Web-based email clients like Gmail & Yahoo mail are highly functional, have the available-anywhere benefit, and run with the support of some serious server muscle (so things like search can be fast and awesome). Plus they don’t bring your computer to a grinding halt. However, as advanced as the web has become they are arguably still clunky, and lack the Pizzaz and responsiveness of desktop mail clients like Outlook and Apple Mail. For something that we use every day, those things are important.<p>Given the convenience of web-based mail clients (and barring the obvious downsides like a full store of offline email) - have they finally come of age to replace their desktop equivalents?
As I've mentioned on HN before, I'd <i>really</i> like to see The Next Gmail. (I thought it would maybe occur as Google opened up on Gmail a bit this last June <a href="http://googleappsdeveloper.blogspot.com/2014/06/introducing-new-gmail-api.html" rel="nofollow">http://googleappsdeveloper.blogspot.com/2014/06/introducing-...</a>)<p>With time my experience with Gmail keeps degrading and I'm to the point where I notice myself browsing around the web for other options like FastMail and such. I haven't seen anything overwhelmingly better, at least not in the way that Gmail was when it first appeared.<p>The original Gmail, when it came out and you had to be invited in and such, was <i>mind-blowing</i> better than the competition. I've not seen any update to any Google service since that so clearly was above the competition. Recall that it was <i>so good</i> people thought it was one of their April Fool's Day hoaxes.<p>Since then, if anything, I've seen Gmail degrade with time. I get more spam now than ever. (And the spam comes in different forms such as via Gmail Chat/Hangouts), the interface is laggy to me on a MacBook Pro with 20mbit↓ connection, and new innovations like the Google Voice merging are always buggier than what they called "Beta" in Gmail circa 2005->2009.