Slashdot Mirror
What If Gmail Had Been Designed by Microsoft?
caluml writes "There is a humourous look at "What would happen if Microsoft had designed GMail". Gems include: "Another security measurement we'll add is that you won't be able to log-in with just username anymore but are required to enter the full username@gmail.com. Furthermore, we will change the browser URL from 'http://gmail.microsoft.com/' to the more professional looking 'http://by114w.bay114.gmail.live.com/mail/mail.aspx?rru=home'.""
I think they meant Yahoo.
Eat sleep die
I RTFA a little and this sounds like a dumb question which has already been answered by just looking at hotmail. Sure they didn't design hotmail from the beginning but they have been maintaining it longer then Google has with GMail.
Another one of these eh?
Sort of like if Microsoft designed the iPod box?
...it is called hotmail, and was (at least when I last was last there 4 years ago) a disaster zone, which included a page as part of the signup process where you were given the choice of what kind of junk mail you wanted emailed to you.
The reason you put the username@hotmail.com is because there is also msn.com msn.ca for the ISP subscribers... hotmail.com hotmail.co.uk etc etc...would be rather limiting if you could only use your nickname and not have different domains......it is probably the worlds biggest web mail service...
why is this news? slllooww news day
I actually like the previewing pane in outlook XP. Emails are usually around three to five lines. Why should I have to open a new window or navigate to a new page for reading them?
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No power in the 'verse can stop me
Hey, now that we had this, Can we have a "What would Slashdot look like if someone artistic designed it" Page?
_ _ _ Go for the eyes Boo! GO FOR THE EYES!
... there were no more what if stories?
The mass market instead of early adopters?
so, the new gmail looks an awful lot like the new hotmail. its a hell of a lot slower too.
Another modern classic: What if Google search had been designed by the guys behind Windows Search
"Award for the Silliest User Interface: Windows Search"
Okay... It was funny when they did the iPod one. But GMail? It's an adequate web page. Not fundamentally different from any other webmail provider out there. A bit like Hotmail really except uglier.
I laugh at your feeble attempt at a troll.
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
1) Strange, fixed "color" scheme;
2) Cluttered, but oddly comforting and hyperconfigurable, user interface (except the colors);
3) Random in-joke-based poll every 18 months;
4) Almost usable search engine;
5) People who want to contact you first email editors who then "approve" or "reject" incoming emails based on their personal taste;
6) Arbitrarily assign other users to read your email and act as moderators;
7) AC option gives spammers a fair shot (albeit at a lower mod base) -- don't forget to check AC before emailing something really stupid like this post;
You know, it just might work!
Microsoft iPod
3.243F6A8885A308D313
Don't forget the "I am willing to test Gmail's new mail interface" checkbox that brings up a clusterfuck of an interface designed by a retarded 11 year old. Although, admittedly, it has improved since they first put the checkbox there.
This guy's the limit!
Can't you just uncheck the "Automatically check for Internet Explorer updates" to stop the redirecting? I think IE is missing some patching and it wants you to update. I remember running into this all the way back with IE 5.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/222639
Or you should be able to disable this in group policy: Computer Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Windows Components -> Internet Explorer -> Enable "Disable Periodic Check for Internet Explorer Software Updates".
Didn't see anything in the User Configuration but that doesn't mean that it's not hidden somewhere and I missed it.
This is a primary failing. One that Google, miraculously, seems to have so far avoided. Full credit is due.
Marketing depts make two mistakes.
- (and foremost) They ask people what they want. They convene a focus group of a cross section of people, brainstorm and come up with a list of priorities. The issues with this being that most people don't know what they want, no committee ever came up with anything minimalist, functional or streamlined, and most people in a focus group are only statistically representative -- but not representative in reality.
- They have no understanding of pure Economics. They attempt to maximize revenue from everything up to the point that function is destroyed and satisfaction is lost. Thereby devaluing the product.
Apple and Google are far more successful than many other similar brands. They value function and form. This is why they are successful. This why they have fanboys. It's not rocket science, all you need to do is fire the marketing droids out of the nearest airlock.there were no interesting stories, so someone posted some tired microsoft-bashing article instead?
Oh...
? syntax error
Just had a look in my hotmail as I've been using httpmail until it was broken by Leopard and have not had the "pleasure" to discover what I've been missing. It's true the first page you see is full of flashing ads, but when you actually get past that you find your inbox full of spam, some even from various Microsoft departments. Then you look in your spam and find a bunch of mail that's legitimate. When you mark stuff as spam it goes in to "Deleted items" - no wonder hotmail never seems to learn what's spam and what's not!
When you finally get to read a message it starts warning that the mere act of opening it is dangerous, and offers links to self congratulatory advertising disguised as help saying stuff like "Sender ID is a technical solution started by Microsoft" and goes on to boast that "Windows Live Hotmail treats all messages that fail Sender ID and phishing tests as fraudulent" which is a bit excessive considering the world has yet to be convinced Sender ID is some kind of panacea for phishing.
It used to be that if the mail contained links it would open with an iframe displaying sponsorshop messages, but today I see that there are no hyper-links for something that clearly is that, not only with dots but preceded with http, but no, I have have to copy and paste this in to a new tab. I really can't think of any mail client that would deny a hyper-link when it saw one.
Next: at the top of the message there is a message saying "Attachments, pictures, and links in this message have been blocked for your safety. Show content" - when I click show content nothing changes except I don't see this warning. So I guess this warning is there just because it does not comply with MS Sender ID, hardly an intelligent algorithm for warning people about something that may or may not exist.
I expect I could go on and on, but I think you get the drift..
is too complicated for the author.
I am very small, utmostly microscopic.
Windows Live Mail has a very clean interface. After you log in it shows you the news highlights for the day and how much of you 5GB of storage that you are using. Once you click on Inbox the only ad that you see, note I said ad, is the banner ad at the top of the page. Unlike Gmail where there are ads down the side and the top of my messages. AS for the address you can get to Hotmail by typing http://www.hotmail.com/ or http://mail.live.com/. While it may redirect to http://by108w.bay108.mail.live.com/mail/mail.aspx you certainly do not need to type that whole address.
As for logging in and having to use the @hotmail.com, that allows them to have more addresses than Google could ever hope to. They can use addresses for any of their sites: @msn.com, @uk.msn.com or any other site.
I would have to say that Windows Live Mail currently kicks the crap out of Gmail.
You have GOT to be kidding. Gmail has a clean, consistent DESIGN, with almost no images, other than a static "GMail" in the upper left corner.
It brings me to my inbox, with a one line plug for their Google Reader service, and a one line text add for an IT service outsourcing company that's placed near the top of the site. I open an email, and color matched text ads span from top to bottom on the right, similar to a newspaper column. Only the content of the text ads change, not the color, shape, or location.
For Yahoo, both new and classic bring me to some sort of welcome page with a 1x4" ad for their own search service titled "Top Electronics Search", and at least it matches the colors of the rest of the site. There's a big news widget thing in the center. To the right, there's a big f'ing RED, square, Bank of America credit card ad. On the left, the top and bottom of my Outlook-like directory are straddled by little, fugly, Win95 desktop icon-ads. "Bad credit? Card in 3 days", "Netflix Only $4.99/mo.", "Best SUV for Everyday", "Gold's Gym Free 7 Day VIP Pass".
The NEW Yahoo Mail site warns that Safari is not a supported browser, click to ignore. It is cleverly disguised as Outlook, with ads. Moving right along, I click a mail in my inbox, the BoA ad disapears, and the right ad region resizes to allow a shit-you-not, blinking "Have You Checked Your Credit Score This Month?" ad that runs from top to bottom of the page.
The CLASSIC Yahoo Mail site has a 'classical' giant, horizontal, animated ebay ad across the top, and in the same places on the left are more desktop-icon-ads, "See your credit score - free", "Netflix...", "Online Degree Programs", "Gold's Gym...", oh, and with a slightly different icon as the VIP pass, "Gold's Gym 7 Day Free Trial" It looks like a high schooler designed it.
I'll take Gmail, fuck you very much.
...They would block you from sending exe files and even zip files containing exe files forcing users to rename the file and instruct the receiver to rename them back. Very user friendly.
.z files go through. Damn, I gave it away. Soon they will be blocked too.
Oh wait, GMail blocks those already. Glad to know
One of the links on the original hotmail page reads "The John C. Dvorak Excellence Award". *shudder*
What did they do? Make it easier to turn the checkbox back off?