The Webmail team have been working hard on the new "Cayman" beta. First off, this is a sneak peak of the beta - essentially they want your feedback. It's for internal users only, so please do not share with people outside AOL.
You'll see the new Webmail has a new and slick user interface. Replying to a message is inline now. When your mailbox loads - no more paging to see the next set of messages. It really looks like a winner. By the way, behind the scenes this is using DOJO, as well as TurboAjax/TurboWidgets for some of the page controls.
Give it a try. Get your bugs written up. Use it daily. http://beta.webmail.aol.com.
Here's the official message from the Webmail team. Be sure to read the known issue section.
You'll see the new Webmail has a new and slick user interface. Replying to a message is inline now. When your mailbox loads - no more paging to see the next set of messages. It really looks like a winner. By the way, behind the scenes this is using DOJO, as well as TurboAjax/TurboWidgets for some of the page controls.
Give it a try. Get your bugs written up. Use it daily. http://beta.webmail.aol.com.
Here's the official message from the Webmail team. Be sure to read the known issue section.
Greetings MV Campus! Many of you have seen prototypes, demos and mock-ups over the past few months but I'm pleased to announce that the next generation of Web Suite (codename: CAYMAN) is now available for your very own testing pleasure at http://beta.webmail.aol.com.
What can you expect to find on Cayman?
- A sleek new look and feel that provides you with more room to read/view messages.
- One-click to your new messages: The Today page has transformed into the Today curtain. You can choose to view the latest headlines or go immediately to a new message.
- In-line read and compose: No more popping out each and every message in a new window - unless you want to, of course! You can individually pop-out a message or change your preference in Settings to pop-out messages every time.
- Scrolling list view: No more paging through all of your messages! With Cayman, all of your messages will appear in one scrolling list.
- New and improved panels: We have included a People Panel (which looks more similar to the Buddy List with hover controls and short-cuts to email, IM or edit the contact), a To Do's Panel, and a panel with TMZ.com feeds. Look for more panels in the near future - especially with Cayman's open Panel architecture that will allow 3rd parties to develop their own panels for Web Suite!
- Add/Edit folders more quickly: You can now add a new folder from within the folder list view and edit/delete folders more easily.
- Improved contacts: With Cayman, we have included buddy icons and AIM-like hover controls when you roll-over a contact name. You can initiate an IM or email in just one click!
This is just to name a few of the new features you will see. Why don't you check it out and discover the wonders of Cayman for yourself? Huge kudos to the Web Suite team for reaching this major milestone!
We are currently promoting this Beta to internals only, but expect to see Cayman in public Beta later this week!
<the fine print>
- Because this is the initial Beta release, there are still issues and bugs being worked out.
- Performance improvements are still being made - especially on IE6 - so know thatwe are focused on it!
- Currently, Cayman is best used with Firefox or IE7 browsers, but will work with IE6 (with the caveats listed above).
Enjoy!
The Web Suite Team
What can you expect to find on Cayman?
- A sleek new look and feel that provides you with more room to read/view messages.
- One-click to your new messages: The Today page has transformed into the Today curtain. You can choose to view the latest headlines or go immediately to a new message.
- In-line read and compose: No more popping out each and every message in a new window - unless you want to, of course! You can individually pop-out a message or change your preference in Settings to pop-out messages every time.
- Scrolling list view: No more paging through all of your messages! With Cayman, all of your messages will appear in one scrolling list.
- New and improved panels: We have included a People Panel (which looks more similar to the Buddy List with hover controls and short-cuts to email, IM or edit the contact), a To Do's Panel, and a panel with TMZ.com feeds. Look for more panels in the near future - especially with Cayman's open Panel architecture that will allow 3rd parties to develop their own panels for Web Suite!
- Add/Edit folders more quickly: You can now add a new folder from within the folder list view and edit/delete folders more easily.
- Improved contacts: With Cayman, we have included buddy icons and AIM-like hover controls when you roll-over a contact name. You can initiate an IM or email in just one click!
This is just to name a few of the new features you will see. Why don't you check it out and discover the wonders of Cayman for yourself? Huge kudos to the Web Suite team for reaching this major milestone!
We are currently promoting this Beta to internals only, but expect to see Cayman in public Beta later this week!
<the fine print>
- Because this is the initial Beta release, there are still issues and bugs being worked out.
- Performance improvements are still being made - especially on IE6 - so know thatwe are focused on it!
- Currently, Cayman is best used with Firefox or IE7 browsers, but will work with IE6 (with the caveats listed above).
Enjoy!
The Web Suite Team
Comments
One thing I just noticed that may stop me from being able to use this as my day to day business email program: the obnoxious Flash and dynamic HTML advertisements. The former I've quashed using Flashblock on Firefox, but those ads just make me very reticent to adopt this as a business tool.
We need to figure out a way to give paying customers (or paid customers, such as myself) a way to avoid that hassle.
That said, I must admit that I clicked on an ad. It was something like "Missed an episode of 24?" I did miss an episode and a half (Tivo glitch) and I'll be going back to download those at some point.
I don't notice or mind the ads in Yahoo mail (which I use for non-business mail). So maybe it's just a question of making them less annoying (and less profitable?).
I had 247 messages. 90% or so were CVS checkin notifications. Thunderbird sends those to a local folder (which I never look at) and shows something like 17 messages in my Inbox.
I can't wade through 200+ messages. Sorry.
But the new UI is an improvement and I'm sure this mail application is great for some number of people.
Bill