Oddpost was a pay-for
webmail
Webmail (or web-based email) is an email service that can be accessed using a standard web browser. It contrasts with email service accessible through a specialised email client software. Additionally, many internet service providers (ISP) prov ...
service that debuted in 2002.
[ mentioned that "Oddpost debuted last year"] It pioneered the use of
JavaScript
JavaScript (), often abbreviated as JS, is a programming language and core technology of the World Wide Web, alongside HTML and CSS. Ninety-nine percent of websites use JavaScript on the client side for webpage behavior.
Web browsers have ...
to mimic a desktop mail application, the first notable foray into using
Ajax
Ajax may refer to:
Greek mythology and tragedy
* Ajax the Great, a Greek mythological hero, son of King Telamon and Periboea
* Ajax the Lesser, a Greek mythological hero, son of Oileus, the king of Locris
* Ajax (play), ''Ajax'' (play), by the an ...
methodologies for webmail. Ajax techniques minimized the amount of data sent during an email session by sending "Datapacks" instead of reloading the whole
interface
Interface or interfacing may refer to:
Academic journals
* ''Interface'' (journal), by the Electrochemical Society
* '' Interface, Journal of Applied Linguistics'', now merged with ''ITL International Journal of Applied Linguistics''
* '' Inter ...
on every click like a traditional webmail service (
Hotmail
Outlook.com, formerly Hotmail, is a free personal email service offered by Microsoft. It also provides a webmail interface accessible via web browser or mobile apps featuring mail, Calendaring software, calendaring, Address book, contacts, and ...
,
AOL
AOL (formerly a company known as AOL Inc. and originally known as America Online) is an American web portal and online service provider based in New York City, and a brand marketed by Yahoo! Inc.
The service traces its history to an online ...
). This made the service much faster, at the time, than its counterparts.
History
Oddpost created an interface much like the traditional 3-pane view used by many desktop software applications (namely Microsoft Outlook, Apple's Mail, Microsoft Entourage, Mozilla Thunderbird, and others).
Oddpost also had the design philosophy of making the interface invisible, where unread message headers were bolded, so there was no need for an unread message icon next to each message; sub folders were indented under the parent, so there was no need for a little ant trail connecting each folder.
This excerpt from a 2003 interview with Ethan Diamond,
Oddpost's co-founder and then president, explained this minimalist approach:
Google
Google LLC (, ) is an American multinational corporation and technology company focusing on online advertising, search engine technology, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, consumer electronics, and artificial ...
made extensive use of these ideas in
Gmail
Gmail is the email service provided by Google. it had 1.5 billion active user (computing), users worldwide, making it the largest email service in the world. It also provides a webmail interface, accessible through a web browser, and is also ...
, which was launched two years later.
Oddpost was also known for its humorous
blog
A blog (a Clipping (morphology), truncation of "weblog") is an informational website consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries also known as posts. Posts are typically displayed in Reverse chronology, reverse chronologic ...
entries about feature additions, bug fixes, and random musings about Oddpost.
Some disadvantages of Oddpost were seen to be that it required Windows and Internet Explorer, and that it lacked mail filters and support for secure email.
Oddpost was purchased by
Yahoo!
Yahoo (, styled yahoo''!'' in its logo) is an American web portal that provides the search engine Yahoo Search and related services including My Yahoo, Yahoo Mail, Yahoo News, Yahoo Finance, Yahoo Sports, y!entertainment, yahoo!life, and its a ...
on July 9, 2004, and became the new version of their
Yahoo! Mail
! Mail (also written as Yahoo Mail) is an email service offered by the American company Yahoo, Inc. The service is free for personal use, with an optional monthly fee for additional features. Business email was previously available with the Yah ...
service. On September 14, 2005, Yahoo! Mail started letting some users register to beta test the new Yahoo! Mail web client.
The original Oddpost servers have been shut down, however existing Oddpost customers were able to keep their Oddpost email addresses to be used with Yahoo!.
References
{{reflist, 20em
External links
johnvey.com- Explaining the Datapack concept
Discontinued Yahoo! services
Internet properties established in 2002
Webmail
Yahoo! acquisitions