Yahoo!'s purchase of Oddpost firmly underscores their webmail strategy, leaving RSS questions open - July 12, 2004—
We in the IMAP email business have been eyeing the machinations of Gmail and Yahoo! carefully, waiting to hear if any major players will enter the IMAP business. We know they've trumped part of our strategy with the large storage capacity (sure, we go up to 3 gigabytes, but we're not free). But we still win on the ability to download your email and work offline without fear.
The purchase of Oddpost seems to open a window into Yahoo!'s thinking:
Two Linux(s) releases in the same week - June 22, 2004—
I'd like to announce the second of two Linux releases in my company this week. Today's release is Jyte's Linux version - if you're working on Linux, please check it out! Sunday's release was Linus, the son of one of Jyte's creators, named after Linux' creator. Cute huh?
The story of my full circle with Gmail - June 11, 2004—
As we're working on a product that is quasi-competitive with Gmail, Big IMAP, I wanted Gmail largely for the insights into its inner workings. Let's be honest, though, I mostly wanted it for the cache, and the thrill of the chase.
When Al from Blue Hole announced his coming invites on ORblogs, I was one of the first to respond with options guaranteed to tempt his tastebuds: shrimp jambalaya, or an organic French chocolate torte. From reviewing Al's archives, I was pretty sure my picks were on the money.
How Ironic: Google lets you use competitors' keywords unless your competitor is Google - June 4, 2004—
I had a shock today when reviewing my latest submission to Google Adwords for our free trial of Big IMAP email accounts. I consider Big IMAP and Gmail as similar due to their huge storage space, so I used the keyword "gmail" and "gmail invite".
The keywords had a little red "Disapproved" next to them and had zero impressions. Google has a key that explains all my other status words: Strong, Moderate, At Risk, Slowed, and Disabled - but no "Disapproved."
Limited time offer: FREE trial of Big IMAP email account - May 28, 2004—
In order to get some of you to fall in love with the huge space and efficient workings of Big IMAP email, we are offering a 30-day free trial account.
Check it out here.
Big IMAP offers gigabytes of email and cool domains too - May 14, 2004—
This week was big for me, as both of the products I've been working on launched. Big IMAP offers IMAP mailboxes from 514 MB to 3 GB, for $10 to $20 per month, including aliases, filters, SpamAssassin and the ability to use your own domain.
What makes Big IMAP stand out from the rest?
The Guardian reviews Gmail critically - April 22, 2004—
In the Guardian today, a very insightful review of Gmail, from a writer who has used it and knows a lot about email in general. Here is the excerpt:
Gmail also has some drawbacks, the most important being its lack of standard POP3 or IMAP mail support. ... At the moment, Gmail comes somewhere between the two. But it is not as simple as a web-based mail service should be, and is not as powerful as a PC-based one can be. If the compromise works for you, it's a brilliant innovation. If it doesn't, it could be a terrible mistake.
It is a very thoughtful rundown on the drawbacks of the interface.
Why you need IMAP email (a.k.a. What is IMAP email?) - April 19, 2004—
You need IMAP email. IMAP will make your email life simpler, vastly more reliable, more efficient, and less taxing on your Internet connection. Acronyms aside, stay with me...
IMAP is an email protocol. Basically, IMAP differs from what you are probably using now (POP3 or web mail like Yahoo!) in whether the email is erased from the server after you receive it on your machine.
Two major new products in my "spaces" - April 1, 2004—
Today, April Fools Day, we had big news in the two spaces in which my company's products are competing: aggregators and email. When I first started downloading the news in Jyte, I was fearful that the competition for Jyte and my soon-to-be-released email product, Big IMAP, was going to be much tougher than it was in March. Kinja, I learned, had been featured in the New York Times technology section, while Gmail was giving away the same amount of storage we want to *sell* for FREE. I wanted to run for the hills.
...
Let's start with the biggy, in more ways than one: Gmail. When we first heard rumors of Google's 1 GB mailbox, we heard that it was an IMAP mailbox. Google's claims that, with Gmail, "you can search through them for information anywhere you are, whether that's at home, in the office or in an Internet cafe" to the IMAP diehard might at first seem like the mother lode; after all, IMAP is famous for the ability to synchronize the email folders on all your computers, and even access them from a remote site. And the reason most ISPs don't offer IMAP is simple storage space limitations - with IMAP, all emails are kept forever on the server, even though copies might be downloaded to several machines.
IMAP getting recognized - March 22, 2004—
This weekend's article from the Washington Post about IMAP is a good read. It summarizes neatly how important, and useful, the IMAP email protocol is for synchronizing your email on multiple computers. It also describes the differences between IMAP and POP (POP is what 99% of all email providers use today, i.e. AOL, Earthlink, MSN, etc.). We're planning to come out with a best-in-the-business IMAP service very, very soon. I'll write more next week.
