Filed under: Business, Features, Windows, Macintosh, Linux, E-mail, Office, Productivity, Web services, Apple, Google, Microsoft, Commercial, Freeware

This post’s subtitle could be “Why Gmail rocks”. If you’re already a Gmail user, you probably already comprehend Gmail’s one-of-a-kind way of grouping messages from the same conversation together and presenting them in one unified view. If that’s the case, this article is probably not of much interest to you. But if you’ve never tried Gmail, and have never understood why your friends keep saying it’s the ideal thing since sliced bread, hopefully we can help you out (and provide some alternatives if Gmail isn’t an option for you).

Grouping threads

Virtually all email clients have a view that presents a list of messages. The traditional way to handle this (and the way virtually all email clients and webmail interfaces do it) is to treat each individual message separately. The onus is on the user to keep various conversations (threads, in email parlance) straight in their head. This works fine when you receive only 20 or 30 emails in a day, but when you get up above 60 or 70, this model starts to fall apart. It completely fails when you get up into hundreds of messages per day or more.

The one-of-a-kind feature that Gmail brings to the table is the capability to intelligently group messages from a common email thread together, so that in your list of messages you will only see one entry per thread. Right off the bat this will take an inbox with 70 actual messages in it, and make it appear as if there are only 20 or 30, since you’re only seeing one row per thread.

Continue reading Email user interface advancement - Emailers Anonymous

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Filed under: Business, World wide web

Have you ever bought something on eBay only to have a problem with the transaction? Maybe the seller never shipped the item, or didn’t respond to your questions. Maybe it was damaged and the seller wouldn’t let you return it. Or maybe the item arrived late or wasn’t as described.

The first thing many of us would do is leave negative feedback for the seller. But sometimes we stop to think twice before doing that. Because if we leave negative feedback, the seller might retaliate by leaving negative feedback for us. And then when we go to sell something we might find it hard to get a fair price because we have a mark or two against us.

eBay is aware of this problem, and is proposing a pretty extreme solution: prevent sellers from leaving negative feedback for buyers. The BBC reports that starting in May, sellers will no longer have the capability to leave negative feedback. Of course, sellers aren’t particularly happy with the proposed change, saying it removes a tool for dealing with problem customers who refuse to pay or make trouble in other ways.

But honestly, the feedback system is really much more useful for buyers trying to find trustworthy sellers than vice versa. For the most part, if someone wins an auction, the system is set up so that you’ve to sell the item to them. So there’s never been much reason for eBay to grant sellers to rate buyers anyway.

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Filed under: Deals, Rumors, Google (GOOG), Dell (DELL)

Even though it seems like a long shot that Dell, Inc. (NASDAQ: DELL) could end up buying the wireless handset division of Motorola, Inc. (NYSE: MOT), the company may indeed end up becoming a player in the wireless industry one way or another. At the least, Dell might want to hook up with a larger partner with some kind of wireless computing clout.

If the rumored Motorola deal doesn’t work out, would Dell work with Google, Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) on a new wireless smartphone based on Google’s Android software platform? There are rumors that a partnership could be announced next week at the Mobile World Congress in Spain. The question remains: why on Earth would Dell want to leap into the brutally competitive wireless arena, even with Google as an ally?

Perhaps Google needs a high-profile hardware partner to build a flagship handset to showcase its Android software system for mobile phones. “Senior Industry Sources” have claimed that a partnership between the two is on tap for next week, although an actual phone may not be the product to be announced. Dell could announce a tablet Personal computer running the Android platform instead of an actual wireless handset, for example.

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Filed under: Deals, Google (GOOG), Microsoft (MSFT), Yahoo! (YHOO), XM Satellite Radio (XMSR), Sirius Satellite Radio (SIRI), Market matters, Alcatel-LucentADS (ALU), Cramer on BloggingStocks

TheStreet.com’s Jim Cramer says the News Corp. chief cares about on the internet, which makes his tone toward Yahoo! telling.

Does someone want to tell me the bull case for Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO) (Cramer’s Take) up here? After listening to Rupert Murdoch last night, who never met a dot-com he didn’t like, I’ve to state that Yahoo is Microsoft’s (NASDAQ: MSFT) (Cramer’s Take).

Have no doubt that Congress will look at the efforts of Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) (Cramer’s Take) to halt the deal and immediately recognize that this is about monopoly, with Google playing the role of Microsoft this time around.

I also find it hard to believe that anyone takes Yahoo! management seriously. Other than Alcatel-Lucent (NYSE: ALU) (Cramer’s Take), I am hard-pressed to find a company that has done more to squander advantage, and in this case, Yahoo! had far more going for it than ALU from the start.

Believe me, if this company had any hope of getting to the $20s on its own, I would feel differently. But there is no indication whatsoever that the business was doing anything but deteriorating by the month, and this quarter was particularly bad despite Panama — remember that? — and despite a true migration from print to the Web at an unfathomable level.

Sometimes in capitalism, a company with a great franchise falters and it is worth giving it the benefit of the doubt. But Yahoo! has been faltering for two years now since it rallied at the end of December of 2005, when there were high hopes for its new engine and business on the internet was smoking. If I were Yahoo! right now, I would be grateful for the opportunity to at last reward shareholders.

But no, they think they deserve more.

They are dreaming. This deal will get done, and it will get done a lot more swiftly than the merger between Sirius (NASDAQ: SIRI) (Cramer’s Take) and XM (NASDAQ: XMSR) (Cramer’s Take), if that ever has a chance of being completed.

Random musings: Congrats to all involved in the relaunch of our flagship site, which has finally evolved past my initial take of what TheStreet.com should look like.

RELATED LINKS:

• Yahoo Deal Will Cut Microsoft’s Earnings
• News You Need: Microsoft, Yahoo

Jim Cramer is a director and co-founder of TheStreet.com. He contributes daily market commentary for TheStreet.com’s sites and serves as an adviser to the company’s CEO.At the time of publication, Cramer had no positions in stocks mentioned.

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Filed under: Business, World wide web, Google, Googleholic

Welcome to Googleholic - your bi-weekly fix of everything Google!

This edition covers:

• Google stock drops below $500
• Yahoo gets a call from Google for alternative to Microsoft’s “bear hug”
• Google Android Developer Challenge gets extension

Google stock drops below $500

For this first time since last August, Google stock prices dropped below $500 this week. Maybe that’s due to by Google missing earnings, or because of Google’s interference with the Microsoft-Yahoo deal, investor’s are losing confidence. Taking into account that Google stock was selling for around $750 last November, this is quite a drop.

Yahoo gets a call from Google for alternative to Microsoft’s “bear hug”

The WSJ reports that Google has been making calls to Yahoo to save it from Microsoft by having Yahoo outsource its search and ad business to Google. One does have to consider the irony, especially in the light of David Drummond’s post about “openness” and “innovation.” If Google practically runs Yahoo, will there really be any competitive search alternatives left?

Google Android Developer Challenge gets extension

Although officially announced last week, the deadline for submissions to the Android Developer Challenge has been pushed pack to April 14, 2008. This is apparently due to an update to the development kit, which will be released in a few weeks.

In other Google bits here at Download Squad:

• Google’s social graph - Google releases an API that indexes the internet to determine relationships in your social networks, making it easier to find those same friends when you join a new network.
• Google doesn’t like Microsoft’s bid for Yahoo - Google’s David Drummond gives his two cents on the unsolicited proposal by Microsoft to purchase out Yahoo.
• Avoid looking like a spammer on Gmail - Gmail has limits set on the number of recipients that can receive your emails in a day, and will disable your account if you exceed the limit.

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Filed under: Business, World wide web, Web services

If you’re outside of Pennsylvania, you’ve nothing to worry about, probably. But one Pennsylvanian woman who started selling goods on eBay to stay at home with her daughter who was diagnosed with a brain tumor, is being prosecuted by the say of Pennsylvania for not having an auctioneer’s license.

The story essentially boils down to the idea that people who are doing well on eBay in Pennsylvania need to be regulated, and at this point it looks like suing them for not having a expensive auctioneer’s license is the way it’s going to happen. So far, only two people have been hit, apparently to make a legal point.

Correct us if we’re wrong, but isn’t eBay technically the auctioneer, while sellers are just people/businesses putting items up for auction? Now whether this is just a case of misguided bureaucracy or a way to create some commotion in order to get online auction related legislation in place, this seems rather wrong.

If she was dodging taxes on her at-home business, that is one thing, but from the looks of it, she’s getting sued over a point which technically doesn’t even apply to her. But then again, there are those who think the World wide web is a “series of tubes.”

[via Techdirt]

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The Iowa Supreme Court in late January ruled that homeowners can sue builders for poor workmanship even if they aren’t the original owners of the home.

Robert and Beverly Speight, of Clive, Iowa, purchased their home in 2000. The house was originally built for a different owner in 1995. Shortly after moving in, the Speights noticed water damage and mold at their home. A building inspector determined that the damage was caused by a roof and rain gutters that weren’t built properly.

The Speights in 2003 filed a lawsuit against the builder, Walters Development Company. You can read the full story here.

No one knows yet what the results of the lawsuit will be. There’s no guarantee that the Speights will win their case. But the fact that the couple is able to bring the case to court is a victory for homeowners.

Tags: homebuilding, Iowa Supreme Court, new homes

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