10 reasons I'm switching from Yahoo Mail to Gmail - 08/31/09 04:49 PM
I've finally decided to switch from Yahoo Mail to Gmail for personal email and thought this might be helpful for some people debating between the two. While some of my reasons may not apply to many others, I hope something here may be useful.
For years I've had a Yahoo Small Business account (pointed to by my own domain), which allowed me single-sign-on to both my free Yahoo "junk" account and my "real" personal email. However, I'm finally making the switch. Why?
1) Yahoo treats their free customers better than SMB. SMB accounts are always the last to get access to new features, redesigns, and enhancements. For example, it took months for Yahoo to finally roll our their "new" interface to my SMB account. Why should I pay to be a second class citizen?
2) Single-sign-on doesn't work well. Yahoo's implementation of linked accounts isn't supported properly by them. It doesn't work correctly with things like iPhone, Xobni, and other APIs. So having this account linkage has become more of a hindrance than an advantage.
3) New Yahoo home page = meh. I've been using Yahoo as my home page for about 15 years, even though I long ago switched to Google for search. But now Yahoo's forced their redesign homepage on us and I just don't like it. Too much white space, not enough at-a-glance surveyed info. One advantage of sticking with Yahoo was it tied to the homepage, but since I'm going to switch homepages that advantage is moot. Yahoo Fantasy Sports single-sign-on isn't enough reason to stay.
4)Yahoo Mail search just doesn't work. Very often I'll search for obvious key words and the results are lacking. I can scroll through my inbox and find the same keyword easily. I have asked Yahoo about this and received no response, let alone fix. As my mailbox continues to grow, this alone may be the deal-breaker.
5) Search vs Folders. One of the biggest UI differences between Yahoo and Gmail is Yahoo's traditional subfolder architecture vs Gmail's single Inbox with tag filters. My anal need to organize used to make me a die-hard folder guy. However, as email volumes have grown almost exponentially, inbox space has increased to nearly endless proportions, and my time to organize email has inversely shrunk, I'm finding myself straying from folder organization to search and tags. And that's where Gmail shines.
6) Threading. Okay, I'm still not a big fan of the threaded conversation view that Gmail uses. But I've found that once you give up on antique subfoldering, threading isn't as bothersome as it used to be. So while I still don't consider it a plus, it's no longer a minus.
7) Flexibility. From the ability to "send as", to the ability to simultaneously store & forward while also keeping POP/IMAP capabilities, Gmail is much more flexible than Yahoo. Some of their "Labs" add-ons are pretty nifty as well.
8) Attachment handling. Gmail allows more flexibility in handling attachments, including the ability to view inline as HTML and to open with Google Docs. Big time-saver.
9) Cost savings. In order to properly support my domain, I had to pay Yahoo for an SMB account. With Gmail, I can support my domain almost as well with a free account, since they offer send-as.
10) Ease of conversion. I've debated this for a while, but didn't want to spend the time to switch over. With Gmail's new import utility, however, I was easily able to migrate.
For years I've had a Yahoo Small Business account (pointed to by my own domain), which allowed me single-sign-on to both my free Yahoo "junk" account and my "real" personal email. However, I'm finally making the switch. Why?
1) Yahoo treats their free customers better than SMB. SMB accounts are always the last to get access to new features, redesigns, and enhancements. For example, it took months for Yahoo to finally roll our their "new" interface to my SMB account. Why should I pay to be a second class citizen?
2) Single-sign-on doesn't work well. Yahoo's implementation of linked accounts isn't supported properly by them. It doesn't work correctly with things like iPhone, Xobni, and other APIs. So having this account linkage has become more of a hindrance than an advantage.
3) New Yahoo home page = meh. I've been using Yahoo as my home page for about 15 years, even though I long ago switched to Google for search. But now Yahoo's forced their redesign homepage on us and I just don't like it. Too much white space, not enough at-a-glance surveyed info. One advantage of sticking with Yahoo was it tied to the homepage, but since I'm going to switch homepages that advantage is moot. Yahoo Fantasy Sports single-sign-on isn't enough reason to stay.
4)Yahoo Mail search just doesn't work. Very often I'll search for obvious key words and the results are lacking. I can scroll through my inbox and find the same keyword easily. I have asked Yahoo about this and received no response, let alone fix. As my mailbox continues to grow, this alone may be the deal-breaker.
5) Search vs Folders. One of the biggest UI differences between Yahoo and Gmail is Yahoo's traditional subfolder architecture vs Gmail's single Inbox with tag filters. My anal need to organize used to make me a die-hard folder guy. However, as email volumes have grown almost exponentially, inbox space has increased to nearly endless proportions, and my time to organize email has inversely shrunk, I'm finding myself straying from folder organization to search and tags. And that's where Gmail shines.
6) Threading. Okay, I'm still not a big fan of the threaded conversation view that Gmail uses. But I've found that once you give up on antique subfoldering, threading isn't as bothersome as it used to be. So while I still don't consider it a plus, it's no longer a minus.
7) Flexibility. From the ability to "send as", to the ability to simultaneously store & forward while also keeping POP/IMAP capabilities, Gmail is much more flexible than Yahoo. Some of their "Labs" add-ons are pretty nifty as well.
8) Attachment handling. Gmail allows more flexibility in handling attachments, including the ability to view inline as HTML and to open with Google Docs. Big time-saver.
9) Cost savings. In order to properly support my domain, I had to pay Yahoo for an SMB account. With Gmail, I can support my domain almost as well with a free account, since they offer send-as.
10) Ease of conversion. I've debated this for a while, but didn't want to spend the time to switch over. With Gmail's new import utility, however, I was easily able to migrate.