Webmail War：Gmail vs.Utlook.com vs. Yahoo邮件

以前的 12 Page 2

Google's Gmail email service is still a fine choice, rich with meta-organizational features and external connectivity options -- although its highly useful sync features for Outlook are now only available for paying customers.

Outlook.com

Launched in 1996 and acquired by Microsoft in 1997, Hotmail was one of the first and best-known free email services. Then Gmail ascended in popularity and Hotmail sank from view --最近复活了as Outlook.com, part of Microsoft's collection of Live-branded online services.

至少可以说，从Hotmail到Outlook的变化一直是激进的。Outlook.com在此之后直接采用图案的界面Windows 8's UI, with lots of white space, large icons and a preview pane. The only cosmetic changes a user can make are to the color scheme used for the top bar and the fonts used for creating new messages. Also, while Gmail includes a single text-only strip of ads near the top, Outlook.com sports ads that take up the entire right-hand margin of the main window.

Outlook.com在Windows 8的UI之后直接采用一个界面，上面有很多空白，大图标和一个预览窗格。点击查看大图

According to Microsoft"Outlook.com won't sell the contents of your email to advertisers, and Outlook.com keeps ads to a minimum." That said, on the page labeled"Who delivered this ad to you?"，据指出，一部分在线广告是根据过去的在线活动定制的。同一页面使您可以自定义个性化或将其关闭。（我收到的所有广告都是为各种商品和服务的Bing购物广告，主要与计算机有关。）

Any POP email client can be configured to download messages from Outlook.com, and the desktop version of Outlook can与服务联系via the Outlook Hotmail Connector.

One major connectivity omission for Outlook.com isn't likely to be fixed any time soon: There's no support for IMAP. Instead, Microsoft is pushing for the use of its own proprietary Exchange ActiveSync protocol. As a result, the only way to back up Outlook.com is by attaching a desktop copy of Outlook and using the Hotmail Connector.

On the other hand, you don't have to freak out about using up your inbox space: There's no storage cap for Outlook.com mail accounts.

The search functionality is pretty good. Start typing in the search box at the upper left part of the screen and you're automatically presented with a list of possible contacts, along with options to search for the term as a from:, subject: or to: query. There's also a link to an advanced search window, where you can search within a date range or by keyword, among other things. You can search by whether or not mail has an attachment, but you can't search inside attachments -- not even for content you'd think would be supported (e.g., Microsoft Office files).

That said, Microsoft Office documents emailed as attachments can be opened in Office Web Apps and are automatically uploaded into your SkyDrive account when you open them for editing. Even better, when you finish editing, the resulting document can be automatically emailed back to the recipient with a link to the in-cloud SkyDrive copy. That way you're not eating up bandwidth shuttling the file back and forth.

Outlook.com还通过基于声誉的系统来阻止可疑的病毒：来自声誉较差的各方的内容（例如，爆炸式垃圾邮件发送者）将被阻止，但是您可以为信任的人解除封锁附件。某些附件类型 - 例如，即使对于值得信赖的发件人，EXE文件也会完全阻止。

A clutch of categories

除了消息文件夹外，Outlook.com还配备了15个预先生成的消息类别标签：“账单”，“家庭”，“旅行”等。您可以添加自己的自定义类别，但奇怪的是，您无法删除或编辑Microsoft-Supplied类别。（gmail让您更改或删除所有标签。）我怀疑这至少部分是因为其中一些使用消息检索算法，这些算法并非设计为用户编辑。例如，“运输更新”类别删除了似乎中有跟踪号码的所有消息，这确实非常方便。也许有一天我们能够创建自己的类别。

Outlook.com带有15个预生成消息类别标签的离合器。点击查看大图

This inflexibility aside, the category system is quite useful. You can also set two different attributes for a category. "Quick view" adds that category to the list of fast-access links on the left side of the screen. "Filters" lets you take whatever folder is currently visible and apply a filter to its contents -- for instance, to see all messages from a particular person in a given folder. Messages can also be processed on arrival or on demand via a series of rules, much like the ones that can be created for the desktop edition of Outlook.

Note that if you are using a non-Outlook.com email address with Outlook.com (e.g., me@mydomain.com), any messages sent from Outlook.com through that account will be listed as something like hotmail_b9a8df14e345c8f5@live.com on behalf of me@mydomain.com. Replies go directly to the second address; attempts to reply to the remailer address will bounce.

在Gmail可以让您设置多个邮件转发地址的地方，Outlook.com可以一次将电子邮件转发到其他一个电子邮件帐户。转发邮件的选项也更少：转发电子邮件可以做的唯一一件事就是将副本保留在Outlook.com收件箱中。设置页面还指出，您应该“至少每270天登录一次 - 否则您的帐户看起来不活跃并且可能会被删除。”

Mobile use

Aside from Windows Phone, support for Outlook.com on mobile devices is a bit dodgy. There's no iOS app (although there is an Android one), and the mobile version of the site doesn't present itself automatically on some devices: Safari and Chrome foriPad工作，但是Android的Chrome会带来该网站的桌面版本。

Android应用程序的外观也与Outlook.com的界面没有丝毫相似之处 - 它本质上是Android旧Hotmail应用程序的重新版本 - 但它可以完成工作，并且确实提供了联系，并且确实提供了联系和日历同步Outlook.com。

Bottom line

The revamped Outlook.com is clean-looking and works well, but the lack of IMAP support and the uncertain state of its mobile apps and mobile site is inconvenient.

雅虎邮箱

Yahoo's email service got a major revamp at the end of 2012, one of the major changes ushered in sinceMarissa Mayer's entry as CEO。新的Yahoo邮件整洁且干净，但缺乏其竞争对手的许多高级管理和分类功能 - 除非您为其付费。

这就是捕获：雅虎邮件的免费级别以某些方式被故意削弱。每年$ 19.99，邮件加上禁用广告，允许您使用POP并设置邮件转发，可让您最多使用200个过滤器（免费版本可让您最多使用100个），并且不需要您每次登录，通常以防止您的帐户被关闭。我最喜欢的付费功能：一次性地址，可让您创建可以使用的代理地址，而无需放弃实际地址。

新的Yahoo邮件整洁且干净，但缺乏其竞争对手的许多高级管理和分类功能。点击查看大图

If you prefer to use the free version, then (like most free webmail), Yahoo Mail is广告支持。The AdChoices ads on the right side of the page are served via flash, making them easy to block if you wish -- either by blacklisting flash for the mail.yahoo.com domain in your browser or by disabling flash, in which case the ads drop back to static images.

I did like the option for a preview pane when reading email, which made the experience a bit more like working with a full-blown desktop client. The only other customization options are sets of color themes, and the spacing between lines on the display (the latter akin to a feature Gmail offers).

I also liked the way opened emails and search results are placed in their own tabs within the Yahoo Mail window so they can be kept open and referred back to if needed. Unfortunately, those tabs don't persist if you close and reopen Yahoo Mail, and you can't retain tabs for several searches at once except by performing the searches in entirely different browser windows.

While Yahoo does support IMAP connections, they're supposed to be used仅在移动设备上和not desktops, although there's no practical way to prevent people from using the connections as they want to. POP is supported only if you buy Mail Plus, although third parties likeYPOPs已经创建了代理系统以允许POP访问。同样，没有直接的方法可以备份或从Yahoo中迁移电子邮件，除了使用IMAP或第三方产品之类的产品外邮局家。

主邮件窗口的顶部有一个盒子，用于搜索您的电子邮件或整个网络，后者由Bing提供。可以通过各种标准（发送者，日期，文件夹等）范围缩小所得搜索。有趣的是，某些类型的电子邮件附件的内容似乎已被索引进行索引。（我从PDF和旧的Word Doc文件中获得了结果，但没有最近的Word Docx文件。）

Email attachments are scanned by Symantec's Norton AntiVirus before being downloaded, and recognized image file types (JPG, GIF) can be shown inline as a thumbnail before being downloaded. Email messages forwarded as attachments will also have the text of the attached message show up inline, which saves you the trouble of unpacking the attachment. Another nice touch: If someone emails you a whole pile of files, you can click "Save All to Computer" to download them all in one go.

雅虎邮箱allows you to add apps, essentially plugins for your mailbox, which are provided by third parties though Yahoo.点击查看大图

雅虎邮箱allows you to add apps, essentially plugins for your mailbox, which are provided by third parties though Yahoo. Some of Yahoo's own services have apps as well -- for example, Flickr, which lets you share photos easily from your Flickr account. I also liked the Attach Large Files app, courtesy of YouSendIt (which Ireviewednot long ago), a way to send big files to someone else without choking their inbox. The number of apps right now is small -- only 10 or so -- but that may just be because the revamped Yahoo Mail is still such a new product.

Limited organizing

Yahoo Mail的最大缺点是几乎完全缺乏组织工具。您可以创建文件夹，但不能在层次结构中排列。组织消息的唯一其他方法是将它们主演为重要，但是除此之外，没有办法标记或以其他方式应用元数据邮寄。

雅虎邮箱does offer a system for filtering incoming mail via matching keywords against the header or body of the message. In addition, the menu for any given email message includes a "Filter mail like this" option to pre-populate a filter with the selected message's attributes.

You can only automatically forward email to another account in the for-pay version of Yahoo Mail, and you can only forward to one email address at a time. You can retain forwarded mails in your Yahoo inbox if you need to.

Mobile use

Yahoo hasn't skimped on providing mobile apps for Mail. Clients exist for iOS (optimized for the iPhone) and Android. In addition, its mobile site is fairly polished, adjusting the layout of its display based on the size and type of the accessing device.

Bottom line

雅虎邮箱is easy to work with and approachable, but all the features that would make it even more useful are either behind a paywall or absent entirely.

Conclusions

For those who haven't considered Hotmail since Gmail came along, Outlook.com is a welcome surprise, even if there's no support for IMAP and its mobile experience could still use some work. It's going to be one to watch, especially with Microsoft's growing push toward being a services outfit for end-users instead of just all-Windows, all the time. Meanwhile, Yahoo Mail is a decent entry-level product for undemanding users, but it's easy to see people outgrowing it quickly.

对Gmail根据电子邮件的内容（无论是自动的过程）提供广告而感到不舒服的人们可能想要其他服务之一。我与Gmail的另一个大怪胎是其功能的关键部分 - 客户同步 - 已经从免费产品中分流到了付费层中。我希望这不是趋势。

但是最后，Gmail很难出错。它已被广泛采用，具有可靠的功能集并支持大多数流行的邮件协议。

Serdar Yegulalp为各种出版物撰写了15年以上的计算机和信息技术。

阅读有关Web应用程序的更多信息in Computerworld's Web Apps Topic Center.

这个故事是“ Webmail War：Gmail vs.utlook.com vs. Yahoo Mail”的故事。Computerworld 。