5 ms·

Gmail? Hotmail came out in '96, Yahoo mail not long after. The opportunity regarding the family appliance, if there is one, is to make it self-managing.

manachar 12y ago
Ah, yes, very good point. I didn't mean to insinuate that Gmail was the first. Hotmail rocked when it came out and made me a happy customer when I could have a personal email address that wouldn't change. Gmail entered later in the game and "bought" new users with massive free storage and a more modern web interface.
tacostakohashi 12y ago
It's true that Hotmail & Yahoo were available well before Gmail, but pre-AJAX webmail wasn't fit for serious use - it was more of a backup for people traveling, or for ad-hoc use, and most email use was from desktop software (Eudora, Outlook Express, etc). Gmail was really the first webmail usable as a person's only email address, lot least because of the 1G storage on offer.
- digisign 12y ago
  Not sure I agree. Webmail has always been usable for normal people, while power users could and do use a dedicated program. Gmail did bring innovations, of course, but competitors copied them. I've noticed Gmail users tend to be unaware of alternatives and always wondered why that is.
- Al-Khwarizmi 12y ago
  I was a user of Yahoo mail from 1996 or so, and it fit my bill just fine. I preferred it to POP and IMAP clients as I could use it from anywhere without worries. The pure HTML interface was much leaner and faster than the bloated Ajax versions that came later, and I kept using the old HTML version and disabling new versions until they definitely phased it out. I did switch most of my use to Gmail when it came out, but it was due to superior search and more space, not due to Ajax.
- slavik81 12y ago
  I signed up for hotmail in 1998 and didn't use a desktop client for it until maybe 2008. It was perfectly fine for me as a student, though I did wish I could attach larger PowerPoint presentations.

manachar 12y ago

Ah, yes, very good point. I didn't mean to insinuate that Gmail was the first. Hotmail rocked when it came out and made me a happy customer when I could have a personal email address that wouldn't change. Gmail entered later in the game and "bought" new users with massive free storage and a more modern web interface.

tacostakohashi 12y ago

It's true that Hotmail & Yahoo were available well before Gmail, but pre-AJAX webmail wasn't fit for serious use - it was more of a backup for people traveling, or for ad-hoc use, and most email use was from desktop software (Eudora, Outlook Express, etc). Gmail was really the first webmail usable as a person's only email address, lot least because of the 1G storage on offer.

digisign 12y ago
Not sure I agree. Webmail has always been usable for normal people, while power users could and do use a dedicated program. Gmail did bring innovations, of course, but competitors copied them. I've noticed Gmail users tend to be unaware of alternatives and always wondered why that is.
Al-Khwarizmi 12y ago
I was a user of Yahoo mail from 1996 or so, and it fit my bill just fine. I preferred it to POP and IMAP clients as I could use it from anywhere without worries. The pure HTML interface was much leaner and faster than the bloated Ajax versions that came later, and I kept using the old HTML version and disabling new versions until they definitely phased it out. I did switch most of my use to Gmail when it came out, but it was due to superior search and more space, not due to Ajax.
slavik81 12y ago
I signed up for hotmail in 1998 and didn't use a desktop client for it until maybe 2008. It was perfectly fine for me as a student, though I did wish I could attach larger PowerPoint presentations.