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Gmail did it first. Yahoo is doing it better with their Yahoo! Mail Beta. I’m talking about webmail clients going 2.0.

Yahoo! Mail Beta made its debut a few days back with AJAX, RSS integration, and spanking new look and feel. When you load up for the first time, you’re presented with a short tutorial on what’s new and what’s hot about the Beta version of Yahoo! Mail.

First things first. I love the funky new mascot. I have no idea what’s his name so I’ll just call him Joe. Joe walks you through the fundamentals of Yahoo! Mail’s new navigation system. This includes basic functions like multiple email selection, mail deletion and mail organisation. ALL of which have taken a huge leap in terms of user friendliness and usability. Unlike Gmail which presents a stripped down barebones webmail client, Yahoo pulled out all the stops and poured in a whole lot of time and effort into the finer details.

While it takes a little getting used to, I’m very happy with the way the Beta works. The interface is very intuitive and user friendly. The interface is divided into several panes. The sidebar contains an overview of your mailbox, including any subfolders that you may have created. When opening a mail folder, you’re presented with a tab on the main panel which includes a list of all your emails. Selecting a particular email will cause it’s contents to be reflected in the preview window below it. First impression of the interface: MS Outlook!

You can now right click almost anything inside the beta interface and be presented with a list of options that can be performed on the item, much like what you’d expect on a desktop mail client. For example, right clicking emails will present you with options to reply the email, delete it, etc while folders allow you to create new subfolder. Holding the Ctrl and Shift buttons allows you to make multiple selections. Couple this with the ability to drag and drop email and folders makes (re)organising your mail a breeze. This is a huge advantage over Gmail which doesn’t even allow subfolders!

After exploring the features and functionality, I daresay that I’m impressed. However, if for some reason you can’t stand the new interface, you can always switch back to the old Yahoo! Mail client. That is until Yahoo eventually phases it out.

With the beta, webmail is starting to bring the functionality of a full blown email client, ala MS Outlook or Eudora, into the comforts of your favourite web browser. This is all singing to the tune of traditional softwares and desktop client interfaces going online.