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SquirrelMail
Webmail Strikes Back
The following is an English translation of an article written in Japanese by MOONGIFT and published on Open Alexandria http://www.openalexandria.com/ on the 26th of August, 2004. The original article is here.
This English translation is by Scott A. Hughes and was published on http://www.sahughes.net/ on the 6th of September 2004. Translation and publication have been made with permission of the author. The only major contextual alteration that has been made is the the change of the SquirrelMail URL from the Japanese site to that of the main English site.
26th August 2004
SquirrelMail
Webmail Strikes Back
As of late, webmail services are "gigantisizing". Yahoo, MSN, Lycos... are one after the other announcing services of giga-proportions. What triggered this is very clear. It is was Google's Gmail.
Despite having a Gmail account myself, I cannot say that I am making much use of it. I have always had my own email account prior to this service anyway, so this is to be expected. Nonetheless, this service promises to deliver the true benefits of webmail. Also, the combining of Google's pride and joy, its searching technology, with the service, will be key to its arsenal.
One of the primary reasons for email to be stored and retrieved on the server side, is that this way mass volumes of email can be processed in an instant. When searching through one hundred thousand email messages for a certain condition, a considerable amount of time would be required to process it on a client application. With the server, however, this is not the case, as one would expect. It could postulated that more than unbridled access to email, as suggested by the old phrase "whenever, wherever (from any PC)", searching technology is now the prime focus of demand.
The Open Source Software being introduced today is SquirrelMail, a fully-functional webmail application. With a sophisticated user interface, it presents itself as suitable for real day-to-day use.
Let's look and the merits of using webmail in our daily business. One of the more significant advantages is central management of information. Personal accounts can also be controlled individually. SquirrelMail is open source, and could be extended to say share address books. Webmail just became a little more exciting.
A disadvantage, however, is the bulkiness of all processing going through a browser, and how the user interface falls short of that of a rich client. Nonetheless, the ability to search email and the simplicity of the webmail approach helps prevent the formation of information gaps through varying levels of computer accustomisation and knowledge of the PC itself. The merits outweigh the demerits considerably. Additionally, by utilising the array of available SquirrelMail options, a world of uses are at one's disposal.
In these days of high-volume utilisation of email, webmail rightly finds itself in the spotlight. The benefits of webmail can be readily realised in both business and individual use.
http://www.squirrelmail.org/
Article: SquirrelMail - Webmail Strikes Back, First Publication (English Version) Mon Sep 6 2004
(c) Copyright S. A. Hughes Consulting. All rights reserved.
Scott A. Hughes
Last modified: Sun Sep 5 14:05:24 JST 2004