Update: The improvements are coming fast and furious now.
Original post:
I’ve never been a big webmail user. Eudora served my POP needs well, with Palm Desktop for contacts / tasks / calendar. When IMAP came into my life I reluctantly switched to Outlook, and was pleasantly surprised with the vast improvements of Outlook 2003 over earlier versions.
In 2008 I moved my domain email to Google Apps, and I’ve watched as Google has gradually created a platform that comes close to matching Outlook’s one-stop shop. Labs features now allow a calendar widget in the mail screen, and with Tasks implemented as a separate calendar, so a single browser tab can now compete with Outlook in terms of screen real estate.
Also, in recent weeks Google has also implemented Exchange Server-like capabilities in Apps:
So, at a time when webmail is becoming a viable replacement for Outlook, you truly can have your cake and eat it too.
All that’s left is a more robust Contacts format, and Apps will be standing on equal footing with Outlook and Exchange Server as a business tool.
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