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UPDATE - see this post for a response to feedback we've received.
Web Mail has some great new features today!
We're making progress towards Web Mail 6.0 and we've decided to make the updates in 3 phases. This is the first phase, version 5.50, and it includes a number of the planned improvements and some bug fixes. Next we'll have 5.60 in a month or so, and then hopefully we'll have the full 6.0 released by the end of this year. Change takes a little getting-used-to, so we don't want to change too much at once. This article explains what we updated in this first phase.
Important: if you keep your browser open all the time and you have not closed it and restarted it since the new release, there may be some issues with the page style that will be resolved once you shut down your browser and re-open it so it can refresh the style sheets that control the page layout. If that doesn't work, clear the cache and try again.
** If you are not seeing the layout exactly like the image below , including the lines between the message list, then you need to refresh your browser or clear your browser cache. This picture is IE7, but Firefox 2.0 or any up-to-date browser will look almost identical.
(click to see full size)
Once your browser has loaded the updated page, here's a list of the improvements you'll see:
- The button order has changed, and you'll see a new Print button there, making that feature easier to find and use.
- We shortened the "This Is Spam" button to just Spam but it still does the same thing.
- The "Move to..." selector no longer has a button associated with it. Now when you select your destination folder in the list, that click will go ahead and do the move. Fewer steps.
- On the far right you'll see a new selector for "More Actions...". This list contains features that already existed but were sometimes hard to find, so now they're all in one place and easier to use. The actions are View Headers, View Source, Mark Unread, and Flag Message. All of these work exactly the same as they did before; they are just in a more accessible place. Note that when you are using the Preview pane, there won't be a selection to Mark Unread. You have to turn off Preview to do that (which is also easier to toggle now).
- Last, notice the Forward selector. This is now a drop-down instead of a button, so that you can choose whether to forward a message inline or "as attachment". Previously it just defaulted to inline, which often caused problems with re-forwarding messages forwarded to you with attached files. In the next release, we're going to make this a combination control with a button area and the drop-down area, so that you will only have to click once for your default Forward type (which you can set in Preferences).
- In this instance, only the controls that you can use on multiple messages at the same time are present until you actually click on a particular message. These are the same features you had before, we just made them easier to use. So you can use the checkboxes to select multiple messages, and then you can report Spam, Delete, or Move your selected messages all at once.
Caution - if you're like me and you use Web Mail a lot with the preview turned on, you'll probably click the Spam button a few times without looking, meaning to click Delete, since they changed places. I got used to it pretty quickly. If you make the mistake, just click Cancel when the spam reporting form comes up.
- Now when you click the Print button, the printable view will open up like it always has, but in addition the Print dialog for your computer will pop open automatically. The old way confused many users.
- You'll also notice that the printable view is much more nicely formatted now.
- Links still have the blue link color so they are easy to spot. But removing all those underlines gives the page more whitespace and a cleaner, more modern style that is easier on your eyes.
- Streamlined the Add selector to need one less click in the same way as the new Move control for messages already described.
- The Show Groups control has been made easier to use.
- FIXED - Wrapping of plain text messages viewed in the preview pane should no longer go outside the visible area or require any horizontal scrolling to view all the text.
- FIXED - The spacing of the message listing is now more compact vertically again so you can see more messages in the list.
- FIXED - Importing certain CSV files to the Address Book should work better now.
- Also a lot of work has been done under-the-hood to make Web Mail more reliable and faster. This will continue to be improved in the upcoming releases.
In addition to the above list, you'll notice a few other little style changes here and there that make things look nicer or easier to view, and more consistent between different browsers. So I hope you enjoy all these improvements, and please continue to send us feedback either here on this blog or using the Feedback link in Web Mail. Your input is what helps us continue to improve. Look for more great updates in the 5.60 release in a few weeks.
Email Guy
UPDATE - see this post for a response to feedback we've received.
Discussion
Posted by: Jeanne | October 4, 2007 12:46 AM | (101)
I agree that the placement of the spam/delete buttons is odd..I also hit spam for delete dozens of times...I make myself stop and think before I do now...not very efficient. As for the ads to the right of the email....they are absolutely intrusive. I have had that problem for months now and have written about it and called about it many times. Huge jumping/flashing ads while you are trying to read email is very distracting. I almost dropped Earthlink because of it. I would be so happy if you could address this. I am slowly becoming used to the other changes and find them very useful.
Thanks!
Posted by: Chuck Johnstone | October 4, 2007 5:57 AM | (102)
Is the address book considered part of e-mail ?? I have tried for years to get last name first...
Thanks for listening...
Email Guy
Posted by: Floyd Cox | October 4, 2007 8:36 AM | (103)
The webmail page is way too cluttered. I am there to check my e-mail, not find out about education opportunites or any other advertised improvement to life.
FC
Posted by: cityranch | October 4, 2007 8:42 AM | (104)
Posted Oct 2 I totally agree with the Spam/Delete buttons and am happy to see they will be put back the way they were. Hurry, please.
The bigger problem I am having is that the advertisements which appear on the right side of the screen (even though I have popups blocked) appear to be taking over more of the page than the e-mail message itself, making it difficult to easily read the e-mail. I presume I'm not the only one having this issue."
I find this area to be noticed more and more with the large number of advertisements being in animation. Hurts my eyes after a few seconds of trying to read mail while 1/4 of the screen seems to be trying its best to move around so I would read it instead of my mail.
Kinda show this box could be in the wrong place - it is either not noticed or is very very 'not liked'.
Posted by: MikeB | October 4, 2007 9:19 AM | (105)
On the topic of the Forward control, I'd like to be able to select multiple messages and forward them all as attachments to a single outgoing email. I use the anti-spam service Knujon, and it's annoying to have to forward messages individually.
Posted by: Bradley Warner Tompkins | October 4, 2007 12:53 PM | (106)
Hello Again,
• re. my earlier Comment (# 24), "5.50.1 ... interacted in a detrimental fashion with the EasyList and EasyElement filters":
Blowing out the browser cache fixed some, but not all, of the issues... I'll get back to you after I get to talk to my friends at the Adblock Plus site. I'm certain they can fix the remaining issues.
• For Byron (Comment # 26) and others who asked since then:
Email Guy has stated elsewhere on several occasions that the mailbox size increase will be phased in gradually over the next several-to-many months. (He didn't say so, but doing this requires replacing the Hard Disk Drives (HDDs) on the servers with bigger/faster models, something they do routinely as the drives age. The long standing industry practice has *always* been to guess-timate (a.k.a. "SWAG" - Scientific Wild Ass Guess) how long the drives will last and replace them shortly before they would fail anyway. Drive makers call this duration the Mean Time Between Failures (MTBF). Most drives actually last longer; unfortunately, a few don't... which is why we also have backups! ;-O )
May I suggest to Email Guy: Look for boxes that are habitually nearly full and "do" those first. I for one don't care. I always move the really big Keeper e-mails to my hard disk drive and erase them from the server, so my box has never exceeded 50% and usually is at about 25%. (It would be really nice if you provided that "Downloadable Mail Folder", discussed elsewhere (i.e. on other topic pages, and as echoed here by Comments #39 and #65), which would upgrade cleaning out server-based web mail folders from being a PITA to being a cinch.)
• re. Comment # 59 by M.R. Dallal:
This is an outstanding idea! I hope you will consider it seriously. If it was an option in my SPAM control panel, I would definitely enable it.
• My new 2-cents:
In like manner as the Toolbar appears at both the top and bottom of each page, so also the "Sign Out" link should appear at both the top and bottom of each page. A good place for the upper "Sign Out" link, IMHO, would be either immediately below the "News Headlines" link (a group of links which sees a lot of traffic) or after the Search Text Box at the upper right corner. Which is best is a toss-up, but consider that most web pages that have a "Sign Out" link or button typically put it in the upper right corner, and that is where I always first look for it. This also harmonizes with the idea that the least used item should be farthest to the right and/or the bottom. (I would NOT remove the lower "Sign Out" link. I predict that doing so would result in howling protests, because people are used to it being there!)
I Hope This Helps,
Brad
On comment #59, we will be allowing you to block top-level domains soon, but blocking by language won't be possible. Everything is UTF8-encoded and recognition of a language just isn't practical or even a good idea. But being able to block a country will solve the problem, and you will be able to do that very soon. Just FYI, you can block subdomains now, which works pretty well for most countries. You can enter anything in the block list that contains at least one period in it. You might find this comment helpful.
Email Guy
Posted by: Tom | October 4, 2007 9:31 PM | (107)
Move the "Spam" button after "move to" box and before the "Show Preview" box.
Posted by: Beth Levine | October 4, 2007 10:55 PM | (108)
Are you planning on adding a feature to webmail that automatically pops up with a "NEW MAIL" alert? This is really needed!
Beth Levine
Posted by: Pamela Ashworth | October 5, 2007 12:37 PM | (109)
A few days ago I noticed that (in the list of all messages view) the SPAM button had apparently been ...relocated. I noticed this because, now, every time I try to Delete a message, I end up sending it to the SPAM window.
Would it be possible to move it back?
There should really be some logical order to which buttons are where. I think I used to hit Delete when I was trying to reply... (though, now that I think about it, that would be in the message window, not in the message*s* window)
and believe it or not, some people still run 800 by 600 on a 15 inch screen - which means that your layout continues to be too wide for me. I'm at work and I can't alter the resolution or the size of my monitor. I'm not sure what the solution to that would be...
aside from that my only wish would be that webmail could filter and/or thread. one mailing list I'm on overshadows all my other mail 15 to 1. I have to download to see my personal mail (I use Pegasus, which has filters, or Thunderbird which threads). I don't thnk Sort has ever worked properly in webmail, though if you tell me it has, I'll check it again.
Is it possible to use Mutt with earthlink's mail server? I'm almost desperate enough to try to learn it.
Posted by: Grace Mehan | October 5, 2007 1:22 PM | (110)
I do not like the new font with serifs. I find it harder to read than a sans serif style --- it seems to vibrate too much. Also, I liked having the Move button being separate from the folder choice. I often change my mind about which folder to move stuff too, and it is a real pain to have to go find it and move it to the right folder.
Posted by: Jill | October 5, 2007 3:07 PM | (111)
I also agree about the font size - it used to be bigger - that was better.
The SPAM and DELETE buttons need to be reversed too.... as others have said, I have come close SEVERAL times in the past few days to sending valid emails to SPAM instead of DELETE. (Good thing it asks first!)
Posted by: Jeanne | October 6, 2007 7:53 AM | (112)
I liked the earlier layout of email. Now it is clutterered, tight, small, and I'm getting twice as much spam as usual. Also don't like the spam button where the delete button was. My finger is getting used to it, but the sudden switch made me have to go to two steps instead of one.
Posted by: Steve Grabowski | October 6, 2007 10:53 AM | (113)
I hope the final version gets completely rid of all the advertisemsnts. If I were signing up with earthlink for free, I would expect them, but you guys are going the way of Satellite TV...free of ads at first, then they slowly creep in and WE are stuck with 'em.
I have been with earthlink for years now. You do a great job. Please continue doing a great job by eliminating ads. I'll gladly pay a few $$ more for their elimination.
Posted by: Bradley Warner Tompkins | October 6, 2007 6:08 PM | (114)
Hi, Email Guy,
Thanks for the clarifications about the inner workings at EL.
Oddly, I note some of the comment numbers changed between the time I submitted my previous post (#104 as I am submitting this) and the time it appeared. (I didn't know that could happen.) As the result might baffle some readers, here is what I really meant:
• the first two are still correct as of 2007/10/06 18:02 eastern:
#24 having been from me
#26 = "Posted by: Byron | September 28, 2007 4:03 PM | (26)"
• Comments #39 and #65
It appears you may have moved the original comments by those numbers to a different page... I can't find any trace of them now. Duh, I should have included the contributors name, like I did on the next one...
• Comment # 59 by M.R. Dallal" somehow morphed into:
"Posted by: M.R. Dallal, Brooklyn, NY | October 1, 2007 10:43 AM | (71)
Could you modify the spaminator ..."
At least the anomaly didn't prevent you from figuring out what I meant. From now on I'll just copy the "Posted by:" line.
Brad
Email Guy
Posted by: weston | October 7, 2007 11:59 PM | (115)
The button bar should be consistent between the various pages. For example, the DELETE button should not be in a different location on the main page that lists all the email vs. the page that shows the contents of a single email. Common buttons such as DELETE should always be in the same location.
Posted by: weston | October 8, 2007 12:00 AM | (116)
Why is the 'Forward' function a drop down and not a button? When I click on Forward in the drop down list, nothing happens.
Posted by: s r | October 8, 2007 5:55 AM | (117)
I would like to see the "sign out" button at the top of the page.
Posted by: Kevin | October 8, 2007 7:19 AM | (118)
I would like to see a webmail where the spamblocker looks for certain subject lines that I have specified and then automatically routes those that match my specifications to my Inbox. This feature would be similar to what the spamblocker does when it searches for messages that match the addresses in my address book, but t would search by subject rather than address.
This would make it much easier to find replies from large companies or schools that don't necessarily indicate the email address of the person who responds to requests for information. Right now, to receive a reply from such a school or organization, first, I have to remember that I SENT a request, then I have to search the SUSPECT EMAIL for the anonymous person's reply and then I have to be able to recognize the reply for what it is. That is extremely aggravating.
If the spamblocker sorted by subject line as well as address line, I could simply cue the respondent to type a subject line in his or her response that matches a subject that I wish to have forwarded to my Inbox.
Wouldn't that be much less hassle?
Posted by: Kris Koehnen | October 8, 2007 4:20 PM | (119)
Hey, I just wanted to comment on the new layout. I am very disappointed that my inbox is more compressed. It's harder to read everything! My old, tired eyes liked the old layout in which the lines seemed to be further apart. I vote for changing it back. I can live with everything else.
KK
Posted by: Momo | October 8, 2007 11:39 PM | (120)
Please, please get rid of those totally obtrusive jumping around distracting ads to the right of the email I'm here to read. I'm paying good money to Earthlink, why saddle us with those obnoxious ads? Ugh!
Posted by: Jeanne Cavelos | October 9, 2007 8:12 AM | (121)
My biggest problem with Web Mail is that the address book you give us is too small. I run a business on my computer, and having an address book that holds only 2500 names is a huge problem for me. Many of my regular clients end up in my suspect email folder, because I can't add them to my address book. Please expand the space available in the address book. If not, I'm moving to another ISP within the month. I can't do business this way.
Email Guy
Posted by: Curtis W. Hamilton | October 9, 2007 6:45 PM | (122)
Dear Sir
I moved to Earthlink from Net Zero. The first thing I noticed with Earthlink, when I start to write an email, is that I have to choose a font style by clicking on (Color & Graphics) or be happy with the default font style you call (Plain.)
It would be so much easier if you would just have a list of font styles with a default button that allows each person to select the font style he or she prefers. Then every time you go to write an email, your preferred font style is already set for you.
I can't tell you the number of times I have typed a good portion of an email, only to remember too late that I am typing in PLAIN FONT and not the font I want. Then I have to make the choice: Do I want to continue with the Plain font style or am I willing to loose everything I've typed, to switch to the font style I want.
This seems like a simple enough request, what do you think?
Thank You, Curt Hamilton
Email Guy
Posted by: aeraduns | October 9, 2007 8:59 PM | (123)
please get rid of the ads. I pay really good money for Earthlink, the webmail should be without the Ads. I would expect it if it were a free service, but you folks are "double-dipping: getting paid by the consumer and paid again by the ad company. Shame on you. Please drop the ads. a
Posted by: Jim | October 10, 2007 8:37 AM | (124)
OK, I figured out the Forward thing. If you click on Forward, nothing happens. But if you expand the dropdown and click on a style it works. Not intuitive as I was expecting it to act like a Forward button.
Posted by: Janet | October 14, 2007 5:48 PM | (125)
I do not like the ads moving to the right side of the screen and all the animation. It makes it very difficult to concentrate on the email when trying to avoid the animation!! I liked it better when the ads were across the top of the screen rather than the side since it interfers with the taskbar and decreases the size of the mail content to make it longer with shorter lines. The animation is very stressful as some of them actually act like strobe lights and can trigger a headache :-(