Yahoo! Mail Beta guy makes a splash
Disclaimer - just for the record, I work for Yahoo!. I specifically work on a component of the Yahoo! Mail Beta, though I wasn’t part of the Oddpost acquisition. I love working for Yahoo! I think it’s a great company with fantastic people and several good products. I am speaking on behalf of myself only. I’m not speaking for my coworkers or my company. This post is my opinion and my opinion alone.
Recently, the entire team of engineers, designers and managers who worked on the Yahoo! Mail Beta (myself included) was presented with a figure. It’s a tribute to all the blood, sweat and tears that went into the beta. He’s a cute little guy striking the thinker’s pose in an office chair.
Shortly after we released the beta, Walter Mossberg published his review of the service (looks like the WSJ is now protecting that article with their free registration). He spends about 40% of the article reviewing what we do right and the other 60% smacking Google around for not giving the user what he thinks they want. The figure recently given to the engineers does essentially the same thing. Included with the figure is a small podium with a message. The message applauds the prodigious ass kicking of Gmail. I’ll set aside the fact that it’s difficult for a limited public release beta to kick anything’s ass. Why can’t our hard work be allowed to speak for itself? Why can’t we just say, “that’s a damn fine webmail”?
Here’s my revised text for the plaque:
“Presented to the Yahoo! Mail Team by the good people of Yahoo! in recognition of tremendous intellectual effort put forth in order to release the beta.
Not since the company founders first produced Yahoo! has so much brainpower been focused on producing such an enjoyable web application.”
More pictures:
- Kiss this! (since removed)
- Mail Guy’s plaque (since removed)
- The Mail Guy
More coverage:
- Google Blogoscoped
- Slashdot
- fury.com (a former Yahoo!)
- jr conlin (a current Yahoo!)
November 6th, 2005 at 3:22 pm
i agree here. No one needs to compare Yahoo Mail to any other services to understand its true value. Gmail is far from being the reference in terms of webmail in my opinion.
should the Yahoo Mail beta team be awarded for something i believe that’d be to have kicked the desktop software’s ass
November 8th, 2005 at 12:25 am
Ryan, great post! I like your revised plaque version.
Also, I wanted to give you some strong kudos on your Mail beta. I haven’t yet had a chance to write up a review on my blog but hope to soon. In a nutshell, I’m very impressed; you’ve done a super job making the user interface intuitive, the processes quick and slick, and the whole experience, as you so rightly put it, enjoyable.
I was a huge fan (and at least temporary paying member) of Oddpost back in the day; what a smart acquisition! And clearly, great updates on your part and on the part of your colleagues. Congrats!
November 8th, 2005 at 1:29 am
Thanks Adam, glad to hear you enjoy using the beta as much as we enjoy working on it.
I’ll keep my eyes peeled for your review.
November 8th, 2005 at 10:40 am
Do you stay in Tallahassee
November 8th, 2005 at 3:22 pm
I read your article and I think it’s cool for you to like your job and workplace, but let’s face if otherwise you wouldn’t put it in a blog did you !?
I also think it’s cool that the new webmail fromYahoo resembles more and more like a desktop experience, But i think it’s very sad that you praise your product only as a try to overshadow Gmail suberb webmail
Besides that, the focus of Gmail it’s not to try to give a desktop experience to the user but to give him a better exprience in reading mail and keeping organized and within context. “Searh don’t sort” !!
Yahoo’s new fancy Webmail maybe all bells and whistles now but brings nothing new to to solve an old problem. What makes Google great is the ability to be innovative regarding old ways of doing things and beacause this Yahoo and everyone else will be one step behind .
BTW: the review you link about fails miserably in making an imparcial comparisson about the two systems because the reviewer just doesn’t understand what to evaluate: the interface, or the user experience, they are diferent you know !
cheers
November 8th, 2005 at 4:27 pm
Tyson, no…I’m in California.
November 8th, 2005 at 4:31 pm
Paulo, I believe you are confused. I have never praised my product in order to overshadow Gmail. I’ve only ever praised my product because I love using it as much as I love working on it. If there were no Gmail, I would still love it. My love and praise for my product has absolutely nothing to do with Gmail.
I actually think Google has a great product in Gmail. It’s a fresh perspective on managing your mail that a lot of people really like.
As for the Mossberg review, if you have a problem with it then take it up with the writer (mossberg@wsj.com).
October 11th, 2006 at 12:16 pm
I want to go back to the former mail. I am not sure how to do that and I get erors when Itry to access mail now that I d/l beta. I do not know the message just want to go back to the old way to access my mail.
October 12th, 2006 at 11:24 am
Liz, when you launch Yahoo! Mail Beta, there’s a link at the top that says “Switch Back”. If you click that, you’ll be able to go back to the classic Yahoo! Mail.