Yahoo Lets Outsiders Get Inside Its Email

from the taking-a-look dept

When Google unveiled Gmail, it immediately leapt far ahead of competing free, web-based email services, in terms of storage and features. Since then, rivals like Hotmail and Yahoo have tried to match Google's offering, but the development process has been slow. Now Yahoo is adopting a strategy that it should have tried much earlier, turning its mail service into a platform upon which others can develop new applications. So, a third party could develop a new display for the email, build new features for it, or combine it with other applications. This makes sense for multiple reasons. Yahoo doesn't know exactly what will be a hit with consumers; it could put a lot of effort into one new system, only to see it be a dud. And by opening it up, it makes web mail more like regular email, which people can access using a variety of programs and services. So far, Google has the reputation for building out platforms and services that then get incorporated into other applications, whereas Yahoo has taken hesitant steps down this path. Perhaps now, the company is realizing that for competitive reasons it needs to be bolder about opening up.
Hide this

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team


Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread


  • identicon
    Steve E, 2 Oct 2006 @ 9:34am

    Top move by Yahoo, hopefully we'll see desktop widgets, plug-ins, spam filtering tools and decent readers come out of all this!

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 2 Oct 2006 @ 9:43am

    Interesting, but what could be developed for email that is more effective than Thunderbird? And how do you pry corporate users away from Outlook?

    Email is not a particularly feature-rich application. Spam tools, small footprint, clean interface, reliable. Done.

    Build an open source cross-platform, cross company calendar and email application to compete with Outlook. THAT would get my attention. (Lightning isn't going to be ready for primetime for years, if ever)

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    COD (profile), 2 Oct 2006 @ 10:38am

    What if you could use you YahooID to log into blogs to comment? An authentication system with 200 million users on day 1 would be a big deal I think.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    MEoip, 2 Oct 2006 @ 1:15pm

    apt

    I'd be apt to use one of these 3rd party yahoo deals. Yahoo's beta is SLOW to the point my wife even complains about its speed and is thankfully closer to switching to gmail. Of course the system would have to be web based and fast. It could be nice to have some multiple login put together like a yahgoohotmail, where I can set one password and access email from all systems without forwarding or any of that garbage. A real online mail client where I can get more than 1 addresses message.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Khaliq Musa Hadji, 10 Oct 2007 @ 10:42am

    fs: Apple Iphone 4GB.....$250, Sony Ericsson P1...

    KHALIQ PHONES INC.
    We are specialised in all brand new mobile phones like Samsung , Nokia , Qtek , Imate , Palm Treo , Sony Ericsson , Sidekick , Nextel and many more, They are cheap and unlocked with 12 month international warranty.We sell them in Bulk and in Retails ,We shipped inconjunction with fedEx Express, they shipped within 48hrs to your door step. It is a Buy two and get one for free.

    if interested contact : khaliq900@inmail24.com

    Apple Iphone 4GB.....$250USD
    Apple Iphone 8GB.....$350USD

    PRICELIST FOR NOKIA PHONES IN STOCK :
    Nokia 6125 Bluetooth Quadband Unlocked GSM Phone....$150
    Nokia 6136 Bluetooth Quadband Unlocked GSM Phone....$160
    Nokia 6265i Unlocked GSM Cell Phone.....$140
    Nokia 6282 Unlocked GSM Smartphone......$170
    Nokia 8800 GSM Unlocked GSM 900/1800/1900 World Phone.....$175
    Nokia 770 Internet Tablet Support.....$165
    Nokia 8801 GSM Unlocked GSM 850/1800/1900.....$180
    Nokia E51 QuadBand Unlocked GSM Phone......$160
    Nokia E61 Smartphone Unlocked GSM Phone......$200
    Nokia E70 Unlocked GSM Smartphone.....$150
    Nokia N70 Unlocked GSM Smartphone.....$155
    Nokia N71 Unlocked GSM Smartphone.....$165
    Nokia N72 Unlocked GSM Phone Black....$175
    Nokia N81 8GB Quadband Unlocked GSM Smartphone Black.....$200
    Nokia 7900 Prism Unlocked GSM....$190
    Nokia N91 GSM Unlocked Phone.....$200
    Nokia N92 Unlocked GSM Smartphone....$220
    Nokia N93 Unlocked GSM Phone.....$220
    Nokia N93i Unlocked GSM Phone...$270
    Nokia N95 8GB Unlocked GSM Phone.....$300
    Nokia N75 Unlocked GSM Phones....$350
    Nokia 8800 Sirocco Edition ..$230

    PRICELIST FOR IMATE PHONES IN STOCK :
    I-Mate JAM 128MB Unlocked GSM Phone....$190
    I-Mate JAM GSM/GPRS Pocket PC Unlocked Phone....$180
    I-Mate JAMin GSM/GPRS Pocket PC Unlocked Quadband Phone....$200
    I-Mate JASJAR Quadband GSM Unlocked PDA Smartphone.....$300
    I-Mate K-Jam Quad Band Unlocked GSM Smartphone.....$210
    I-Mate Smartflip Unlocked Quadband Smartphone.....$220
    I-Mate SP5 Unlocked GSM Smartphone.....$130
    I-Mate SP5m Unlocked GSM Smartphone....$120

    PRICELIST FOR MOTOROLA PHONES IN STOCK :
    Motorola Mpx 300...........USD$300
    Motorola A1200 Unlocked Quadband Phone Black.....$170
    Motorola A910 Unlocked GSM Phone.....$130
    Motorola E1070 Unlocked GSM Phone.....$135
    Motorola L2 Candybar RAZR Unlocked GSM Phone....$110
    Motorola Q Unlocked GSM Phone.....$230
    Motorola Rokr E2 Unlocked GSM Triband Phone w/iTunes....$190
    Motorola V1050 Quad Band Unlocked GSM Phone.....$145
    Motorola V195 Unlocked GSM Phone.....$135
    Motorola V3 (Gold) Edition Unlocked GSM Phone....$130
    Motorola V3c RAZR for Verizon.....$135
    Motorola V3i Dolce & Gabbana Unlocked Quadband GSM Phone.....$165
    MOTOROLA V3x (PINK) Unlocked GSM Phone w/128 MB Card.....$140
    Motorola W220 GSM Unlocked Cell Phone.....$180
    Motorola Razr Maxx V6 Unlocked Cell Phone.....$220

    PRICELIST FOR SAMSUNG PHONES :
    Samsung P920 Unlocked GSM Cell Phone......$245
    Samsung I830 Smartphone Unlocked GSM Cell Phone....$220
    Samsung Serene SGH-E910 Unlocked GSM Phone.....$300
    Samsung S401i Unlocked Triband GSM Cell Phone....$180
    Samsung D870 Unlocked GSM Phone.....$200
    Samsung Z710 Unlocked GSM Mobile Cell Phone....$230
    Samsung p900 unlocked GSM Cell phone......$255
    Samsung p860 unlocked GSM Cell phone......$235

    AK Phones:
    AK Mobile AK-Mini....$160
    AK Mobile AK-S1....$170
    AK Mobile AK900.....$220
    AK Mobile DV2...$230

    O2 XdPhones
    O2 Xda Atom.............USD$300
    O2 Xda Atom Exec...USD$310
    O2 Xda Stealth..........USD$320

    GIGABYTE Phones:
    GIGABYTE G-Smart i350...USD$350
    GIGABYTE Doraemon....USD$300
    GIGABYTE g-Cam.......USD$180
    GIGABYTE Keroro......USD$210
    GIGABYTE Snoopy......USD$215

    Linx Phones:
    Linx M1168......USD$170
    Linx M2688........USD$175

    PRICELIST FOR SONY ERICSSON PHONES :
    Sony Ericsson K310 Unlocked GSM Phone....$125
    Sony Ericsson K510 Unlocked GSM PhonE....$135
    Sony Ericsson K610 Unlocked GSM Phone....$145
    Sony Ericsson K790 Unlocked GSM Phone....$180
    Sony Ericsson K800 Unlocked GSM Phone....$170
    Sony Ericsson M600 Unlocked GSM Phone....$155
    Sony Ericsson P990i GSM Unlocked.........$330
    Sony Ericsson W700i Unlocked GSM Phone...$130
    Sony Ericsson W810 MP3 Quadband GSM Unlocked Phone....$135
    Sony Ericsson W850 GSM Unlocked Cell Phone.....$220
    Sony Ericsson W900i Unlocked GSM Phone.....$230
    Sony Ericsson W950 Unlocked GSM Phone.....$240
    Sony Ericsson Z710 Quadband GSM Unlocked Cell Phone.....$240
    Sony Ericsson p910i unlocked GSM phone.....$165
    Sony Ericsson P1 unlocked GSM phone.........$250

    PRICELIST FOR PALM TREO PHONES :
    Handsping Treo 650 GSM Quadband Unlocked Smartphone PDA....$120
    Handsping Treo 700w GSM unlocked phone .....$140

    PRICELIST FOR SIDEKICKS:
    Sidekick ID......$140
    Sidekick 3......$140

    PRICELIST FOR NEXTEL
    Nextel i930..$140
    Nextel i830...$120

    PRICELIST FOR QTEK PHONES :
    Qtek 8100 Tri-Band Camera Music Unlocked GSM Phone White.....$110
    QTEK 8300 GSM MOBILE SMARTPHONE.....$120
    Qtek 8310 Unlocked Quadband GSM Phone....$130
    Qtek 8500 Unlocked SmartPhone.....$125
    Qtek 8600 Unlocked GSM SmartPhone....$200
    Qtek 9000 3G Pocket PC Unlocked GSM Phone.....$250
    Qtek 9100 Smartphone / Pocket PC Unlocked GSM Phone....$150
    Qtek 9600 Unlocked GSM SmartPhone.....$250
    Qtek G100 GPS PPC and Pharos Ostia GPS Software(US Maps)....$155
    QTEK S200 GSM/GPRS Pocket PC Unlocked Quadband Phone.....$165

    Apple MacBook Pro Intel Core Duo 1.83 GHz 15.4" Display Macintosh Notebook..$550
    Apple MacBook Pro Intel Core Duo 2 GHz ( Dual-Core ) 15.4" Display....$560
    Apple PowerBook G4 Motorola PowerPC G4 1 GHz 17" Display Macintosh Notebook..$350
    Apple PowerBook G4 PowerPC G4 1.33 GHz 17" Display Macintosh Notebook..$400
    Apple PowerBook G4 PowerPC G4 1.67 GHz 17" Display Macintosh Notebook...$530
    Apple PowerBook G4 PowerPC G4 1.67 GHz 15.2" Display Macintosh Notebook...$500
    Apple Pro 15 Intel Core Duo 2.16GHz 15.4" Display Macintosh Notebook...$600
    Apple Pro Intel Core 2 Duo T7600 2.33GHz Macintosh Notebook.....$640

    If interested contact : khaliq900@inmail24.com

    link to this | view in chronology ]


Follow Techdirt
Essential Reading
Techdirt Deals
Report this ad  |  Hide Techdirt ads
Techdirt Insider Discord

The latest chatter on the Techdirt Insider Discord channel...

Loading...
Recent Stories

This site, like most other sites on the web, uses cookies. For more information, see our privacy policy. Got it
Close

Email This

This feature is only available to registered users. Register or sign in to use it.