Just recently, I started using
Zoho mail and I've been indecisive as to whether it should be my default "inbox" when checking multiple emails. As it currently stands, it looks like the sign-up for new account is temporarily closed for new users who are willing to try out the free service. I can't remember exactly how I was able to acquire an account but I'm not surprise myself on how I got one since I try almost web applications that seems to interest me. Zoho pretty much has the same web productivity applications as Google although as not as popular seems like its catching up to its functionality (in my opinion). Although Google has some of the best web applications, Zoho is worth the try because it offers a slightly similar user interface (UI) and even better at times.
Going back to Zoho mail, although I'm not anytime switching out from using Gmail, Zoho mail allows a registered user to bridge multiple e-mail accounts into one. The nice thing about it, is it separates each email accounts into different sections, so there is a clear distinction for each account as it can get very messy if you're looking at an inbox with 3-4 email accounts (all-in-one). I have been using Zoho mail for a week now and I'm going to summarize my experience thus far in bullet points.
Pros:
- The separation between e-mail accounts works well as this avoids confusion. If you have non-personal, business and personal accounts, you clearly don't want the hassle of mistakingly sending an e-mail to a business using a personal account...and so forth.
- The labeling feature works just like Gmail where you can label an e-mail for future reference and easy accessibility.
- A new tab is opened when the sender is clicked, which shows all e-mail from that sender. This can be confusing at first but once you get used to it, it makes perfect sense and is useful to easily show all email messages that came from that sender.
- The pane view (similar to Outlook) gives you the ability to view the message right away in the bottom pane. This eliminates having to click on each message and having to view it by itself in the next page.
Cons:
- Fetching new email messages from the server can be delayed. Since I'm actively checking my e-mail all the time, I like the ability of having the newest email message retrieve instantaneously. In the server settings, the minimum time that the mail can be retrieved can only be set to 20 minutes and that's a little bit too long for me. In order to make sure that I get the newest messages, I have to hit "fetch" every time I log-in just to give myself a peace of mind.
Overall, I'm satisfied with their free service and with its early beta stage, there's no doubt in my mind that it will be better in months to come. Gmail finally has a competition (sadly).
- Dennis