I have already written about the new AOL Mail RIA. Now that I have upgraded my PC, I am now actively enjoying this super cool webmail. Many people might raise their eyebrows when I call it “super cool” given that RIA has nothing except looks alone. Yes, it’s definitely true that RIA has only looks at the moment. But I am actively in touch with the product manager of AOL Mail RIA project discussing the present and future state of the webmail service. It’s quite clear from the intension of this guy that they want to surpass Gmail when it comes to free service. I do believe that they can do that. The RIA service is still in Beta and new features are expected to come in this week.
So what the fuss is about this RIA thing?
- RIA = Rich Internet Application.
- RIA uses Microsoft’s Silver Light technology to deliver highly interactive web content.
- You need to load the RIA application only once for every machine. You will be able to log in lightning fast afterwards. This is a big win over other web mail services.
- The Interface is eye candy. Currently there are three themes.
- The search engine implements a “client side” search to perform really fast searches of the email headers.
- It works fine on my 5kbps internet connection.
- They have promised to consider conversation, labels and many other improvements over time.
Things you won’t like:
- The search engine only searches the headers of the email in the current folder. No searching in the message body. AOL has assured me that introducing the full email search is being given high priority on their current roadmap.
- You will miss conversation view if you’re a regular Gmail user. AOL says they are looking forward to adding it too.
- No labels. Promised to have a look into this.
- Incomplete settings ? No offense, they are still in beta.
- New tab won’t open in Firefox 2 ? Known bug to the AOL RIA team. They’re trying to implement a workaround.
I made the Switch, YOU?
I finally made the switch, by now it’s partial. I am going to keep both my Gmail and AOL Mail side by side. I can’t forward and transfer my emails from Gmail until I get conversation view in AOL mail. Otherwise, my inbox will be a mess. But I am using AOL as my primary contact address. My friend Alvee has switched too. There are a good number of reasons to make a switch from Gmail to AOL. Here’s some of them:
- Gmail’s storage is not unlimited. You can’t freely share files every now and then. Though now I am using only 2% of my Gmail storage, the number of inbound email messages has increased. I think it’s time I should go for an unlimited storage. I was ready to pay for unlimited storage. But even if you pay, Gmail doesn’t offer you unlimited storage. AOL gives you free on the other side.
- Ever visited http://gmail-is-too-creepy.com ? I hardly care about what is written on that page yet, why should you have to bear confusion in mind if you can avoid it?
- AOL’s POP3 and IMAP config is very simple. At least 2 times simpler than Gmail.
- The RIA interface is thousands time better than Gmail v2. Loads faster too.
Even after all these, I would say that AOL RIA still has a long way to go before they can be as popular as Gmail. But it doesn’t hurt to try a new service. Why don’t you join and have a go?