EarthLink will roll out a beta of a new members-only Flash-based Web e-mail within four weeks, in a bid to upstage rivals such as American Online and even Google.

EarthLink will roll out a beta of a new members-only Flash-based Web e-mail within four weeks, in a bid to upstage rivals such as American Online and even Google.

EarthLink will roll out a beta of a new members-only Flash-based Web e-mail within four weeks, the Atlanta-based Internet service provider said Thursday, in a bid to upstage rivals such as America Online and even Google.

Unlike other Web-based e-mail systems, such as America Online's new subscriber-only service, EarthLink's upcoming Enhanced Webmail is built using the Laszlo platform, which generates Flash-based applications. Most existing online mail services, including those hosted by AOL, Google, and Microsoft, are built on DHTML (Dynamic HTML).

"We've been the first to market [among national ISPs] in a number of areas, like anti-spam technology," said Jerry Grasso, EarthLink's director of corporate communications. "And this plays right into that. Flash lets us build a rich new application, the first in the business that duplicates the desktop e-mail client experience on the Web."

By using Laszlo and generating a Flash-based application, EarthLink figures to sidestep the basic problem most users have with Web mail: it's slow and clunky. "We've taken a completely different approach than, say, AOL and Google," said John Foltz, the product manager for EarthLink's e-mail. "It doesn't behave like a Web page at all."

Read complete article at: informationweek

Author: John Ribeiro

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