

Opera launches Opera Mail web app - jannes
http://my.opera.com/mailteam/blog/welcome-to-my-opera-mail

======
Maro
Turns out I have an Opera account so I logged in. It's much more simplistic
than Gmail:

\- it's 1GB, so too small for me

\- no settings page (or can't find it)

\- no filters

\- no labels

\- no automatic signature

\- no multiple stars (but there's a pin)

\- doesn't seem to auto-save contacts

\- isn't completely AJAX, the Mail and Contacts tabs reload the page

\- ugly colors (email headers are purple)

So, this isn't a Gmail competitor for power-users at this point.

~~~
ams6110
Gmail was 1GB to start out, and people thought that was enormous.

~~~
salmonsnide
Things have changed quite a bit since 2004. The competition back then only
offered a few mb.

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steve19
It is based on Fastmail.fm (which Opera purchased). I have been using (and
paying) fastmail for years. I can highly recommend them.

~~~
seles
I had been using fastmail for years too, but recently switched to gmail
ironically.

10+ years ago I payed a small fee for life time account with them, and they
very were good, but they just never made any improvements to their service and
gmail just got better and better to the point it seemed ridiculous to keep
using fastmail.

~~~
gnosis
_"they just never made any improvements to their service"_

I've observed the opposite. They _constantly_ make improvements to their
service.

They've got boatloads of features and they're getting better all the time.

~~~
vnchr
If you guys can bring up examples, that would be helpful to the rest of us...

~~~
seles
The account I bought initially had 15 MB space limit (it was a 15$ one time
purchase for life membership). They never increased this limit... The web
interface didn't auto refresh, unless you used "poll" which then only
refreshed every 30 minutes.

When I did switch there was a bug in the forwarding that resulted in some of
my emails not forwarding (although this went away and only happened to 3
emails).

They might have had better improvements for accounts that required continuous
payment, but certainly not mine. It obviously got surpassed by free
alternatives.

Despite this criticism, I am very satisfied with fastmail, they served me well
for a long time.

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safeaim
Be aware that all mail deliveries in Norway (who you send the mail to, and
receive the mail from) will be surveilled and available to law enforcement by
court order. Obviously most of you are from the US, and are already used to
these kind of shenaningans, but just thought that I should warn you, as the
mail servers for this service will most probably be located in Norway. Read
more about it here: [http://www.tnp.no/2233-controversial-data-storage-
directive-...](http://www.tnp.no/2233-controversial-data-storage-directive-
accepted)

~~~
raphman
Fastmail.fm, the company that has been bought by Opera ASA to provide Webmail
states that _"Our main servers are located at NYI in New York City, USA."_ A
geoip lookup of the hosts in the header of a test e-mail confirms this.

~~~
safeaim
Yeah, I was suspecting that much after posting my comment. Thanks for clearing
that up :)

~~~
StavrosK
It doesn't change your warning though, does it?

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lkozma
I want to use this and I can manage with the clunky interface, the small
storage and I don't need too many features, but I really hate the "viral"
sentences added after the message, I thought that one ended with Hotmail.
People can figure out from my email address domain where to look if they want
a similar account.

"<http://www.fastmail.fm> \- Faster than the air-speed velocity of an unladen
european swallow"

Seriously, I don't want to spam everyone I know with tired inside-jokes.

~~~
alaithea
Fastmail has always been aimed more at paying users than free ones. The
taglines go away with anything above the free acount.

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kmfrk
Very interesting - and fast. I won't be using it, before they implement a
second layer of authenticators, though.

Google have always done their best to thwart Opera browsers from using their
service, and this is a great response.

I'd like to know how fast Gmail is for Apps customers compared to the free
version, though.

~~~
stanleydrew
I'm wondering what you mean when you say that Google have done their best to
thwart Opera users from using Gmail. Is this commonly accepted as true?

~~~
kmfrk
Gmail and other services have run very poorly in the past - and when Google
isn't recommending Opera users to use a _supported_ or modern browser, they
outright block the user string of the browser directly or indirectly[1]. I
don't know if Opera's JS execution was just so abysmal that Google Reader and
Gmail couldn't run at all in their first years, or what went on.

I had some more bookmarks on this, but I don't know where they are at the
moment. Maybe I've misplaced them, or Opera sync botched something. I'll see
if I can find some of them tomorrow.

[1]: <http://my.opera.com/haavard/blog/2010/09/08/google-instant>

~~~
gnosis
_"when Google isn't recommending Opera users to use a supported or modern
browser, they outright block the user string of the browser directly or
indirectly"_

Opera can mask itself as another browser. I've used this feature to circumvent
some Google annoyances aimed at Opera.

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blehn
That's probably the most convoluted sign-up process I've seen in a while.

On the landing page, they ask for an email address, and the hint is
"you@myopera.com". So I enter "me@myopera.com" since they must be asking what
I want my Opera address to be.

Nope. The next page puts that email in a username field, with _another_ email
address field below it, and a password field.

OK, so what kind of email address do they want now? A confirmation address?
Crap. me@myopera.com is an invalid username. Hmm, maybe I'm supposed to put
"me" in the username field and me@myopera.com in the email field.

Great, they sent a confirmation email to me@myopera.com, which I just created
and evidently can't use until I confirm the email address.

Fuck it. Back to Gmail.

Honestly, how hard is this?

    
    
      1. "Sign up" link
      2. Username
      3. Password
      4. Done. Show me my inbox with my email address prominently displayed somewhere.

~~~
bane
We're not an entire webmail service (just mail scheduling), but the
Momentomail ( <http://www.kymalabs.com>) signup process was so short we were
getting complaints that people didn't know what was happening.

1\. Click login 2\. If you have a google account hit "allow" 3\. Done.

There's something to be said about keeping to user's expectations about common
processes. Due to simply not needing it at this point in our product, our
process is still "weird" compared to a normal signup process, but seems to
have a much higher success rate in getting people to work through the process.

Hopefully opera will iterate a little and resolve this.

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aik
I'm not having the best experience. I sent an e-mail TO my new opera e-mail
address and it bounced. I sent an e-mail OUT OF my new opera e-mail account
and it failed "Bad Request: User [masked] was not found."

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tobylane
It looks very simple, definitely too simple. From what I hear Gmail looked
like this at first, the visible features were later.

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ajhai
While their email service looks simple yet polished, their success will depend
on how well they fight spam and the features that they offer (priority inbox
etc)

~~~
geoffw8
I disagree, it will depend on their ability to put the product in front of
users. The "techy" crowd might care about features, but few of the 500m+ (?)
MSN users will.

~~~
dimitar
Casual users like to ask power users for help. And non-techies can become
picky for something that they use every day.

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yhlasx
Nowadays changing email address is really difficult. (At least in my case)
Because you are already in everyone's address book with your existing
email.There has to be something superior, crucial to make you switch your
email.

Gmail's success, i guess, was because it was offering something which no one
had when it was first introduced. A huge space and ajax. It was even
considered cool to have a "gmail" when you could create accounts with
invitations only.

Maybe opera mail is fast, maybe it looks nice, maybe it is simpler. But i dont
think it has a key factor which would make you switch from email you currently
are using.

~~~
ams6110
_Nowadays changing email address is really difficult. (At least in my case)
Because you are already in everyone's address book with your existing email._

This is why your "public" email address(es) should really be something you
control. It's worth buying your own domain name if just for this reason. Then
you can switch backend providers without having to worry about giving everyone
you know your new email address.

~~~
MrJagil
I have often wondered, how do you go about this? A few tips from fellow
hackers would be welcomed :)

~~~
techsupporter
As others have mentioned, there are several options (Google Apps for Domains,
FastMail.FM's domain option, Office 365, etc).

The other important part is to get a domain of your own. Put some thought into
it since this will be the basis of your e-mail address for years to come. If
available, your first and last name is usually a good, professional choice, or
even just your last name if you get lucky. Go for something easy to remember
and that quickly identifies you. Unless you come up with something very witty
or you live in/identify with that country, try to stay away from the country-
specific domains (.me, .ly, .tv, and so on) since the "big three" (com, net,
org) are more recognizable and less subject to confusion when giving your
address to others.

Visit a domain registrar of your choice (NameCheap.com, Gandi.net, GKG.net,
etc) and follow the prompts. The common suffixes (properly known as top-level
domains) are $8-15/year, depending on registrar. Most registrars offer free
DNS services so all you need to do is pay your money at the registrar then
sign up at the e-mail hosting provider of your choice. Be CERTAIN you keep
paying the annual renewal fee. If you can afford it and really like the name
(which you should, if you followed my advice above), register the name for
several years. Make sure to keep the e-mail address on the domain registration
accurate just in case you lose your password, and treat your login credentials
at your registrar similar to your online banking details.

HTH :)

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dotcoma
good to have one new player (even though it's fastmail), but to me it looks
like it's nowhere even close to GMail.

~~~
morgantwenty
Agreed, I just signed up and it is nothing special at all. It is a shame but
with Firefox and Chrome being so good these days I totally forget about Opera.
I used to try it out every new major release but I have even stopped doing
that now. I don't know why they don't kill the Opera desktop browser as the
mobile is the big money maker for them and do some work on WebKit or Gecko.
They have a lot of talent but I can't help but feel it is wasted at Opera now.

~~~
dotcoma
I love their web browser, except for the bookmarks. If bookmarks were good,
I'd use Opera all the time (I tend to use Opera for Facebook and GMail, and
Firefox for the rest).

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jokull
Very pretty. Threaded conversations. Anyone know if there are plans to support
domain names?

~~~
mlok
Looks like it could : <http://www.fastmail.fm/help/domain_management.html>
(opera mail is based on fastmail, they bought this email service, but I'm not
sure they offer the same services)

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bryanh
So, I thought this might be a "Thunderbird" in the cloud type service (IE:
enter all your IMAP accounts and we'll sync it online).

Bummer that it seems to be just another email provider.

~~~
skrebbel
I had hoped that, too; as an avid Opera Mail (M2) user, this would've been
awesome. I don't see why a browser vendor needs to run a webmail service so
bad (also, it's not new; i had an @operamail.com address 6 years ago)

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iwjames
Awesome.. we really need some Gmail competitors. I love Gmail and all, but
they've reigned king with very little real competition for a surprisingly long
time.

~~~
mulander
You still have to give some credit to gmail. Even without the competition new
features are rolled out quite often (all the things in the 'labs').

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mtogo
At first glance this looks amazing!

I've long been looking for a service almost as good as Gmail so i can leave
and finally have some privacy in my email correspondence.

Thanks Opera!

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w1ntermute
Could turn out to be a Gmail competitor, but they'll need a better domain for
it than myopera.com.

~~~
lzy
Wish they found some way for users to use opera.com instead.

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skbohra123
We don't use 'My' anymore.

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jarek
Right, these days it's "Hip".

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joejohnson
Does anyone know if you can configure POP3 or IMAP?

I couldn't find it.

~~~
flamingbuffalo
when you sign up the welcome email gives imap info

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Jarred
I don't see any reason to use them over GMail

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sidwyn
No way to customize labels / star emails?

