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mrstu: if you don't like these webmail apps reading your mail for advertising, just use...
–zen
re: Hotmail adds POP – GMail makes hay

It's amazing to see how good Microsoft becomes when confronted with a strong competitor...
–brentgv
re: Hotmail adds POP – GMail makes hay

I moved from GMail to Live simply because I didn't like Google Adsense reading my email...
–mrstu
re: Hotmail adds POP – GMail makes hay

Oh, and also, having had my WLH contacts synced with my WinMo 6.1 phone contacts, I tried using...
–rgonzruiz
re: Hotmail adds POP – GMail makes hay

Interesting timing... mainly because I JUST made the switch from hotmail to gmail two days...
–rgonzruiz
re: Hotmail adds POP – GMail makes hay

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LiveSide - News blog

Hotmail adds POP – GMail makes hay

Posted May 14 2009, 09:08 AM by Kip Kniskern with 9 comment(s)

Well it was probably only a matter of time, but GMail has introduced a new feature that makes it easier for users of other email services with POP access to migrate their accounts.

gmailimport

Of course Hotmail, after what seemed to be an eternity, recently added in POP3 access for free to all its users.  Now we may know why it took so long.  The POP3 access allows GMail to forward messages from the other POP3 accounts, making a transition easier.

One of the things that makes free web based mail services interesting is “stickiness”: that is because it is such a pain to change email addresses (along with the actual migration, you have to let everyone know your new address, reprint business cards, change settings on mailing lists, etc. etc.), you’re more likely to stick with the service you have rather than go through all the trouble to change.

And while it’s not a new idea, GMail’s new migrator, which should be available for new accounts no, and then rolling out to existing accounts in the coming weeks, tries to make that whole process easier.  Google is using TrueSwitch, which Windows Live users may remember as the 3rd party manager used to move email accounts from Hotmail to @live.com addresses over.  However Google has taken it a step further, allowing switchers to bring their contacts along with them, which wasn't available during the hotmail to live.com switch.

GMail has had its share of downtime lately, and has what might be the ugliest interface of any web based mail in existence, so we're not sure why anyone would want to switch, but there you go.

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Comments

jamiet wrote re: Hotmail adds POP – GMail makes hay
on Thu, May 14 2009 10:56 AM

"GMail has had its share of downtime lately, and has what might be the ugliest interface of any web based mail in existence, so we're not sure why anyone would want to switch, but there you go"

Blimey, that's gonna put the cat amongst the pidgeons :)

I'll tell you why people would switch. the name starts with a big fat letter 'G'.

-Jamie

Khristopher wrote re: Hotmail adds POP – GMail makes hay
on Thu, May 14 2009 11:40 AM

It really is the ugliest interface. I have tried it a couple times, and just could not get used to it.

jntowers wrote re: Hotmail adds POP – GMail makes hay
on Thu, May 14 2009 2:20 PM

Gmail appeals to the person who loves to play with a new toy, especially a toy that, theoretically, adds to the efficiency and functionality of our daily lives.  

I am that person.  And I say "theoretically" b/c I've found that I eventually get bogged down by all the new "functions", and end up spending so much time playing with them or trying to get them to work right, that it nullifies any potential added effeciency.  Then I end up right where I should've stayed, in my nice, clean, simple, and FAST, hotmail inbox.  

I would venture to say, though you will NEVER see this on any news site or blog, that hotmail is now the cleanest, most simple, and fastest free webmail service.  My hotmail absolutely flies through messages and load time - especially in a browser such as Firefox (with tracemonkey enabled) or Chrome, that render javascript really fast.  And obviously, at least over the last couple of years, hotmail has been significantly more reliable from a standpoint of uptime and downtime.  

Gmail started out on the "simple and clean" claim years ago, and now it's too bogged down with its own features, in my opinion.  Though I have to admit, even still, some of those features are pretty nifty...

JSYOUNG571 wrote re: Hotmail adds POP – GMail makes hay
on Thu, May 14 2009 3:33 PM

I agree with all of you above me. I got so mad at Windows Live Hotmail one time and tried my email with Gmail and after a couple of days....I knew I had to go back to Windows Live. It was just to much going on with Gmail...to many options that confused me. I didn't like the icons for the smiley faces. Most of all I hated the contact list whenever I had to send an email to multiple people.You could not pay me enought to leave Windows Live Hotmail. I have fallen so in love with it's new format. Most of all it is still simple with a few goodies added. I still have a couple of ideas for Hotmail to add.

rgonzruiz wrote re: Hotmail adds POP – GMail makes hay
on Thu, May 14 2009 4:47 PM

Interesting timing... mainly because I JUST made the switch from hotmail to gmail two days ago, before this announcement was made yesterday...

Not that I did or will transfer all my emails, but I did transfer my contacts. I'm still using my hotmail for newsletters and web shopping invoices, but anything other than that I'll be using my gmail account.

Sure, aesthetically gmail is fugly, but that's the least of my priorities... Functionality is the key regarding my web mail app... and gmail has some features that simply beat any other web email provider. The one feature that made me make up my mind was the fact that gmail autosaves your draft every couple of seconds or simply when you stop typing... And three days ago I was typing a long email on Hotmail and by mistake I closed the wrong browser tab... and I lost half an hour of typing and ideas.... I was seriously mad at myself, especially knowing having that happened using gmail, I would have lost only seconds of typing probably. That, and the fact that gmail requires much less refreshes (its more web 2.0 / ajax enabled than others), allowing me to receive email immediately instad of having to manually click on "inbox", made me take the plunge.

I'll still be using WLHotmail as a secondary account and I'm pretty sure these two features I've mentioned, and many others, will be implemented in WLH somewhere in the future... I'm just not eager to keep waiting.

rgonzruiz wrote re: Hotmail adds POP – GMail makes hay
on Thu, May 14 2009 4:54 PM

Oh, and also, having had my WLH contacts synced with my WinMo 6.1 phone contacts, I tried using Gmail's Sync (after transfering my contacts to gmail)... and boy does it do a much better job...

For starters, it uses ActiveSync, so no more needing to install WLforMobile... It also does a great job regarding field mapping mainly due to the fact that gmail uses an exchange server to sync with activesync... Heck, it even syncs my contact's pictures!

Oh and a new plus for me: I now get to have my gmail (google) calendar synced with my WinMo calendar!! A nice plus that we've all been asking for ages from the WLCalendar team and up until now haven't received....

mrstu wrote re: Hotmail adds POP – GMail makes hay
on Thu, May 14 2009 10:27 PM

I moved from GMail to Live simply because I didn't like Google Adsense reading my email. To me that is an invasion of privacy.. Live/Hotmail/MS does that and I will move to one of my private domains (currently forward). Use an opensource webmail program and call it a day.... The potential for abuse with adsense and my email is to great for me.

Gmail is a great webmail program, the funky threaded email format I don't like. Though you get used to it. It make "mass emails" insane to keep up with. Mass emails are common with my in-laws and family. Get 20 people emailing around and you can't make heads or tails of the conversation....

Live needs to step up a bit.. I live wave 3, but wave 4 needs to rollout sooner than later.

brentgv wrote re: Hotmail adds POP – GMail makes hay
on Sat, May 16 2009 2:24 AM

It's amazing to see how good Microsoft becomes when confronted with a strong competitor.  I love Live's products and couldn't imagine switching to Google.  I'm not sure I would have said that a year ago.

zen wrote re: Hotmail adds POP – GMail makes hay
on Sun, May 17 2009 1:30 AM

mrstu: if you don't like these webmail apps reading your mail for advertising, just use an email client and access your emails via that. The webmail apps only scan your email when you read, so you can avoid that issue completely. Another point I'd like to make is, while you may not like your emails being read, and you can try to avoid that by using a private webmail app, just remember it takes two to communicate -- meaning whoever is on the receiving end, if they are on any of these public webmail apps (i..e gmail, live, yahoo), your email would have also been "read", making your argument about getting more privacy with a prviate webmail app moot.

For someone we wants something fast, quick and easy, I think Live is the best out of the big 4 (though AOL is very close). Power users has been the focus of Gmail (and you can clearly see it from the features it is churning out in Labs). It has become the webmail gold standard to be measured against.

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