Yahoo Mail vs. GMail Push (w/Personal Domain!)

I have been using Yahoo! Mail since 1998, including the Yahoo! Groups, Calendar, and Contacts as my primary digital system. Over the years, I have seen the system morph and develop into a really great setup! The best move Yahoo! ever made was buying Zimbra and all of their email / collaboration software. When this happened, Yahoo! went from an HTML based site to a full AJAX Web Application, complete with drag and drop functionality in the email, a really great GUI Calendar with cool animation, and they even added a desktop client capable (Zimbra Desktop) of IMAP sync with your free email account.

So what's the problem? A great user interface, a phenomenal desktop client that works with multiple (yahoo and non-yahoo) email accounts, a solid calendar, group functionality, and all for free. It sounds great, and it is, when it works... By far, I believe that Yahoo! has the best User Interface of any email service in the world. Unfortunately, the backend delivery system just isn't consistent enough for me.

For example, when the iPhone first came out Yahoo! was touting free "Push Email". And it did work sometimes, but not really. As of now, the Push service from Yahoo! no longer works for me at all. In another instance, I paid for a Yahoo! Small Business Email account ($35/year), but it didn't work in the Safari Browser. A known issue, but they did nothing about it for over three years. Additionally, the business account wouldn't sync calendars with my iPhone without a hack. And there still isn't any IMAP functionality available (except with Zimbra Desktop), even when your paying $35.00 / year / account!!! Last, but not least, I have been experience message delivery lags (up to 24 hours) on a somewhat consistent basis.

Despite these frustrations, I have stuck it out with Yahoo! simply because I have 10 years worth of email (beautifully organized in folders) in the account that I didn't want to abandon. That is, until now.

I have (like everyone else) been a huge fan of Google since their inception. Even so, I have never liked the GMail interface... No "drag and drop", no "preview pane", and a sub-par message display. But, unlike Yahoo!, the backend code is amazing! Free IMAP, free push email (with the new Exchange-like functionality), and free personal domain hosting! In not so many words, GMail does everything Yahoo! does, better than Yahoo! does it, plus Personal Domain Hosting, and they do it for FREE while Yahoo! is charging $35/year!!!

At this point, it's a no brainer. I'm still not a fan of the GMail interface (especially not when compared to Yahoo!), but the reliability, and incredibly advanced functionality are second to none. Especially for free!!! To get around my dislike for the GMail User Interface, I'm using Zimbra Desktop 2.0 and simply IMAP syncing. Additionally, I'm using the Exchange setup on my iPhone to enable the Push Email from GMail. All is working wonderfully.

Here is how to get your own free Personal Domain / Push Email setup through Google:

1. You must own your own Domain (i.e. MyCompany.com)

2. Sign up for a STANDARD (free) Google Apps account: Google Apps Standard and setup the account for your personal domain (i.e. MyCompany.com).

3. Point your Domain MX (mail) Records to the Google Servers: Update MX Records

4. Create sub-domains and point them to Google (make sure to change the settings in Google to receive these sub-domain URLs.
(i.e. "mail.MyCompany.com" points to "http://mail.google.com/a/MyCompany.com/")
You can get fancy here by adding "calendar.MyCompany.com" and "docs.MyCompany.com"

5. Setup Push Email to your iPhone: Google Sync for iPhone

Happy Emailing!