Slashdot Mirror
Yahoo To Update Mail Service
tonyq writes "Yahoo! is beginning beta testing of a completely reworked UI for Yahoo! Mail that incorporates DHTML technologies. The web-based application resembles a desktop e-mail client. Features include message preview; drag-and-drop filing; the capability of quickly searching e-mail headers, body text and attachments; and the ability to view multiple e-mails at the same time in separate windows and scroll through all message headers in a folder rather than one page at a time. Other niceties are auto-complete, right-click menus and standard keyboard shortcuts. A user who got an early look has graciously posted screenshots. Yahoo is also taking signups on their what's new for Mail page."
Yahoo doesn't need an answer to Gmail. They have an order of magnitude more users (63.3 mln vs 5.4 mln).
"I'd rather be a lightning rod than a seismometer." -Ken Kesey
Unfortunately for a great number of people (including me) who don't live in America, the page states 'The beta version is only available to Yahoo! Mail users in the U.S.'.
There are no trails. There are no trees out here.
If you want worthwhile encryption on your email, use a host based email client that supports GPG. If your email is open to the world as it flies between servers and sits in their caches and spools, it doesn't really matter if it's open to the world as it flies between you and your webmail host.
Yahoo bought out oddpost in 2004. If you'll remember, they were the first to put together a really slick DHTML-based email application. What you see here is a result of merging the technology Ethan and Ian had developed with Yahoo's infrastructure (plus a great deal more - tabs and other features that aren't part of oddpost). Glad to see a little dotrebound company like Oddpost make a mark!
Unfortunately, the images are (not) being served from another server entirely; tivac.com, which is now also slashdotted... Here are the images linked through Coral.
contacts.png (long lines make slashcode happy)
drag.png (long lines make slashcode happy)
nodrag.png (long lines make slashcode happy)
editcontact.png (long lines make slashcode happy)
message.png (long lines make slashcode happy)
resized.png (long lines make slashcode happy)
indent.png (long lines make slashcode happy)
centered.png (long lines make slashcode happy)
rightalign.png (long lines make slashcode happy)
addcontacts.png (long lines make slashcode happy)
colors.png (long lines make slashcode happy)
smilies.png (long lines make slashcode happy)
autocomplete.png (long lines make slashcode happy)
hyperlink.png (long lines make slashcode happy)
hyperlinkoptions.png (long lines make slashcode happy)
writing.png (long lines make slashcode happy)
confirm.png (long lines make slashcode happy)
Lurking at the bottom of the gravity well, getting old
The Hushmail service uses PGP and allows you to encrypt your messages with PGP and recieve PGP encrypted and signed messages. Be sure to pick a good passphrase!
In fact, that's how Yahoo has been working since at least a long time: the server sends a challenge that the browser appends to the MD5 hash of the password and sends the MD5 hash of the combination back.