Oddpost

Last updated

Oddpost was a pay-for webmail service that debuted in 2002. [1] It pioneered the use of JavaScript to mimic a desktop mail application, the first notable foray into using Ajax methodologies for webmail. Ajax techniques minimized the amount of data sent during an email session by sending "Datapacks" instead of reloading the whole interface on every click like a traditional webmail service (Hotmail, AOL). This made the service much faster, at the time, than its counterparts.

Contents

History

Oddpost created an interface much like the traditional 3-pane view used by many desktop software applications (namely Microsoft Outlook, Apple's Mail, Microsoft Entourage, Mozilla Thunderbird, and others). [2] Oddpost also had the design philosophy of making the interface invisible, where unread message headers were bolded, so there was no need for an unread message icon next to each message; sub folders were indented under the parent, so there was no need for a little ant trail connecting each folder.

This excerpt from a 2003 interview with Ethan Diamond, [1] Oddpost's co-founder and then president, explained this minimalist approach:

This data-centric approach may sound painfully obvious, but consider that at 1024×768 (the most common resolution on the web), only about 30% of Yahoo! Mail’s inbox screen is devoted to your mail. The remaining 70% is not, as you might expect, all devoted to advertising. In fact, ads only account for about 10% of the screen real estate, and the remaining 60% is consumed by navigation, dead space and administrative debris.

Google made extensive use of these ideas in Gmail, which was launched two years later.

Oddpost was also known for its humorous blog entries about feature additions, bug fixes, and random musings about Oddpost.

Some disadvantages of Oddpost were seen to be that it required Windows and Internet Explorer, and that it lacked mail filters and support for secure email. [2]

Oddpost was purchased by Yahoo! on July 9, 2004, and became the new version of their Yahoo! Mail service. On September 14, 2005, Yahoo! Mail started letting some users register to beta test the new Yahoo! Mail web client.

The original Oddpost servers have been shut down, however existing Oddpost customers were able to keep their Oddpost email addresses to be used with Yahoo!.[ citation needed ]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Email</span> Mail sent using electronic means

Electronic mail is a method of transmitting and receiving messages using electronic devices. It was conceived in the late–20th century as the digital version of, or counterpart to, mail. Email is a ubiquitous and very widely used communication medium; in current use, an email address is often treated as a basic and necessary part of many processes in business, commerce, government, education, entertainment, and other spheres of daily life in most countries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Email client</span> Computer program used to access and manage a users email

An email client, email reader or, more formally, message user agent (MUA) or mail user agent is a computer program used to access and manage a user's email.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Webmail</span> Email service that can be accessed using a web browser

Webmail is an email service that can be accessed using a standard web browser. It contrasts with email service accessible through a specialised email client software. Additionally, many internet service providers (ISP) provide webmail as part of their internet service package. Similarly, some web hosting providers also provide webmail as a part of their hosting package.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Microsoft Outlook</span> Email and calendaring software

Microsoft Outlook is a personal information manager software system from Microsoft, available as a part of the Microsoft 365 software suites. Though primarily being popular as an email client for businesses, Outlook also includes functions such as calendaring, task managing, contact managing, note-taking, journal logging, web browsing, and RSS news aggregation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Outlook Express</span> Microsoft e-mail client software

Outlook Express, formerly known as Microsoft Internet Mail and News, is a discontinued email and news client included with Internet Explorer versions 3.0 through 6.0. As such, it was bundled with several versions of Microsoft Windows, from Windows 98 to Windows Server 2003, and was available for Windows 3.x, Windows NT 3.51, Windows 95, Mac System 7, Mac OS 8, and Mac OS 9. In Windows Vista, Outlook Express was superseded by Windows Mail.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Apple Mail</span> Email client by Apple Inc.

Mail is an email client included by Apple Inc. with its operating systems macOS, iOS, iPadOS, watchOS, and visionOS. Mail grew out of NeXTMail, which was originally developed by NeXT as part of its NeXTSTEP operating system, after Apple's acquisition of NeXT in 1997.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pegasus Mail</span> Proprietary email client

Pegasus Mail is a proprietary email client for Microsoft Windows. It was originally released in 1990 on NetWare networks with MS-DOS and later Apple Macintosh clients, before being ported to Windows which is now the only platform actively supported. Since its inception it has been developed by David Harris and is donationware after having previously been freeware.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yahoo! Mail</span> American email service

Yahoo! Mail is an email service offered by the American company Yahoo, Inc. The service is free for personal use, with an optional monthly fee for additional features. Business email was previously available with the Yahoo! Small Business brand, before it transitioned to Verizon Small Business Essentials in early 2022. Launched on October 8, 1997, as of January 2020, Yahoo! Mail has 225 million users.

The following tables compare general and technical features of notable email client programs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Outlook on the web</span> Microsofts personal information manager web app

Outlook on the web is a personal information manager web app from Microsoft. It is a web-based version of Microsoft Outlook, and is included in Exchange Server and Exchange Online

The Internet Messaging Program or IMP is a webmail client. It can be used to access e-mail stored on an IMAP server. IMP is written in PHP and a component of the collaborative software suite Horde.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Zimbra</span> Collaborative software suite

Zimbra Collaboration, formerly known as the Zimbra Collaboration Suite (ZCS) before 2019, is a collaborative software suite that includes an email server and a web client.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roundcube</span> Open-source web-based IMAP email client

Roundcube is a web-based IMAP email client. Roundcube's most prominent feature is the pervasive use of Ajax technology. Roundcube is free and open-source software subject to the terms of the GNU General Public License (GPL-3.0-or-later), with exceptions for skins and plugins.

An email hosting service is an Internet hosting service that operates email servers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Windows Live Mail</span> Email client, electronic calendar and newsreader, developed by Microsoft

Windows Live Mail is a discontinued freeware email client from Microsoft. It was the successor to Windows Mail in Windows Vista, which was the successor to Outlook Express in Windows XP and Windows 98. Windows Live Mail is designed to run on Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2, but is also compatible with Windows 8 and Windows 10, even though Microsoft bundles a new email client, named Windows Mail, with the latter. In addition to email, Windows Live Mail also features a calendar, an RSS feed reader, and a Usenet newsreader.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Outlook.com</span> Microsoft webmail service

Outlook.com, formerly Hotmail, is a free personal email service offered by Microsoft. This includes a webmail interface featuring mail, calendaring, contacts, and tasks services. Outlook can also be accessed via email clients using the IMAP or POP protocols.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gmail interface</span>

The Gmail interface makes Gmail unique amongst webmail systems for several reasons. Most evident to users are its search-oriented features and means of managing e-mail in a "conversation view" that is similar to an Internet forum.

EmailTray is a lightweight email client for the Microsoft Windows operating system. EmailTray was developed by Internet Promotion Agency S.A., a software development d.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mailbird</span> Desktop email client software app

Mailbird is a desktop email client for Microsoft Windows, compatible with Windows 10 and Windows 11. As well as sending and receiving emails, Mailbird includes managing calendar events and contacts from different email providers, social media, task management, file share, and video-conferencing integrations. Mailbird is offered via paid subscription, but also includes a free version.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mail (Windows)</span> Conflation of two applications developed by Microsoft

Mail is an email client developed by Microsoft and included in Windows Vista and later versions of Windows. It is available as the successor to Outlook Express, which was either included with, or released for Internet Explorer 3.0 and later versions of Internet Explorer. It is set to be replaced by Outlook for Windows.

References

  1. 1 2 "An Interview with Ethan Diamond". 2003-07-06. Archived from the original on December 30, 2005. mentioned that "Oddpost debuted last year"
  2. 1 2 "Oddpost – Email Service Review – About Email". Archived from the original on 2006-10-21. Retrieved 2006-09-24.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.