Google might have mastered simplicity and ease of use, but I actually think Yahoo has the best tools of the big search engines — and I’m never been much of a Yahoo person.
My Palm’s touch screen lost its touch and I began looking around for another way to sync my contacts and calendar.
I think the Yahoo address book and calendar are — with the free Intellisync tool — pretty good. Contacts sync to-and-from Outlook at work to Yahoo and to-and-from Yahoo to my Outlook Express at home. And then the iPod syncs with Outlook Express. Calendar data syncs from Outlook to Yahoo and back.
Yeah, I’ve had some duping record issues, but otherwise it works pretty darn good. And yes, I don’t have my bluetooth cell phone plugged into the system at all. It was tightly with my Palm. But I’m carrying around less.
Then I started playing with MyWeb2.search.yahoo.com. Great way to have your bookmarks everywhere. I’m not sharing them with any “my communities,” Don’t really care for the 360 product — or even the concept.
And now there’s Tivo-Yahoo integration with weather and photos (and traffic if I lived in a place where Yahoo did traffic). And, oh yes, scheduling your Tivo from Yahoo’s TV listings. (For Tivo, the deals are promising … it had looked like other DVR players were going to easily muscle out the original … ah, but that’s for another day,)
Gmail is a great Web email app and yes, I periodically dump my contacts into Coogle. But Yahoo may be closer to replacing the desktop than the Googlemeisters of Mountain View. Look at the Widgets.
Am I wrong?
P.S.: I noticed some other people’s suggestions for handling contacts here.