So was/is it worth moving away from my Yahoo mail account to Gmail?
Category Yahoo Google
Shortly after Microsoft announced their intention to take over Yahoo months ago, I decided that I really wanted no part of a MicroHoo online presence. I've had the twduff email address at yahoo.com for years, and I've normally considered that my primary email address. The duffbert account at gmail.com started picking up some of my traffic once Google rewrote the rules for web-based email accounts. After the Microsoft announcement, I dropped my paid account status for Yahoo. I routed more of my normal email to gmail.com. I even changed my homepage from My Yahoo to iGoogle. Other than Flickr, I don't consider Yahoo a primary site for anything I do anymore.
So now that the MicroHoo merger is dead, do I still feel my moves were warranted? In terms of quality of service, there's no question. Yahoo email spam protection is nearly useless.
I've noticed that 99% of the spam that gmail catches is true spam. I still do a quick scan of what's out there before I delete it, but it's nearly always spam. Although I must admit I'm still entertained by emails with titles such as "Your killer sausage will impress them all!" Glad they like my culinary skills...
Yahoo email seems to be a crapshoot. I can get an email from someone and reply to it. I'll add their address to my contact list. With few exceptions, their response back to me will be considered spam. Newsletters seem to use a random number generator to determine if they'll be spam or inbox material each time. And I'm really tired of all the enhancement emails that Yahoo can't seem to figure out don't belong in my inbox. For a company that's been doing web-based email offerings for such a long time, I'd expect them to be at the leading edge of getting spam protection right. My experience is that they're one of the worst.
I'll admit I liked My Yahoo better than iGoogle, as iGoogle seems to be a bit slow to load some of the modules. Conversely, there's quite a choice of iGoogle modules to choose from.
Bottom line... I think Microsoft was incredibly ill-advised to offer Yahoo that much money for the company. I've got to believe that Yahoo lost some level of traffic from people who wanted nothing to do with Microsoft. And if there was a drop in traffic to Yahoo based on that, I've got to think that they'll be hard-pressed to get it back. I don't think Yahoo's offerings are special or different enough to cause people to switch back once they abandon them.
Shortly after Microsoft announced their intention to take over Yahoo months ago, I decided that I really wanted no part of a MicroHoo online presence. I've had the twduff email address at yahoo.com for years, and I've normally considered that my primary email address. The duffbert account at gmail.com started picking up some of my traffic once Google rewrote the rules for web-based email accounts. After the Microsoft announcement, I dropped my paid account status for Yahoo. I routed more of my normal email to gmail.com. I even changed my homepage from My Yahoo to iGoogle. Other than Flickr, I don't consider Yahoo a primary site for anything I do anymore.
So now that the MicroHoo merger is dead, do I still feel my moves were warranted? In terms of quality of service, there's no question. Yahoo email spam protection is nearly useless.
I've noticed that 99% of the spam that gmail catches is true spam. I still do a quick scan of what's out there before I delete it, but it's nearly always spam. Although I must admit I'm still entertained by emails with titles such as "Your killer sausage will impress them all!" Glad they like my culinary skills...
Yahoo email seems to be a crapshoot. I can get an email from someone and reply to it. I'll add their address to my contact list. With few exceptions, their response back to me will be considered spam. Newsletters seem to use a random number generator to determine if they'll be spam or inbox material each time. And I'm really tired of all the enhancement emails that Yahoo can't seem to figure out don't belong in my inbox. For a company that's been doing web-based email offerings for such a long time, I'd expect them to be at the leading edge of getting spam protection right. My experience is that they're one of the worst.
I'll admit I liked My Yahoo better than iGoogle, as iGoogle seems to be a bit slow to load some of the modules. Conversely, there's quite a choice of iGoogle modules to choose from.
Bottom line... I think Microsoft was incredibly ill-advised to offer Yahoo that much money for the company. I've got to believe that Yahoo lost some level of traffic from people who wanted nothing to do with Microsoft. And if there was a drop in traffic to Yahoo based on that, I've got to think that they'll be hard-pressed to get it back. I don't think Yahoo's offerings are special or different enough to cause people to switch back once they abandon them.
Comments
thanks for the review. Using both gmail and yahoo i also believe gmail is superior.
The Spam filtering is first class and the search just works.
However be aware that gmail "might" loose some of your emails. Hard to believe considering the amount of servers they have but they lost some email of mine and i heard various others complain also. { Link } Most reports are from 2006 but to me it happened in November 2007 just when Gmail upgraded to a new design. Around 20 days worth of emails were lost. Thank god I had a back up :) myself.(redirection to yahoo).
Posted by Andre H At 02:14:55 On 13/05/2008 | - Website - |
Posted by Henning Heinz At 04:57:29 On 13/05/2008 | - Website - |
Then, last year, Yahoo released an *upgrade* of the sync product, and, incredibly, dropped support for syncing with a PPC calendar. Why, why, why?
I got a Gmail account, imported my calendar entries from Yahoo, downloaded a different sync program for my handheld, and I am in business again.
A bad decision by Yahoo developers (or management?) led to my defection. It had nothing to do with Microsoft.
There is only one Yahoo Calendar feature that I miss in Google's: the ability to specify what holidays you want displayed. Other than that, I am happy again.
Posted by Barry At 08:42:21 On 13/05/2008 | - Website - |
No problems, mon!
Posted by Barry At 08:47:57 On 13/05/2008 | - Website - |
Posted by Curt Stone At 10:34:08 On 13/05/2008 | - Website - |
I've been using Yahoo for almost 10 years, and have never had a problem with their spam filtering. Sure, occasionally something slips by, but if I get one spam message per week in my inbox, I'm OK with that.
Plus, contrary to Barry's experience, I've found that gMail will not sync with a Palm device. Yahoo will. End of story for me.
Posted by Esther Strom At 12:11:43 On 13/05/2008 | - Website - |