The basics are Apple and Microsoft and a few other obscure email tools. Don’t forget your browser. It’s becoming the email application for Mac and Windows users.

I had to do some work in downtown San Diego early this week and spent some time in three different office buildings, wandering through cubicle farms and offices. The big surprise was how many people use their browser for email.

Apple’s Mail stores and manages incoming and outgoing email for as many accounts as you need. The same goes for Microsoft Office’s Entourage, but with even more capability.

So why are more people using their browser to check email? I see a paradigm shift taking place and it started with Google’s G-Mail and virtually unlimited storage.

Add that to increased bandwidth, increased number of internet connections, increased number of WiFi connections, and the general dependability of all those components, and a paradigm shift is taking place.

As an example, before heading out for the day or an overnight trip, my husband and I used to back up our Mail files, then copy all the files from our desktop Mac to the MacBook. No more. We don’t bother.

Increasingly, we’re using Safari or Camino or OmniWeb, and sometimes Firefox (whatever happens to be up and running at the time) to handle our email when we’re away from home. We don’t check email when driving, of course (the iPhone doesn’t count), but access with the notebook is easy to come by these days.

That highlights the only drawback, and it’s less of a drawback now than in years past-- internet connection. Mail on my Mac doesn’t require a connection until it’s time to send or receive email. Even if the connection is down, I can read my mail and respond. Once the connection is back up, all is well again.

Browser-based email requires a live connection to the internet, but that is increasingly a non-issue with the ubiquity of WiFi, WiMax and other connections.

This shift in email usage habits means many of us are just not using the email client on our computers, but managing our mail via Yahoo, Google, or using a browser to view company email.

That change begs the question-- ”Are you using a browser more for email in the past couple of years?”

If not, you’re not alone. If so, you’re in growing company. If so, is it Yahoo, Google, or company email that you check and manage in your browser window?

How much difficulty is it to find an internet connection when you’re away from your desktop Mac? Web-based email management has improved dramatically in the past two years. Even Apple’s .Mac web mail looks and feels like Mail on Mac OS X.

The follow on question for Mac360 readers is-- ”How would you describe the differences when managing your email messages in a browser?” It’s one thing to save them in a folder on your Mac, but it’s a bit more cumbersome to do the same in a browser window.

I’ve been saving email on my Mac for about nine years and the total file size is about 270-megabytes. That’s far less, after many years, that what Google and Yahoo allow for their web-based mail users.

There’s another change I’ve noticed. I’m using Google more than Yahoo for web mail. Yahoo’s interface is OK, as is .Mac. Google’s is simply elegant, and allows me to check and manage email via POP on my Mac.

Do you have issues with web mail? If so, Talk Back to us in the Comments section below.

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• Article by Alexis Kayhill • Published on Thursday, September 20, 2007
• Category: Opinion • 6 Reader comment(s) • Email This • Digg This • Shop Now

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Readers Talk Back:

Robert says:

I have recently changed to IMAP. Now I can use an email client as I prefer but I can also use the webmail access when necessary or convenient.

I don’t understand the statements about not wanting emails on a server for “security.” Security from what? If the concern is data loss, I’m thinking Fastmail (where I have my email) takes as good of care with their servers as I do with my iMac. If the concern is other people reading it, isn’t it too late? Email is about the most insecure medium we have and anybody and everybody who really wants to look at my email certainly has more than ample opportunity before it ever hits my inbox. Unless every message you send or receive is encrypted, your email is basically more insecure than a postcard.

— Posted on Mon Nov 19 at 5:02 pm by Robert

WAg says:

Webmail is both wonderful and frustrating. I finally enabled POP through my Gmail account so I can (sort of) have it both ways. It eliminates the need to log in to see that same message for the millionth time because I’ve forgotten what it said and I didn’t print it and so on AND if I don’t have a connection at least I have my previous mail.

— Posted on Sun Oct 14 at 11:02 am by WAg

LaserKun says:

I use Mail, Entourage, etc. (a few others) and web based mail - which I absolutely LOATHE! I am with BCS above - web base email is still too slow and cumbersome for me, and I have been using it for a few years. For me, it will never take over simply downloading my messages to my Mac. I have 6 email accounts, plus several web mail accounts:

1. find a WiFi access point (granted, that is getting a little easier - but I travel overseas often)

2. open browser (I keep mine open all the time anyway, so not a problem)

3. log on - this can take WAY too much time for me!

4. etc., etc., Not for me… even though I use a few.

mac360 “Magic Word”, knew18, as in I knew more than 18 web based email options, and hate them all.

— Posted on Mon Sep 24 at 9:16 am by LaserKun

Jeff Williams says:

When I worked for a large corporation using an MS Exchange Server, I lived on my Blackberry with wireless synch of e-mail, contacts and calendar functions. Any browser would work with it from Safari on up and I used USB Memory to carry documents and files with me between offices. I really liked traveling light and not carrying a laptop. Plus my corporate leaders liked the security this all contained.

Now that I work for a smaller company, I live on my Mac Book and want to retain all e-mails for my own security reasons. So I use OSX Mail and like it very much compared to Entourage. I even was able to use a plug in to synch my personal MSN account.

One other benefit is also my MSN account being able to tap into my work e-mail so if I travel without laptop, I can check from anywhere.

— Posted on Sat Sep 22 at 10:04 am by Jeff Williams

BCS says:

I much prefer to use a desktop client. Part of that is because I use POP3 and keep my email on my own computer--that way, you get unlimited archiving space. (Just be sure to do your own backups!)

I use Eudora for my POP3 accounts. That’s Eudora 6, the last Mac version. (There will be a new version--8.0--based on Mozilla Thunderbird, but the previews show essentially Thunderbird with different icons, not Eudora with its separate compact windows.)

Webmail is much better than it used to be, but it still sems like a kludge compared to a rich client. No drag-and-drop attachments, no Spotlight integration, no handy dock icon, and you often get logged out after a period of “inactivity.” Notifier widgets help with the last item, but if you’re going to run a dedicated program on your Mac, why not go whole-hog?

— Posted on Fri Sep 21 at 11:35 pm by BCS

LonePalm says:

Here’s another wrinkle on the issue. Thank you, Mike J for eloquently reminding me. I use SBC Yahoo DSL, and for several months I have been receiving notices that tell me to change my email settings to enable SSL/encryption for security reasons. I use Entourage (v. X) and have tried to implement the changes but it will not change all of them. This means I will need a new email client because Entourage will cease to function. If I don’t pick soon I’ll need to use web mail, which is not my choice for all the reasons Mike J stated. I think I’ll switch to Eudora 6.2.4, and sit back and watch what happens.

— Posted on Fri Sep 21 at 1:35 pm by LonePalm

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