outlook competitors out there, but Mozilla's open-source Thunderbird is one of the best. Postbox for Windows and Mac, and built on Thunderbird code the way that Flock is based on Firefox, is a new face on the e-mail field. "

GMail Labs Pumps out new features

Google quietly declares email war on Yahoo by Jennifer Martinez and David Lawsky, Reuters via CIOL News (Feb 4)

More features for GMail users including a way to slow you down from hastily sending an angry message (have to do math question first). But with features will come more advertising. For more information, GMail users should check GMail Labs.

Email Best Practices

Get Read: The Cardinal Rules of E-Mail, Steve Bass, Techbite

Very good advice from the master on how to get your e-mail message read. Major points are about the subject line (make it meaningful), watch the attachments (don't send big ones), and format (please structure and have some white space.)

Offline Gmail

Gmail offline: A guided tour by Stephen Shankland, Webware (Jan28)

GMail does have an offline version and this it the guide to using it.

Microsoft Outlook Annoyances

How to fix the 10 worst things about Microsoft Outlook, by Preston Gralla, itbusiness.ca (Jan 14)

Microsoft Outlook users will appreciate this article with tips and tricks for dealing with its many annoyances.

"Microsoft Outlook is a nearly ubiquitous presence in PC computing - and, seemingly, a universally reviled one. Outlook has countless features, ranging from e-mail gathering to calendaring, contact tracking, to-do list creation and more - yet its tendency toward bloat, sluggishness and unreliability can make it maddening to use."

Coming (or not) in Gmail

Inside Google's Gmail: What's next? by Josh Lowensohn, Webware (Jan 15)

Gmail Product Manager Todd Jackson talks about future of GMail - divulges bits of information, one of which is that the attachment size could go up from the curnnet 20 MB.

Webmail Market Share

Gmail Grew 43 Percent Last Year. AOL Mail And Hotmail Need To Start Worrying., by Erick Schonfeld, TechCrunch (Jan 14)

Comscore's new figures on webmail show GMail growing quickly to challenge the leaders, Yahoo, AOL and Hotmail.

"According to the latest stats, the number of people visiting Gmail grew 43 percent last year to 29.6 million. In contrast, the much more massive Yahoo Mail grew 11 percent to 91.9 million uniques. AOL Mail finished in second place for the year with 46.6 million uniques (plus another 7.2 million visitors to AIM Mail), while Hotmail actually declined 5 percent to 43.5 million. "

Tips for using Gmail

31 Essential Gmail Tips byCynthia Harvey, Datamation (Dec 18)

"If you're one of the millions of people with Gmail accounts, you already know how easy Google's Web-based email is to use. You probably also already know that Gmail organizes messages into conversations, uses Google search technology to search your messages, and comes with an amazing and ever-growing amount of storage space.

However, you may not know that a lot of other unique features are lurking just below the surface. In many cases, a single click in the settings window can turn on features that make Gmail much more user-friendly and set it apart from other Web-based email services. "

GMail Best

What Gmail does better than its competitors by Don Reisinger, Webware (Dec 17)

Don Reisinger claims to speak from experience when he says that Google's Gmail is "... better than its competition on a number of levels and provides the kind of e-mail experience that's simply unrivaled online."

+ block spams
+ has additional applications - can open a spreadsheet file.
+ has very strong filters - "filter that searches through all incoming mail looking for specific people or keywords and once found, immediately categorizes it into a specific folder, forwards it on to someone else, or moves it to the trash, to name just a few functions."
+ ads are not intrusive
+ groups conversation into "one". Has a display that makes it easier to find email.

Reducing Information Overload

Battling Information Overload in the Information Age by Reid Goldsborough, Link Up Digital (Dec 1)

Let's face it - there is too much information to deal with. But there are actions we can take to lower the information overload for ourselves and others. The Information Overload Research Group made up of people from business and academia proposes some coping techniques. Site has tips and articles.

Some email tips mentioned are:

- Don't email someone and then immediately follow up with an instant message or phone call.

- When possible, restrict individual emails to a single request or theme.

- Make sure that the subject line of any email clearly reflects both the topic of the message and its urgency.

Embedded IM

The End of Instant Messaging (As We Know It) By Douglas MacMillan, Business Week (Nov 16)

Standalone chat tools are on the way out. GMail has already added it to its email. Facebook does it. AOL will have something that travels with you as you browse. Microsoft has added it to Windows Live pages.

It will be integrated with "It's the end of instant messaging as we know it. Those chat boxes once commonplace on a computer desktop amid documents, Web browsers, and spreadsheets are giving way to a new breed of user-friendly, real-time conversation tools that Internet companies hope will keep users engaged with their content—and the advertising that appears alongside it. "

Gmail auto reply

Gmail gets auto-replies by Rafe Needleman, Webware (Oct 21)

Gmail users can now set up auto replies -- "... save a reply you're writing as a "canned response" and then quickly select one of these responses when you're replying to a future e-mail."

E-Mail Addiction

E-Mail Addiction: Five Signs You Need Help by JR Raphael, PCWorld ( October 15, 2008)

"Are you addicted to e-mail? A recent study finds the odds are good you checked your e-mail within the last 15 minutes. Here are five warning signs."

Really - what about addictions to IM, Twitter, blog reading?

Tips for webmail users

Being smart about Web mail, by Michael Horowitz, Cnet (Oct 8)

Good tips for people who use web mail accounts such as GMail, Hotmail, Yahoo.

Webmail rankings

Yahoo Email Dominates Web-Mail Landscape, Marketing Vox (Sep 26)

Yahoo Email is the most popular (88.4 million users in Aug 2008), followed by Hotmail (45.2 million), AOL (44.8) and GMail (26.0).

"Yahoo's email service dominates the web-mail market with the highest number of email users, monthly minutes spent per user and times users check mail, according to data from comScore, writes MarketingCharts (via a New York Times blog post by reporter Saul Hansell)."

YouSentIt for Acrobat files

YouSendIt Expands Adobe Acrobat Delivery Options, Newsbreaks (Sept 11)

"YouSendIt, Inc. announced it has expanded its direct file delivery platform with a plug-in for Adobe Acrobat. The YouSendIt plug-in for Acrobat allows users to send files up to 2GB directly from the application, avoiding the need for FTP transfers or burning large files to a CD to ship overnight. Files are not subject to email size limitations or firewall obstructions, and they can also be tracked with YouSendIt’s delivery options so the sender knows exactly when the files have been received."

Information Overload

Being Wired or Being Tired: 10 Ways to Cope with Information Overload by
Sarah Houghton-jan, Ariadne (July 2008) -

"... explores different strategies for managing and coping with various types of informational overload."

Has many good references concerning the problem of information overload. Addressing the problem comes down to prioritizing, organizing, scheduling, and keeping control over clutter.

GMail Woes

Google's Email, Gmail, Having Major Issues by Barry Schwartz, Search Engine Land (Aug 11)

"It is not uncommon for Gmail (Google Email) users to complain about outages and issues with sending and receiving email. But right now, there are hundreds of Gmail users complaining that Gmail is down or simply not sending or receiving emails."

A Convert to Gmail

Why I became a Gmail convert By Stephen Shankland, Webware (Jul 21)

Stephen Shankland gives all the reasons he became a GMail user -- "What attracted me to Gmail was a number of specific Gmail features, but what I've come to appreciate is the big picture: a new way to look at the task of e-mail."

E-Mail Phishing Scams

Avoid e-mail phishing scams - CNet Tips and Tricks (Mar 30, 2007)

Good advice -- "The best defense against phishing e-mail is to ignore it. No reputable company will ask you to divulge information by e-mail."

Gmail logins

Google powers up users' Gmail security arsenal By Caroline McCarthy, Webware (July 8)

Gmail users will want to read about a new feature whereby you can find all the places where you are logged into your email account. Would show up snoopers.

""If you are anything like me, you probably sign in to Gmail from multiple computers," D'Souza wrote. "I, for example, occasionally sign into my Gmail account from a friend's house when I need to check an important email. Usually I remember to sign out, but every once in a while I wonder if I really did. Now I no longer have to wonder.""

Email interruptions

Lost in E-Mail, Tech Firms Face Self-Made Beast By MATT RICHTEL, New York Times (June 14)

A correction to this article says it all. Cost of interrruptions at work due to email is estimated at $650 billion — not million.

Some tech companies are concerned -- "Some of the biggest technology firms, including Microsoft, Intel, Google and I.B.M., are banding together to fight information overload. Last week they formed a nonprofit group to study the problem, publicize it and devise ways to help workers — theirs and others — cope with the digital deluge."

Of interest: "A typical information worker who sits at a computer all day turns to his e-mail program more than 50 times and uses instant messaging 77 times, according to one measure by RescueTime, a company that analyzes computer habits. The company, which draws its data from 40,000 people who have tracking software on their computers, found that on average the worker also stops at 40 Web sites over the course of the day."

Rocketmail returns

Yahoo starts Rocketmail, Ymail MATT HARTLEY, Globe and Mail (June 18)

Rocketmail is back this time and with Ymail will offer people the email addresses they want. It's partly to attract the young crowd, now more drawn to social networking venues.

"In an effort to remain relevant and keep people coming back to their portal sites, Web giants such as Yahoo, Microsoft Corp. and Google Inc. are pushing back against their upstart Web 2.0 rivals and are scrambling to come up with new ways to integrate their instant messaging and e-mail services to make their sites the first destination Web users visit when they go online."

There will be advertising: "Although Yahoo doesn't scan users' e-mails for keywords in order to provide contextual advertising the way Gmail does, it does deliver targeted advertising based on the personal information the user provides when they sign up for their account."

The Numbers: "Yahoo Mail is the most popular web-based e-mail portal in the world, with more than 266 million unique users in April, topping Hotmail's 264 million users and Gmail's 102 million visitors, according to data from web tracker ComScore Inc. "

Also - Yahoo Mail hopes to lure users with 'ymail.com' By Stephen Shankland, Webware (June 18)

When to IM

Getting Rid of E-mail by Dave Pollard, How to Save the World (June 17)

Dave Pollard revisited his article about when NOT to use e-mail (personal, complex, and fyi stuff) - alternatives are phone or face-to-face - still legitimate ways to communicate, and the blog/wiki as the sticky place for posting notices and working collaboratively on documents. But to the list of 10, he adds an 11th that advises us when to use instant messaging.

"For simple, unambiguous, straightforward requests for information, requests for approval and instructions, to one or a very small group of people. IM instead -- IM lets you get an immediate response, and you can migrate to voice, and send files too, when necessary."

Email Bloopers

D'oh! The Most Disastrous E-Mail Mistakes Robert Luhn, PCWorld (June 03, 2008) -- "Want some light entertainment? Check out our readers' true tales of e-mail faux pas, and find out how to prevent them from happening to you."

Scribd for email attachments

Scribd to kill the e-mail attachment By Josh Lowensohn, Webware (June 4)

Scribd - use it for storing documents that are intended as attachments to an email.

"Document host Scribd has a new service for people afraid of opening attachments. It's simply an e-mail address (iPaper@Scribd.com) you add as a CC recipient on your e-mails. If there are any documents attached, they'll be uploaded to Scribd and hosted for you. Less than a minute later the service sends a second e-mail with a link to that document or documents on Scribd, all of which have been set to private--regardless of whether you or the people who are getting the e-mail have Scridb accounts."

Yahoo Messenger 9 Beta

Yahoo gets more social with new Messenger 9 beta by By Stephen Shankland, WebWare (May 30)

More integration with other Instant Messengers seems to be the chief feature of Yahoo Messenger 9 - intended for Windows XP and due in final form in later in the year.

"The new beta of Yahoo Messenger 9 can help user invite contacts on AOL, Google's Gmail and Orkut, Microsoft's Hotmail, MySpace, and other online services to connect through the Yahoo service. Version 9 also includes a special group of all people in your Yahoo address book, helping to connect with contacts users may have stored elsewhere within Yahoo itself."

Avoiding sending hidden messages in email

Hidden Messages in Your E-Mails by Jill Geisler, Poynter Online (Apr 30)

So true - you can unintentionally send something in an email that is perceived as a hidden message to the receiver.

"In fact, research says people try to analyze the motives behind the words and actions of others, and when they do, they're often wrong. (It's called "attribution theory.") Moreover, they may make their guesses through the prism of their worst fears. "

Advice: "Use your first lines as tone-setters, as theme music, for the rest of the message. That will help eliminate the hidden messages you never knew you were sending."

Yahoo Mail Overload

Yahoo’s “Unlimited” Email Hits Its Limit Posted by Lee Gomes to Business Technology blog, Wall Street Journal (Mar 17)

This user of Yahoo Mail managed to overload ts inbox with 55,000 emails whereupon it crashed thereby proving that unlimited does have limits.

CAPTCHA doesn't

Spam from Gmail doubled last month by Jeremy Kirk, IDG via Infoworld (Mar 11)

"Spam originating from Google's Gmail domain doubled last month, indicating that spammers are still defeating the CAPTCHA , the distorted text used as a security test to thwart mass registration of e-mail accounts and other Web site abuse. Gmail spam went from 1.3 percent of all spam e-mail to 2.6 percent in February, according to data released by e-mail security vendor MessageLabs on Monday."

Of interest - CAPTCHA stands for "completely automated public Turing test to tell computers and humans apart"

Book: Send: The Essential Guide to Email for Office and Home

Minding Your Ps And Qs -- Book Review of Send: The Essential Guide to Email for Office and Home -- by Yaniv Nord, Boxes and Arrows (Feb 26)

Email is so simple - who needs advice on how to use it well? Everyone, as can be seen in the parts that this reviewer has selected and commented upon.

Send: The Essential Guide to Email for Office and Home by David Shipley and Will Schwalbe, 2007; Knopf ISBN-10: 0307263649

"The 200-plus pages of email etiquette in Send: The Essential Guide to Email for Office and Home can be summed up similarly. Be sensitive. Consider that every choice made while crafting an email is an exercise in decision-making, tact, and manners. And the stakes are high: with the click of a mouse the whole world can know just how poorly you’ve behaved. We all remember ex-FEMA head Michael Brown emailing his staff, as hurricane Katrina slammed New Orleans, “Can I go home now?”"

ir·re·sis·ti·ble set of warnings.

From the introduction: "Why Do We Email So Badly" -- The 8 deadly sins of email:

1. The email that’s unbelievably vague. ("Remember to do that thing.")
2. The email that insults you so badly you have to get up from your desk. ("HOW CAN YOU NOT HAVE DONE THAT THING!!!")
3. The email that puts you in jail. ("Please tell them that I asked you to sell that thing when it hit $70.")
4. The email that’s cowardly. ("Here’s the thing: you’re being let go.")
5. The email that won’t go away. ("Re; Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: that thing.")
6. The email that’s so sarcastic you have to get up from your desk. ("Smooth move on that thing. Really smooth.")
7. The email that’s too casual. ("Hiya! Any word on that admissions thing?")
8. The email that’s inappropriate. ("Want to come to my hotel room to discuss that thing?")

Posted by Gwen at 03:08 PM

GMail Hacks

Gmail Hacks, Tips & Tricks, Best of the Web (
Note: All tips current as of Firefox 2.0.0.12 and Gmail 2.0 beta.

"You already know that Gmail beats all other email providers with its endless customization capabilities, Google product integration and fantastic spam filter. Take it to the next level with these Gmail power user tips and Greasemonkey extensions for Firefox. We haven’t forgotten the Mac users, either. For more great resources, check out the official Gmail blog and the Gmail Power Users group on Google Groups. "

About Best of the Web: "The original “Best of the Web” got its start in 1994 when Brandon Plewe, then a student at State University of New York, Buffalo, created a platform enabling the burgeoning online community to nominate and vote for best-of-class websites in a variety of categories. From the initial concept of Web Awards, Best of the Web transformed into a comprehensive directory categorizing content-rich, well designed websites. Whether the topic at hand is choosing a college, refinancing a mortgage or planning a party, BOTW is the first stop of many an Internet user."

Hmmm - actually a very small directory, more commercial than not, so-so.

Multilingual GMail

New version of Gmail soon available in 37 languages GMail blog (Feb 13)

"... this version, available for IE7 and Firefox 2, has an entirely new code base, which allows us to add new features more rapidly and share components with other Google applications (we now use the same rich text editor as Groups and Page Creator, and the contact manager can be seen in several Google apps)."

GMail delays

Gmail Delivery Delays - Will a Reply from Google Ever Arrive? Read / Write Web (Feb 11)

Here's a story that will make you stick with your desktop email software or switch back to it - "Significant delays in the delivery of email messages to Gmail users are being widely reported with no apparent response from Google."

GMail Limits

Gmail Has a Daily Limit on Sending Email Digital Inspiration (Feb 1)

GMail has limits. Limits on size of attachments (20MB), and storage size (6B) are to be expected. But GMail sets limits on the number of email addresses for a single email (100 if from MS Outlook or other email program, 500 if from browser web mail), and number of errors in those email addresses. Also - accounts not used after 9 months will be closed.

"Gmail imposes a limit on the attachment size (20 MB) and the overall storage space (6 GB and growing) but there’s also a daily quote on sending email. Break the rules and Google will disable you Gmail account temporarily without any warnings."

Reshaping E-Mail

Yahoo's Plan for a Smarter In-Box Kate Greene, Technology Review (Jan 10)

E-mail is being reshaped to integrate with other applications and with social networking. Yahoo, especially, is working on changes to its web mail program so that it will do much more than just messages.

"Yahoo is integrating a number of new features into its in-box, a move that it hopes will help make its e-mail service more relevant in an age of messages sent via chat programs, cell phones, and social-networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace. In a demonstration on Monday at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang highlighted some of their company's research. In a simple example, they showed how interactions between their e-mail program and features such as a mapping tool could make it easy to organize a social event."

Productivity Tips for GMail

Six Easy Ways to Conquer Gmail Scott Spanbauer, PCWOrld (Dec 17)

"There's much more to Google's free e-mail service than an inbox. Here's how to turn Gmail into a major productivity booster."

Covers archiving, labelling, merge accounts, using IMAP, chat, and phone.

Free IBM Email Search Tool

IBM Offers Free E-Mail Search Tool Chris Kanaracus, IDG News Service (Dec 22)

"IBM OmniFind Personal Email Search is a semantic search engine for users of Lotus Notes and Microsoft Outlook."

"The engine, called IBM OmniFind Personal Email Search (IOPES), allows users to search their mail based on concepts, such as dates and phone numbers, according to IBM. It also allows searchers to define their own concepts.

Once the software is installed, it indexes and analyzes the user's e-mail store. Searches are conducted through a browser interface that delivers results through a stripped-down, Google-like interface."

Composing Email

Looking Good in Email by Reid Goldsborough, Information Today (Dec 15)

Good advice for composing email messages, especially in business circumstances. Starts with salutation, how to quote, and how to close. Doesn't cover when to copy others but does counsel checking the distribution list before hitting send. Makes the very important point that politeness is key - 'Some people choose to dispense with closings as they dispense with salutations, but both are quick nods to politeness or friendliness."

New Emoticons

Emoticons During Wartime by Tom McNichol, New Yorker (Dec 10)

Emoticons are ways to add expression to text in email or in text chat. Tom McNichol has some new ones that soldiers might use in reports.

Attractive Features at GMail

5 little-known Gmail features you may not yet know about GMail Blog (Nov 16)

These look like very good features - perhaps strong enough reason to switch to GMail. Bookmark your emails, filter messages like this, navigate browser-like, share mail searches with friends (and colleagues - could be useful).

Requiem for Email

The Death of E-MailTeenagers are abandoning their Yahoo! and Hotmail accounts. Do the rest of us have to? By Chad Lorenz, Slate (Nov 14)

"Those of us older than 25 can't imagine a life without e-mail. For the Facebook generation, it's hard to imagine a life of only e-mail, much less a life before it. "

In the space of a generation we've moved from letter writing, to email, and now to short text messages. People over 60 are just getting the hang of email and their grandchildren are ignoring it. What once served as a diary or log of our lives - the email archive - is being replaced by the MySpace / Facebook scene.

Gmail 2.0 - Wait

On the one hand Gmail storage is increasing but on the other, people are having problems with slow response from the new GMail 2.0 Looks like that you should stick with the old Gmail for a while longer if you can. And that people considering switching to Gmail should also hold off.

Reminder -- GMail Storage Increasing, Andrew Goodman, Traffick.com (Nov 17)

Goodman waxes positive about the advantages of using GMail and mentions that the storage limit will be 6 GB.

"Like master of micropersuasion Steve Rubel, I use GMail as kind of a personal and business nerve center and intranet (though not to the same extent). One of the many life-saving attributes of GMail is that I can access my "sent mail" anytime, anywhere. So if I sent that vital proposal to a client, or a presentation to the conference organizers and myself... even if the version I sent to myself goes astray, the "sent" version is always neatly archived."

But many people are having problems with the upgrade to GMail 2.0

Gmail Update Draws Gripes by
Juan Carlos Perez, IDG News Service via PCWorld (Nov 17)

"Gmail 2.0 is supposed to be faster, but some users complain it's the opposite--and crashes their browsers."

Yahoo Messenger 9.0

Yahoo Messenger deepens social networking features InfoWorld Media via TMCNet (Oct 30)

Yahoo is trying to make its Yahoo Messenger the core to a social networking service.

"Among its new features, Yahoo Messenger 9.0 will allow people to invite friends to watch videos or flip through photo albums in real time, sharing those activities as if they were sitting side by side in one's living room."

Users will be able to:

+ make IM, voice, or SMS link with another user.
+ transfer files up to 2 MB
+ share photo sets from Flickr
+ call forward to a cell phone or land phone and leave a voice message

Available in new versions - Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, India (in Hindi), and Vietnam

Some figures: "According to comScore, last month Yahoo Messenger had 94.3 million unique users, up almost 30 percent from September 2006 and second worldwide to Microsoft's Windows Live Messenger with almost 227 million."

Meebo Expanding

Meebo Opens Site to Developers By REBECCA BUCKMAN, Wall Street Journal (Oct 30)

"Two years ago, Meebo began offering technology that enables instant messaging through a Web site without the user downloading software from other companies. Now, in a bid to become a broader "destination" site and cash in on the online-ad market, the Mountain View, Calif., company will allow outside software developers to build programs and applications around its instant-messaging technology."

Of interest: "Instead of posting a video on YouTube, a Meebo user could stream video of an event as it is happening and simultaneously share it with a pre-selected group of instant-messaging friends ..."

Encrypting E-Mail

How to Protect E-Mail From Prying Eyes Encrypting your messages isn't the easiest thing to do, but it will ensure your privacy. Erik Larkin, PC World (Oct 24)

Describes what to do with Outlook and Thunderbird - "I worked with two e-mail programs, Microsoft's Outlook 2003 and Mozilla's Thunderbird. To use the built-in support for certificates in either program, first head to Comodo or Thawte, which both provide free certificates for secure e-mail."

Spam Doc

Documentary on CBC Newsworld about Spam - the email kind.

THE LENS
(Tuesday October 16 at 10pm ET/PT on CBC Newsworld)
SPAM: THE DOCUMENTARY
Spam: The Documentary explores the annoying consequences of a seemingly
useful invention: e-mail spam. In a humorous and insightful look into the global culture of spam, filmmaker David Manning meets with Monty Python's Terry Jones, tracks down a spammer in Las Vegas, talks with the world's foremost anti-spammer, and visits the secret control room of AOL.

Watch an excerpt online.
http://www.cbc.ca/thelens/program_171006.html

Source: CBC program alert: http://www.cbc.ca/documentaries/index.html

Reasons NOT to E-Mail

29 Reasons to Not Send That E-Mail by Dan Costa, PC Magazine (Sept 12, 2007)

Costa is so right - "In these days of ubiquitous connectivity and CrackBerry addiction, it is possible to send e-mail anywhere, anytime—but that doesn't mean you should. In fact, I think there are as many reasons not to send that e-mail as there are to send it." Here's a list of 29 reasons not to send e-mail. One of the best reasons is that if the e-mail you are responding to was also sent to others - let them reply. Of course anger is always a reason NOT to send the e-mail.

FYI: Subject is Email

I'll Read Your E-Mail--If You Use Smart Subjects bySteve Bass, PC World (Sep 4)

Scroll down for some excellent advice from Bass on handling email. It refers to an article on how to construct the perfect email subject line. Essentially, don't be cute and don't be vague - say what the message is about or what you want. Brett Kelly, the blogger for crankingwidgets, recommends asking yourself is this is a question, a response, an informational email (FYI), or spam (meaning jokes and trivia) - and label the email as such.

Yahoo Mail and IM

Yahoo adding features to email, Marketwatch (Aug 26)

Yahoo is combining email, instant messaging and text messaging on one site for users in the U.S., Canada, India and the Philippines.

"The new version replaces a one-year-old beta program and adds new features, including text messaging, a more comprehensive search engine and an easier to read and edit contacts database, according to the report. It allows users to click on a contact and then select whether to send that person an email, instant message or text message, according to the report."

Yahoo also offers unlimited storage.

Webmail Storage

Pandia moves over to Gmail - Pandia Search will use GMail for its offices even though GMail offers only 2.9 GB of free storage. It seems that Yahoo is now unlimited and Windows Live is 5 GB.

Using GMail

Is Gmail Picking Up All Your E-mail?, Fons Tuinstra , Poynter Online (Aug 13)

Problems with GMail picking up mail from a new address - might have been the spam filtering. Article has some tips. Also recommends in Infinite Ink for IMAP service providers.

RSS via Email

Nifty Web Services by Steve Bass, PC WOrld (Jul 31)

Recommends RssFwd for receiving RSS feeds through email.

E-Mail Spam Growing

Damm Spam by Michael Specter, New Yorker (Aug 6)

It's clear that no one is really winning the war against spam in e-mail. Bill Gates was wrong in 2003 when after the CAN-SPAM Act in the US, he predicted the end. Far from it - today spam probably accounts for over 90% of the 172 billion messages a day. More than a nuisance, the spam can infect computers with viruses and and hijack them into "rogue robot networks". There are no solutions in this article - just increased awareness. It's up to the user to protect himself and probably at some cost.

Outlook 2003 Email

Manage Your Outlook E-mail - free online course from CNet - learn how to deal with your mail in Microsoft Outlook 2003.

Bass on EMail

E-Mail That Gets Your Message Across Plus: Free disposable e-mail addresses, spam filtering, and mobile spelling help. by Steve Bass (June 21)

Many tips - starting with email etiquette.

New with GMail

Google Opens Up Gmail "Google has removed invitation requirement to join, and increased file attachment sizes to 20MB." Jonny Evans, Macworld UK via PC World (May 29)

The no-invitation-needed has been true for a while, but there is other news here. 20 MB attachments are allowed, YouTube integrated, and there is a connection to Chat,

CNet Course on E-Mail

Having trouble managing an overflowing inbox in Outlook? CNet has an online free course -- " Keep your e-mail files lean and mean - Learn to conquer clutter, manage your Inbox, archive old messages, and more " These courses are run through email and web and are quite good.

Manage Your Outlook Email

Tips for Controlling Email

10 ways to get a grip on your e-mail, by Anne Fisher, Fortune (May 18)

E-mail can be serious a time sink. Here are 10 good tips to reduce the amount you send. But, it leaves out one important courtesy consideration - don't put other people in e-mail hell - answer questions, and acknowledge receipt of important e-mails.

Orgoo webmail

Orgoo - The Web Email/IM Replacement by Michael Arrington, TechCrunch (May 14)

"Los Angeles-based Orgoo is a new webmail service that is going to be a popular application for some users. Not only does it emulate Outlook-style desktop mail applications extremely well, it also integrates instant messaging from all of the major IM providers directly into the interface. If you are looking for a service-independent webmail/IM service, you’ll want to check this out."

Windows Live Hotmail

Microsoft launches new revised online email service Pandia (May 9)

Not Hotmail, not Live mail, but Windows Live Hotmail - this is the new Hotmail from Microsoft - now with 2 GB of space, new spam and fraud protection, and lots of drag and drop. (Doesn't mention that the ads take up a lot of screen space.)

It's part of Microsoft's suite of live products - Windows Live and there is also Windows Live Betas. and of course Microsoft Office Live Beta. .

Windows Live Hotmail

Microsoft Launches Windows Live Hotmail Worldwide, Microsoft press release (May 6)

What Microsoft says - "Built from the ground up, the new Windows Live Hotmail is now safer, more powerful and available virtually anywhere."

Email Filter Tips

Windows Tweaks and E-Mail Tips, by Steve Bass, PCWOrld (May 2)

Has tips on how to set up rules / filters for managing email in Outlook and Outlook Express, and also Eudora.

Yahoo Web Messenger

Yahoo goes Rich Internet Application for its browser messenger, ZDNet (May 3)

"Today Yahoo released a web based version of its messenger which was built using Adobe's Flex 2 on top of Flash Player 9." Works with any browser from any computer (Mac or Windows) - and will connect with Windows Live Messenger users. Finally, the walls between the IM tools are coming down.

See http://webmessenger.yahoo.com/

More description: Yahoo! Messenger, hold the download, Yodel (May 2)

Yahoo Mail - Unlimited Storage

Yahoo! bests Gmail with unlimited storage, by Elinor Mills, Silicon.com (Mar 28)

Unlimited storage for e-mail! That should make packrats of all of us. But people need the space for photos and videos. Yahoo has 250 million users, and is the largest webmail provider in the US and the world. Rollout will begin in May 2007.

"Yahoo! will begin offering unlimited storage for its free web-based email in May. The move makes it the first of the major free email providers to offer unlimited storage but, in all likelihood, it will not be the last.

Yahoo! currently offers 1GB for its free mail service and 2GB for its premium fee-based service. Google's free Gmail service offers more than 2.5GB of storage, and Windows Live Hotmail offers 2GB for free."

Gmail Open To All

Google's free e-mail service finally open to all, AP via Silicon.com (Feb 13)

Google's web-based email, Gmail, is finally open to all. Until today people needed an invitation to set up an account. Users have up to 2.8 GB of space - surely enough to hold all manner of digital things. [Yahoo has 1 GB, and MSN Hotmail 2 GB]. But be aware that using Gmail will mean that the do-no-evil Google knows more about you. This may be good or bad depending on how you look at it. And of course you do get ads, presumably tailored to your interests.

"Making Gmail more widely available is important to Google because other key products like instant messaging and calendar management are tied into the e-mail service, company co-founder Sergey Brin said an interview. ``It has become a real cornerstone for us.''

Because Gmail users often remain logged into Google's Web site while they conduct online searches, the service also helps the company's engineers learn more about individual preferences -- knowledge that can help deliver more relevant search results and foster more loyalty."

Web-based email services from Yahoo and MSN have more users -- Gmail had 60 million unique visitors in December 2006 - "... far behind Yahoo Inc.'s free e-mail, which increased 11 percent to 249 million unique visitors and Microsoft's Windows Live Hotmail, which rose 13 percent to 236 million, comScore said."

Communicating Well

When NOT To Use E-Mail by Dave Pollard, How to Save the World (Feb 6)

Pollard describes 10 situations in which we should not send email. These were written for the workplace but that workplace can be extended to school and home. Email is not suited for everything. Sometimes we should meet face to face. For group communications a discussion forum, blog or wiki could be better.

The first commandment is to not use email "to communicate bad news, complaints or criticism". So - no dear John letters. Add to this, not to send any email written in anger.

Of value to online education - don't use email "to send news, interesting documents, links, policies, directory updates and other 'FYI' stuff". Post it to a forum. If you don't have one, set one up.

There are other communication tools - "If the audience is a community of practice or community of interest, post it on a blog. If the audience is a project team, a group with a shared sense of purpose and urgency, post it to the team's collaboration space or wiki. If the audience is really broader than that, post it to the Intranet, Extranet or public Internet site."

WebMail Today

A Comparison of Live Hotmail, Gmail and Yahoo Mail, Michael Arrington, TechCrunch (Feb 8)

Time to leave the old style Hotmail and earlier Yahoo mail where you had to click to refresh the page for the new Ajax enriched webmail application from Microsoft, Yahoo or Google.

Arrington prefers GMail to the others for speed and storage, but acknowledges that "Yahoo and Live Hotmail offer more mainstream Outlook-like user interfaces". There is a very useful chart that compares features of the three. It's really a contest between Yahoo and GMail -- "If you are looking for speed and tagging is important, Gmail is for you. If you are looking for the closest thing to Outlook online, go with Yahoo Mail.'

Pity - I use Hotmail and have just upgraded to Live. This took two stages - the first for standard, low bandwidth (called classic), and the second to high bandwidth (full).

The MSN Today page shows first with an ad that takes up 30% of the screen. MSN Today is one of 4 display views, the others being mail, contacts, and calendar.

Whenever I use a Microsoft Internet product my first act is always to turn off MSN Today. This led me to the high bandwidth option where I could arrrange the panes for viewing the folders, titles, and messages.

Full version will be slower because it loads the messages. It's easy to switch back to the classic when working with lower bandwidth.

Certainly there are more controls. Live Hotmail blocks attachments until you approve the sender. Under Options > More Options there are rules for using the junk mail folder including junking everything except from contacts and allowed senders.

While you can't pick up mail from a POP account, you might be able to forward email from other accounts to hotmail.

Handling is very nice - inbox, send, receive, move to folder, add a folder - everything seems to be where you'd expect it.

GMail Almost Open to Everyone

Gmail becomes more widely available by Michael Liedtke, AP via Yahoo News (Feb 7)

Google's web-based email, GMail, is open to nearly anyone now who applies from any part of the world, but will be restricted for a little while longer to by-invitation-only in North America, Asia and most parts of the South America.

"The service still remains far behind the competing services run by Yahoo and Microsoft."

Manage E-Mail

E-ddicted to e-mail? Tips for fighting disempowering e-mail habits By: Kathleen Lau, ITWorldCanada.com (15 Jan 2007)

Presents a five-step E-mail self-management program. "She [Marsha Egan] says her program is designed to eliminate these disempowering e-mail habits, and make people more productive".

1. Check email
2. Clear the inbox each time.
3. Use 2-minute rule. Deal with the message in 2 minutes or move the message to a special folder.
4. Set up action folders.
5. Get new email periodically - every two hours, rather than automatically.

Egan has a 12-step program to reduce email addiction.

Yahoo Mail with Shortcuts

Y!Q and Yahoo Maps: New Feature Integrates Info, Maps and More into Yahoo Mail (Classic Version Only), Resourceshelf (Dec 22)

Old version of Yahoo Mail has something of Yahoo’s Y!Q contextual search technology with the addition of Yahoo Mail “shortcuts.”

Meebo

Meebo: New Features Added to Web-Based IM Service, Resourceshelf (Dec 22)

"As instant messaging continues to grow in popularity, Meebo is a totally web-based (and free) tool that provides users access to all of the major IM services (AOL, Yahoo, MSN, and GTalk) in one place."

Good for getting around using a software client.

Email image spam scam

Spam Levels Up by 80 Percent "Image-based spam blamed for surge in junk e-mail over the past month." Cara Garretson, Network World via PC World (Nov 9)

Huge jump in spam and images might be the reason. "Others say a new breed of spam messages called image spam--messages with text embedded in an image file that evade spam filters, which can't recognize the words inside the image--is responsible."

Don't accept email from people you don't know.

Eudora and Penelope

The End of Eudora as We Know It? by Sheri R. Lanza, Newsbreaks (Oct 23)

This is a more reassuring article about Qualcomm's plans to move Eudora over to Mozilla as an open source program. Project is called Penelope. The open source version is expected in the first half of 2007.

"Eudora and Thunderbird will continue to offer different interfaces. Eudora users need not be concerned that once the open source version of Eudora appears, the product will look and act differently than the current commercial version. Aside from the interfaces, another differentiation might be the manner in which each e-mail client relates to other software, such as browsers. Depending on the development path of each product and future technology, Eudora and Thunderbird could continue to diverge or become more similar. When possible, functionality that is added to one might be added to the other."

Eudora going open source

Qualcomm gives Eudora a Mozilla makeover, by Stephen Shankland, CNet (Oct 12)

Qualcomm is getting out of email and is moving Eudora to an open source model based on the Thunderbird email application. The project is called Penelope. New versions are expected in the first half of 2007 .

""It should look like, feel like, act like Eudora," he said. "The goal is to not only maintain as much as possible the feature and user experience consistency, but also, using the open-source community, to continue to evolve the software.""

I suspect that long-standing Eudora users (like me) will want to wait for Version 1.0.

+ Version 0.1 will have "Eudora keyboard shortcuts and software to import current Eudora settings and stored messages".
+ Version 0.5 - "import of current Eudora filters--the automatic actions based on the content of messages--and will feature a more complete user interface. "
+ Version 1.0 - "import all Eudora settings and will support preformatted e-mail templates called stationery."

New Yahoo Mail

Yahoo's excellent Mail Beta now open to everyone by Rafe Needleman, CNet Reviews (Sep 14)

Hot review for Yahoo's new mail program -- "Yahoo's new e-mail reader is now in public beta [previous review]. It doesn't take very much time with it to come to a simple conclusion: it is a fantastic e-mail application. "

Yahoo E-Mail has News

Yahoo Mail Beta Adds News Home Page, Events & Calendar, Search Engine Journal (Sep 11) Yahoo Mail is sounding very spiffy -- Yahoo Mail has a home page with Yahoo News Stories, Advertising, Mail & News tips, and the inevitable internal Yahoo.com offerings. "... a perfect addition to the Yahoo Mail Beta offering, which rewrites the entire Yahoo Mail experience into a 2.0-esque RSS Feed, Event and Calendar integrated offering."

Lycos WebMail

Lycos Revamps Free Webmail Service "Lycos Mail now offers 3GB of storage and the ability to send file attachments of any size." Juan Carlos Perez, PCWOrld (August 02, 2006)

Compares Lycos to Yahoo, MSN, and Google.

Lycos E-Mail

Lycos Revamps Email Offering, SEW Blog (Aug 3)

"Lycos mail has been revamped. Storage has been increased to 3 gigabytes (up from 5 megabytes) and file attachments of any size are now allowed."

The new Yahoo Messenger

Yahoo Launches Messenger 8 With 180 Plugins , Tech Crunch (Jul 28) Yahoo Messenger Version 8 has plugins for sharing files, sending cards (people do this while chatting!), using iTunes, and, perhaps more productively, interactively make diagrams and flowcharts.

E-Mail Etiquette

Tips & Tweaks: Be Less Annoying "Tips for writing e-mail that actually gets read; plus, a doozy of a puzzle". Steve Bass, PC World (Aug 2) - advice to people on "how to stop being obnoxious with your e-mail."

E-Mail Relief

Get Relief From Annoying E-Mail Avoid large file attachments; protect yourself from spam and dopey messages. by Steve Bass, PC World (July 2006)

"Do associates e-mail you humongous attachments? Do dopey friends not know how to blind-copy e-mail to protect your privacy? I have a few ways for you to be less annoyed--and less annoying."

Always good advice from Steve Bass.

GMail Tips

Gmail to the Max: Helpful Tips, Tricks, and Hacks -- Learn to use Gmail's features to their fullest potential. -- by Scott Spanbauer, PC World (Jull 24)

Free Phone Calls

Net phone services falling short, BBC News (Jul 13) -- "Free phone calls via the net sound tempting but the technology is not ready for prime time, says a report." Report covers Skype (was considered the best), Yahoo, Sipgate, MSN, Google Talk, Babble.

Yahoo and MSN IM

Microsoft, Yahoo connect IM services by Elinor Mills, CNet (July 12)

Yahoo, Microsoft beta test instant message interoperability , Marketwatch (Jul 12) -- Wouldn't it be nice if the Yahoo and MSN IM services could talk to each other?

"The interoperability will form an instant-messaging community approaching 350 million accounts, the companies said. Yahoo and Microsoft added that they plan to make the interoperability between their IM services broadly available to consumers in the coming months."

MyWay EMail

MyWay E-Mail Now Searchable, Resourceshelf (July 5)

Lists features at MyWay.com for email. This is possibly the best free web-based email service.

Windows Live Messenger

Search, IM and Share All At Once! from Inside Windows Live Messenger (April 20) - Search with friends through the new Windows Live Messenger.

Mentioned in ResourceShelf as a Search Brief (Apr 24)

Google Calendar

Google offers free Web calendar service, Eric Auchard, Reuters (Apr 13) -- Google has introduced a slick new calendar service for managing everyday. It will even respond to events mentioned in email. Of course, people can share their calendars. Check www.google.com/calendar. There is some interconnectivity with other calendar applications that accepts iCal or XML files.

See Google Calendar Makes an Impressive Debut by Chris Sherman, Searchday (Apr 13)

"Bottom Line: Google Calendar is a very strong initial release, with a good balance between powerful features and ease of use. The ability to easily work with multiple calendars and the sharing features are particularly appealing, especially for people who are dissatisfied with their current calendar application."

Downside is that you have to be online - can't do this on a PDA.

Nigerian E-Mail Scam

4 face 30 years jail in Nigerian e-mail scam By: Grant Gross, IDG News Service (Washington Bureau) (24 Mar 2006)

"Four people have been indicted and could face 30 years in prison for a variation on a popular scam in which e-mail senders claim they're trying to transfer money out of Nigeria, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced Thursday."

Phone from Yahoo's IM

Yahoo Messenger with Phone Features Next Week by Om Malik, Gigaom (Mar 16) -- Yahoo's Instant Messenger will soon have VOIP.

"Yahoo, which has already released a new version of its Communicator (Instant Messaging) product overseas, plans to launch a similar client next week, according to sources familiar with the company’s plans. The new release of the IM client has a brand new voice core, and it allows users to make phone calls to PSTN phones as well, in addition to PC-to-PC calls."

EMail vs RSS

E-mail Postage Stamps? Up with RSS, Traffick.com (Feb 15) -- Cory at Traffick.com strongly argues for RSS as a better solution to spam than permission-based email. There is no spam with RSS. People subscribe to the feed or they don't. He asks eBay and PayPal to get their users to convert to RSS.

Good as this sounds, Cory is overlooking that email programs have some advantages over RSS newsreaders not the least of which it is easier to read and save email messages than RSS items.

This may change somewhat with RSS readers being embedded in the browser - as will be the case with IE7. Article mentions that "Microsoft is taking the high road on this by adopting Mozilla's RSS icon as the standard, and pushing RSS hard in Windows Vista. "

E-Mail Misunderstandings

E-Mail Misunderstandings, "When electronic communication generates more questions than answers, it's time to re-evaluate our habits." by Jill Geisler, Poynter Online (Feb 14)

"E-mail, when it is effective, keeps people informed, expedites work and connects people across distance. But too often, e-mail leaves us with too many questions, and those questions cause problems."

Names eight problems that can arise from things like the tone of the e-mail, the lack of a reply. who gets copies, practice of adding attachments. Good reminder.

Comparing Instant Messenger

Instant Messengers Grow Up and Go to Work Laura Blackwell, PCWorld Test Center (Feb 2006) - compares MSN Messenger, Qnext, Google Talk, Yahoo Messenger, Trillian Basic.

"All conveyed text ably, and all promised Voice-over-IP telephony. Many had more exotic features as well.

Of the five programs that made our chart, Microsoft's MSN Messenger led the pack. We found this application's video smooth, though a little pale; its voice transmission was clear and noise-free. It also permitted faster navigation than similarly full-featured programs did, thanks to an array of clear, identifiable icons."

GMail Chat

Google to Unveil New Chat Feature, by Michael Leidtke, AP via ABC News (Feb 7) Google is adding instant messaging capabilities to its email program, GMail.

"The new chat feature to be unveiled Tuesday will provide users of Google's Gmail service with a list of contacts drawn from past e-mail exchanges and then signal who's available for online conversations."

New features is fully described in Google Integrates Chat with Gmail by Chris Sherman, Searchday (Feb 7)

Charging Companies for sending e-mail

Postage Is Due for Companies Sending E-Mail by Saul Hansell, New York Times (Feb 5)

AOL and Yahoo are going to start charging companies money to deliver their email messages. Senders must agree to send only to people who have agreed to receive this email.

"AOL and Yahoo will still accept e-mail from senders who have not paid, but the paid messages will be given special treatment. On AOL, for example, they will go straight to users' main mailboxes, and will not have to pass the gantlet of spam filters that could divert them to a junk-mail folder or strip them of images and Web links. As is the case now, mail arriving from addresses that users have added to their AOL address books will not be treated as spam."

This could change the economics of the Internet.

"In a broader sense, the move to create what is essentially a preferred class of e-mail is a major change in the economics of the Internet. Until now, senders and recipients of e-mail — and, for that matter, Web pages and other information — each covered their own costs of using the network, with no money changing hands. That model is different from, say, the telephone system, in which the company whose customer places a call pays a fee to the company whose customer receives it.

The prospect of a multitiered Internet has received a lot of attention recently after executives of several large telecommunications companies, including BellSouth and AT& T, suggested that they should be paid not only by the subscribers to their Internet services but also by companies that send large files to those subscribers, including music and video clips. Those files would then be given priority over other data, a change from the Internet's basic architecture which treats all data in the same way."

Tips for Outlook and Thunderbird Mail

Thirteen Simple Ways to Bring Order to Your Inbox - Tips for organizing your e-mail in Outlook 2003, Outlook Express 6, and Mozilla Thunderbird 1.5. - by Scott Spanbauer (January 26, 2006)

Yahoo Mail beta

The New Yahoo Mail is Really Good, Google Blogscoped (Jan 20) - review with screenshot of the new Yahoo Mail. Says it's like Microsoft Outlook and a strong competitor to GMail. It's implied that Hotmail should be toast. This beta version doesn't appear to be available for Yahoo Canada users.

However, the current Yahoo Canada Webmail program is very impressive - 1 GB of memory, can pick up mail from other POP servers where you have an account, format text, add attachments, manage an address book, and several other features. Just have to be able to live with the advertisements.

Web Mail

New Web Mail: More Polished, Powerful by Ryan Singel, PC World (Jan 2006) -- "Microsoft, Yahoo, and Zimbra betas preview Web mail's new desktop-like interface."

IM and RSS Together

What Happens When You Mashup RSS, IM, and Publishing Services? by John Battelle (Dec 30) - Battelle has been predicting that mobile web will "bust out" any time soon. MakeBot, he says, will be the means. This is an IM chat bot - chat, set up alerts, and get RSS feeds on the mobile through IM.

Yahoo Mail Rocks

Cory at Traffick.com says that the new Yahoo Beta Mail rocks - better than GMail, and one assumes that it far surpasses Hotmail.

More Powerful Web Mail In The Wings

New Web Mail: More Polished, Powerful by Ryan Singel, PC World (Nov 24) - "Microsoft, Yahoo, and Zimbra betas Preview Web mail's new desktop-like interface." - expect great new performance and features with desktop-style web mail services.

Eudora 7

Qualcomm has released a new verision of Eudora Mail - QUALCOMM’s Eudora® 7 Email Software Increases Productivity with Ultra-Fast Search, Powered by X1 Technologies Press Release (Nov 15)

Communicating Well Through EMail

How Not to Stick Your Foot in Your Mouth via E-Mail by Reid Goldsborough, LinkUp DIgital (Oct 15) - Good advice on putting your best foot forward in an email all the time by paying attention to spelling, grammar, and expression.

"Appearance counts. Don’t be careless while trying to be efficient or overly casual while trying to be cool. “People wind up conveying a sloppy image of themselves and their organization[s],” said Chan."

Guide to E-Mail

The Complete Guide to E-mail by John Fried at Inc.com (Oct 2005)

"What follows is a guide to the biggest e-mail concerns, particularly security, compliance, and archiving. We'll give you tools for building an e-mail policy now, which can save headaches later, and also advice on buying the right system. There's some gearhead jargon involved, but this stuff isn't really about tech. Ultimately it's about protecting your business."

Yahoo E-Mail Better

Yahoo takes on Google by Riva Richmond, News24.com (Aug 30) -- describes changes to the email service.

Yahoo E-Mail Overhaul

Yahoo to test e-mail upgrade by Michael Liedtke, AP via Globe and Mail (Sept 13) -- "Yahoo Inc. on Wednesday will begin testing a sleeker version of its free e-mail service, shifting to a more dynamic design that mimics the look and feel of a computer desktop application like Microsoft Corp.'s Outlook".

Also Yahoo blends Web e-mail with speed of desktop, Reuters (Sep 14) - "The new version of Yahoo Mail works in a browser, just as existing versions of the program do, but Yahoo has developed ways to short-circuit the multi-second delays that typically delay any action taken in Web-based e-mail programs."

MSN/IM with Bell Mobility

Bell Mobility to offer MSN/IM by Jack Kapica, Globe and Mail (Sept 8)

"MSN IM, which lags behind America Online and Yahoo instant messaging in the United States, is the dominant messaging communications program in Canada. Some 11.5 million Canadians who use MSN IM can use the cellphone version out of the box."

"The service, available to Bell Mobility customers, will cost $3 per month. Those who subscribe to the $5 mobile browser bundle or one of rate plans that cost $35 or more that include the browser bundle will have unlimited messaging without incurring any transfer fees."

Go to Bell Mobility website for

IM with VoIP

Your next phone: new IM tools with VoIP by Elsa Wenzel, CNet (Aug 25)-- " Instant-messaging apps are adding Web-based calling so that you can make free phone calls around the world. " Has a comparison table of features of the IM programs with VoIP. Yahoo, ICQ and Skype also support calling phone on land lines for a small charge. Just a tip - if you are going to use one of these, be sure to get a good headset - don't try to get by with only a microphone.

Yahoo email search

New and Improved Mail Search from the Yahoo blog (Aug 29) - will search attachments, and offers options for refining the search.

GMail and POP3

Gmail Opens Up in More Ways Than One Traffick.com (Aug 26) - Can now send email from GMail using any other email address you have, and with a hack, pick up email from a POP3 account. Posting says that GMail is open to everyone now - but not quite - you can get one if you have a US mobile phone (don't ask), otherwise, have a friend with a GMail account send you an invitation.

Skype for free calls

Google prompts Skype to hustle By Chris Oakes International Herald Tribune (Aug 26) Skype, the Luxembourg-based VoIP company, is responding to Google's move into voice by introducing SkypeWeb and SkypeNet by which others can "build Skype voice and instant messaging communications into their own products or pages".

Skype is the largest of the VoIP services with 51 million registered users but not all are regular users.

Google IM

New Google Talk Offers Instant Messaging & Voice Chat Danny Sullivan, SearchDay (Aug 24) - full and thorough review of Google's IM client, Google Talk. Includes comparison chart of features to AOL, MSN, and Yahoo. Covers what you need to do to get Google Talk - specifically Google EMail.

Google IM

Google planning IM service, report says Reuters via ZDNet (Aug 23)

"Google is set to introduce its own instant-messaging system, the Los Angeles Times reported Tuesday. Such a move would mark an expansion by the Web search leader into text and also voice communications."

Yahoo Web E-Mail Upgrade

Yahoo overhauls free Web e-mail service By Elinor Mills, CNET News.com (Jun 27)

"Yahoo is planning to overhaul its free Web-based e-mail service to make it work more like a desktop e-mail program ... " Beta will be limited to some test users. Expect launch "in coming months".

"Other features of the new service are the ability to quickly search e-mail headers, body text and attachments, view multiple e-mails at the same time in separate windows, and scroll through all message headers in a folder rather than one page at a time."

Yahoo has Dialpad

Yahoo! buys into net phone services firm by Elinor Mills, CNet - Yahoo has agreed to buy Dialpad for Internet telephony and will be adding new voice features to its suite of communication products.

"Yahoo has offered free PC-to-PC voice calling since 1999, but initial enthusiasm for the service faded quickly. In 2002, Yahoo pushed VoIP to the sidelines by removing a "PC phone calling" button from Messenger version 5.5 to accommodate a button for text messaging cell phones. The "PC phone calling" button, now called "Call Computer," made its return to prime real estate in the latest Yahoo Messenger version."

Better Than IM

Skype - like IM but better - it does Internet phone calls for free. It's completely free if you and friend have broadband and are using Skype, but you can also call a landline phone for a very small fee - in Canada and the US about 2 US cents per minute.

This Internet Phone Call's for You Steve's guide to making cheap calls over the Internet. PC World (June 1)

Yahoo Web Mail and Photos

Yahoo pictures easier photo sharing by Stephanie Olsen, CNet (May 25)

" Yahoo has launched a beta of improvements to its free e-mail service that are designed to let subscribers more easily send and share digital photos, the company said Thursday."

Also - Yahoo Unveils PhotoMail by Libe Goad, PC Magazine.

"Once the feature is fully installed, users will be able to again click the Insert Photos button and a pop-up window will allow the user to search for photos and attach them to the e-mail. When the pictures are attached, they will appear as lower-resolution thumbnails in the body of the e-mail. "

And it's free.

Other announcements: "Yahoo also announced several other changes to its e-mail system. Now, users can add customizable news headlines to their Yahoo Mail Welcome Page. All content will be pulled from Yahoo News and will include the top five headlines from one of the following news categories: Top Stories (the default), World, Sports, Tech, Entertainment or Business."

Avoid Rejection in Attaching Files to Email

Sending Large Files Without Mucking up the Works - by Reid Goldsborough, LinkUp Digital (May 2005) - some advice on what to think about and how to do it. Yousendit, Dropload, and Streamload all sound good. Sometimes we need these.

Yahoo IM to get VoIP

Yahoo! to push VoIP 'killer app' with IM update - by Stephanie Olsen, Silicon.com (May 18) - Yahoo will be adding voice over internet (VoIP) to its instant messenger with features like click-to-call and voicemail. AOL, the number one IM chat service, is also looking to integrate voice and video for mobile communications.

"Yahoo!, whose number two instant chat service has an estimated 65 million users, will offer a free update to Yahoo! Messenger during its test phase. In addition to letting people send standard instant text messages, the new version is designed to make it easy to call friends free via computer, send a short text message to a mobile device, share photos or post content to a personal web log."

AOL AIM has EMail

AOL Offers Free E-Mail, Anick Jesdanun, AP via Globe Technology (May 12) -- AOL Instant Messenger users can get a free email account from AOL with 2 GB of storage and no expiration of messages. But there will be ads.

"In the United States, AOL lost more than 500,000 subscribers in the first quarter of 2005 and about five million since its peak of 26.7 million in September 2002.

Card said he doubts AOL will market the AIM mail service heavily to its existing paid subscribers. Rather, he said, AIM mail is a way to keep AIM users from leaving the AIM environment — and its ads — to use Gmail, Yahoo or Hotmail"

Of interest: "According to comScore Media Metrix, AIM is the most popular IM service in the United States, with 21.7-million active users. Yahoo has 19.3-million and MSN 14.8-million."

Gmail's 2 GB

As free storage expands, think outside mailbox, by Charles Bermant, Seattle Times (Apr 9) How would you ever use the 2 GB of space Gmail now offers? Answer: if you use "Web mail as an extension of your home hard drive, a place to park all of your data online". Mentions that Gmail is the "Ginsu knife of Web email services" -- "It includes a message notifier and the embedded Picasa photo-management program (although these features are Windows-only). And a rich formatting feature allows you to get fancy with typestyles, highlights and other textual stimulations."

Email for Business

Write better e-mail - By Deena Waisberg, ProfitGuide.com (March 2005) -- "PROFIT asked communications expert Sheryl Lindsell-Roberts, author of Strategic Business Letters and E-mail, to reveal five qualities of effective e-mail." - boils down to five S's.

+ Subject line - make it meaningful and stick to one topic
+ Simple formatting
+ Specific - conclude with a call to do something specific
+ Signature - it's your calling card
+ Spelling - along with grammar, vocabulary, and salutations

There's also an article about business email etiquette by Reid Goldsborough in LinkUp DIgital (March 15) -- Keeping E-Mail in Top Form. Goldsborough talked with several heavy email users, several of whom are writers. Advice was to avoid being too informal in salutations, check spelling, be careful in quoting message (prefers snippets first followed by your comments), and use a closing.

Gmail

Google Doubles E-Mail Space - AP via Yahoo News (April 1) -- says that Google is doubling space for Gmail users to 2 gigabytes. But GMail is still available to people by invitation.

"Just last week, Yahoo Inc. said it would offer 1 gigabyte of storage to users of its free service. When Google introduced Gmail, Yahoo was providing just 4 megabytes of storage. Microsoft Corp.'s Hotmail now offers 250 megabytes, up from 2 megabytes at Gmail's launch. "

More Storage at Yahoo Mail

Yahoo Ups Free Email Storage to 1 Gigabyte Reuters (Mar 22) -- Yahoo will be increasing storage space on its free email accounts to 1 GB in late April, May. Free subscribers will also be able to remove viruses from attachments. Competitor MSN offers 250 MB for free Hotmail accounts. Users who pay $20 / month at Yahoo or Microsoft each get 2 gigabytes of storage plus some other features.

Etiquette of Email

Keeping E-Mail in Top Form by Reid Goldsborough, LinkUP Digital (Mar 15, 2005) - several points of etiquette.

Tips for Email

Tips for Mastering E-mail Overload By Stever Robbins, HBR Working Knowledge (Oct 2004) Good advice for construction the subject line and first sentence, who to copy, blind copies, editing included text, and much else. Should cut overload.

Is GMail Close to Launch?

Gmail moves to next stage by Matt Loney, CNet (Feb 18) Google has been sending out invitations to use the GMail email service rather that relying solely on the current membership inviting their own friends (current users are allowed to connect 50 other people). GMail offers 1 GB of storage, is known for its search capabilities, and for its context-sensitive advertisements. People are wondering when Google will offer open subscriptions.

Also see How Gmail Works - A look at the most buzzworthy development in e-mail in years; much for small business users to eventually consider - by Demir Barlas, Line56 (Feb 15)

Line 56 recommends GMail to small business users -- "A recent Line56 test of Gmail revealed it to be a service that could be particularly useful for the smaller business user who, unable to afford more potent malware-fighting software, IT safeguards, and basic content management, can get those features from Gmail. "

Return of MyDoom Worm

MyDoom Worm Spreads Via Search Engines -- Latest variant finds e-mail address on your hard drive and on search engines -- PC World (Feb 17) In brief, when the worm gets on a hard drive it picks up the email addresses and then finds more on the Web by searching on the domain at search engines. It does its emailing from its own mail server. All the more reason not to put your email address on a web page or in a weblog, and to make sure virus definitions are uptodate all the time.

Web-based Conferencing

Web Meetings for Nothing, Collaborate for Free By Dan Muse (February 15, 2005) SmallBusiness Computing.com

Convoq is giving away ASAP Express for one-on-one conferencing.

"ASAP Express will allow you to conduct unlimited free one-to-one Web meetings featuring VoIP, video, text chat, screen sharing, PowerPoint and file transfers. "Express is for one-to-one meetings, and for many scenarios that's enough," Shah said."

There is a corporate version for 15 participants at only $249 and a full conference room for more.

GMail

Gmail Steals Users From Hotmail TechWeb News (Feb 16)

"Fifty-seven percent of the users with a new Gmail account were changing from Hotmail, said Return Path's 2004 data, while just 27 percent were switching from Yahoo. The remaining 16 percent was split between AOL, MSN, and Comcast."

A Whitelist World

E-mail apocalypse: now Molly Wood, ZDNet (Feb 3) Spam by some estimates represents 88 percent of all email. The Can Spam Act passed in the US about a year ago is partly to blame. Exclude lists - or blacklists - are controlling the flood. The answer is probably whitelists - building lists of email addresses from whom you will accept email. Says, "Whitelists are a pain in the posterior, don't get me wrong, but we can ease into them."

Thunderbird for Email

First Look: Thunderbird 1.0 a Winner "Mozilla's upstart e-mail program makes a strong case for dropping Outlook." Dennis O'Reilly, PC World (December 23, 2004) - has spam filters and protects against javascript being executed in a message.

AOL Free E-Mail

AOL gets ready to launch free Web e-mail by Jim Hu, CNet News (Dec 22) -- "America Online is testing a Web-based e-mail service that will compete with Yahoo Mail, Microsoft's Hotmail and Google's Gmail."

New Google Groups

New Google Groups Opens To Public SearchEngine Watch Blog (Dec 2)

Google Groups with mailing lists (http://groups-beta.google.com/) is now out of beta (but still has the beta tag). This is the Yahoo-Groups-like service where you can create your own group and discussion area as well as search the newsgroups.

If you prefer the old Google Groups that just let you search and post to established newsgroups, stick with http://groups.google.com/

See Google Enhances Discussion Groups by Michael Liedtke, AP via SunHerald (Dec 3) -- describes upgrade and Google's marketing purpose (more advertising!) .

Mozilla Mail - Thunderbird

Mozilla previews e-mail program by Paul Festa, CNet (Dec 1) Mozilla is going head to head with Microsoft in introducing Mozilla Mail, direct competitor to Outlook Express. But, as this article points out, eMail is a crowded field right now. There are many alternatives including web-based email as well as ad-based software. Nonetheless, Thunderbird, as it is called, could attract users with its new features for saving searches, blocking spam, and RSS integration.

"Thunderbird offers a laundry list of features commonly available in e-mail applications, including support for the IMAP, LDAP and POP mail protocols and HTML mail; message labels, search, and an address book; return receipts, message filtering, import functions, and a tool for managing multiple e-mail and newsgroup accounts."

Yahoo Mail

Yahoo takes on spam, boosts e-mail storage by Jim Hu, CNet (Nov 15) - Yahoo has boosted storage allowances for email and added some anti-spam guards.

Anti-spam comes from the use of Domain Keys to authenticate outgoing email from Yahoo. Full protection depends on the receiving end recognizing the keys.

Free email users will get 250 MB of storage and be allowed attachments up to 10 MB. Premium subscribers can have 20 MB attachments.

SuperPages Canada

Acquisition of SuperPages Canada Completed Business Wire via Yahoo Finance (Nov 9)

"Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ - News) and Advertising Directory Solutions, a corporation formed by an affiliate of Bain Capital to implement the acquisition of SuperPages Canada, today announced that the acquisition of the company has been completed. Verizon Communications announced the definitive agreement to sell its directory operations in Canada to Bain Capital for $1.54 billion U.S. ($1.985 billion CDN) on September 8, 2004."

Yahoo EMail

Yahoo! Adds to E-mail, RSS Assets ClickZ News (Oct 22) Yahoo bought Stata Labs, "developer of the searchable e-mail client/RSS reader Bloomba and the SAproxy Pro spam filter". Yahoo must have plans.

Yahoo Mail the best

Hotmail Losing Steam Arik Hesseldahl, Forbes (Oct 1) Advises against using Hotmail and calls it a "sub-par product". Of Hotmail, GMail and Yahoo Mail, Hesseldahl prefers Yahoo!'s paid service. $20 buys 2 GB of storage, support for POP3 access, automatic forwarding of mail, and a search facility.

Sender ID - is this the fix?

E-mail's about to get better By Tristan Goguen. Globe Technology (Sep 24) Sender ID may be the method for authenticating email senders and closing the doors to phishing scams and spam. Doesn't say when we should start seeing this or what we have to do to use it.

Use of IM growing

How Americans Use Instant Messaging PEW Internet and American Life Report (Sept 1, 2004)

53 Million American Adult Internet Users use Instant Messaging
24% of Them Use IM more Frequently Than Email,
IM Also Gains a Following in U.S. Workplace

Web-based MSN Messenger

Microsoft Tests Web Messenger "New MSN Messenger service doesn't need a client installed on your desktop." PC World (Aug 6) Web-based IM service - text only - yea. Yahoo has a Web client for Yahoo Messenger.

IM for Collaboration

Instant Messaging Managing the risks and rewards by Reid Goldsborough Link-Up Digital (August) - There are benefits from using instant messaging for business, but also risks of waste and liability.

Hotmail Premium

MSN Launches Hotmail Plus By Shasta Jean-Mary, PC Magazine (July 21) Microsoft has released its new Hotmail Plus in 30 markets - 2 GB storage, 20 MB attachments, no expiry, and no advertising. Enhancements to the free Hotmail service will follow.

More email storage

Hotmail to offer 250MB of free storage by Jim Yu. CNet (June 23)

"The upgrade will increase Hotmail's free e-mail storage limits from 2 megabytes to 250MB and its paid e-mail service, which costs $19.95 a year, from 10MB to 2 gigabytes. The changes will begin in early July. "

Ask Jeeves, Microsoft join e-mail battle By Matt Marshall. Mercury News (June 24) Ask Jeeves will be offering free e-mail storage of 125 megabytes on its three portal brands, www.myway.com, www.Excite.com and www.iWon.com.

E-Mail Authentication

Is E-Mail Doomed? "Under attack by spam, phishing, and viruses, e-mail users may seek other ways to communicate." by Dennis O'Reilly, PC World (June 21) -- Speakers at the E-mail Technology Conference in San Francisco suggested that email could drop in popularity because of problems with spam and security.Some are turning to e-mail authentication to stem spam and other unwanted mail. This article mentions Sender ID and Yahoo's DomainKeys for validating IP addresses.

Genie Tyburski turned to Mailblocks, a challenge-response system, to gain control over her email. Email: Is the Killer App Dying?

Also see Father of the internet says email ID will cure spam by Stefanie Olsen Silicon.com (June 18 2004) Vint Cerf argued for standardising methods for authenticating email senders in order to filter out spam.

Confidential email

Corporations are finally becoming concerned about outgoing mail that divulges confidential information.

"A SurfControl survey of roughly 400 UK IT managers and HR officers found that more than one-third (39 percent) have received confidential information via e-mail that was not intended for them. Nearly twice as many IT professionals received confidential data by mistake compared to human resource (HR) professionals — 45 percent versus 23 percent, respectively. "

Companies need strict policies for outgoing e-mail.

Spam: Problems Coming and Going by Robyn Greenspan. ClickZ (June 29)

Yahoo buys Oddpost

Look for changes in Yahoo Mail to counter the interest in Google's Gmail. Yahoo acquires Web communication startup Oddpost Michael Liedtke, USA Today via Associated Press (July 14) Oddpost is web-based email but the interface works more like a software application. Competition for email customers is getting fiercer - Yahoo Mail now offers 100 megabytes of storage in its free version.

Yahoo Mail

Yahoo fortifies free e-mail AP via Globe and Mail (June 14) Yahoo has beefed up its web email by increasing storage to 100 MB (Google's GMail promises 1000 MB) and will make thousands of unused email addresses available. Yahoo is the leading web email service. In April it had 39.8 million unique users v MSN's 34.6 million.

Also see Yahoo Upgrades Email to Compete with Google's Gmail> by Chris SHerman. SearchDay (June 15) - describes the premium service, Mail Plus, available for $19.99 USD / year.