Since we re-launched our OpenSRS Email Service on our own, unified email platform in mid-2007, we’ve been very busy working to make it even better. A lot of what has been done was focused on the back-end infrastructure – making the service faster, more reliable and more scalable. But not all the work has been focused on the “plumbing.” For the last little while, we’ve also been working on a new release of the webmail application, version 5.5, and it’s nearly ready for its debut.
Over the next few months we’ll be providing our email customers with a way to let their users take the next release of our webmail application for a spin. This opt-in “preview” will run for at least eight weeks between when we make it available on the live servers, to when we retire the old webmail application and make version 5.5 the default webmail for all users.
One important thing to note is that this is not a “beta” program. We’re bringing the new webmail out as a completed application, but in a preview mode. The goal is to get some feedback on some new features we’re adding, but more importantly, we want to ensure that our email resellers can ease into the new webmail with as little impact as possible.
Better Performance, Calendar and RSS
This webmail upgrade is really part of the continuing evolution of our current webmail application. It’s really not all that different from an end-user perspective when it comes to reading and sending mail, managing contacts and doing all of the things you do with webmail.
The big change is in the performance of webmail. We’ve done a ton of work to optimize webmail and the result is a dramatic improvement in speed and performance. It’s felt across all browsers, but the difference is most noticeable on Internet Explorer. It’s much more responsive, especially for users with lots of mail.
And aside from the new stuff “under the hood,” there are a couple of new features we’re adding, namely a calendar and RSS feeds.
The calendar is a full-featured, web-based calendar with drag and drop, as you’d expect. The RSS reader allows users to subscribe to, and read RSS feeds alongside their mail.
We’ll be sharing more about the preview program and the rollout of webmail in the coming days. Rest assured, it will be up to you to decide when and how you’ll bring this new webmail upgrade to your customers during the transition period.
Tags: Email Service