Prize Fight: Yahoo Mail vs. Gmail

Web e-mail powerhouses fight for Veronica.

(Credit: CNET Networks)

Veronica Belmont pit Yahoo Mail (beta) against most geeks' favored e-mail service, Gmail. If you're aiming to dump your current PC (or Mac)-based e-mail app and move to the Web, this is a good, basic comparison of the strengths and weaknesses of the two services.

I'll tell you right now that Gmail won, by a nose. Click through to the video to see how Gmail performed in each round of the fight: Interface, Features, Speed, Organization, and Security.

>>> Play video >>>

[starlightmedia]

I want folders

I tried Gmail but was very confused about not having folders. I don't like this label system and i dont't want it. So Gmail may have a lot of good features - but without folders i will not use it.

I was a long time user of Yahoo! Mail but had to many error messages in the last months. And there were too many mail delivery delays.

So at the moment my webmail favorite is Windows Live Hotmail. Just rediscovered Hotmail - nice new interface, fast, reliable.

[jnf6]

folder & search

I agree with starlighmedia! I ve been using gmail for a couple of years now. Quite fast, no problems so far but I cannot get used to the "no folders" thing. Also, I hate to see my messages all scattered like that so to be honest I keep using both my accounts in hotmail and gmail. Not a yahoo user but the new interface looks really good. Gave it a try but not a serious one to analyze it here.

new Hotmail is quite good but I encoutered errors quite a few times. (nonstop loading, slow, checkboxes nto working). 50-50 I would say between gmail and hotmail.

[bmbavishi]

Yahoo Mail Rules

Yahoo Mail is NOW unlimited space and it also includes the yahoo messenger. Also in the video it only covered some points and they were not tested on both correctly. The video shows that the yahoo mail does not have features like directing to the map of the address. if you don't know you can email me and i will show you how. there is more than just map it gives you option if you want to save some link let say cnet.com i have received in my yahoo mail to the yahooo bookmark. in the video its mention that the yahoo mail does not allow you to add stuff to the calendar which is not entirely true. In yahoo mail it shows the upcoming events in your yahoo calendar which is very useful. Yahoo mail also has outlook like view option. In this option you can just click on the email and you can instantly view the mail so you dont have to go back to the inbox again. Also there are multiple tabs that helps when you are writing email and need to refer to other emails. HOWEVER i do agree that the ad makes it show to view the email in the outlook like view. The option of moving email is just gmail does not have and is the ultimate version of web mail. -------------------------------------------------------------
Yahoo Mail receives 8.8/10 and Gmail receives 7.2/10

[tigrad04]

I have to admit I am a huge Gmail fan. I chose Gmail because unlike the previous people I am really bad about putting mail into folders so I love the great Google search of my email. Also Gmail provided many things for free that Yahoo made you pay for. for instance email forwarding and filtering. Also the ability to forward my email to Windows mail or any other client I preferred. Even though you can't use folders you can still label and archive your emails which is basically the same. Gmail for me is the winner.