Technology As Innovator

In Vietnam where I’m living, Yahoo! Messenger is the most popular IM service. Like most Vietnamese, I started communicating through IM with Yahoo! Messenger.

In 2006, my account has reached its maximum number of friends an account can add: 300.

My Yahoo! 360, Yahoo’s blogger service also limits to 300 and I always have a hard time managing my friend list. I had to work around by configuring registry to allow multiple Y!M instances to run at once.

So my concern when registering for any social network or IM service is the maximum number of friends an account can add.

And here’s the current data:

5,000 for Facebook. This is sufficient for me, till now.

600 for Windows Live Messenger. Still not enough, as my connections now have passed 1,000.

300 for Yahoo! Messenger and Yahoo! 360. I can’t live with this cap.

No statistics for Gtalk

1,000 for Yahoo! 360plus Vietnam. However, “add friend” in this service doesn’t work in the standard way since friend adding is one-way: doesn’t require confirmation, doesn’t show vice versa.

2,000 for Twitter. I haven’t planned to reach that number just yet.

So what platform are you on? Have you reached the cap in your friend list? If yes, what have you done to solve the issue?

Overall

Why would I want to use a Vietnamese web service

1. Connection speed, especially for video streaming
2. Local opportunities

What would drive me away

1. Security, including revelation of my account information and spam
2. Careless design
3. Immature communities

Networking

Professional Networking

I’m favoring CyVee because opportunities are real and more closely intact.

LinkedIn is terrific, but opportunities might come at a lower pace.

Social Networking

I’m currently very happy with Facebook.

If faceViet or yobanbe want to get me, they have to provide

1. Professional theme
2. English interface
3. Strong personalization options.

Social News

It’s a pity I prefer utilizing my RSS Reader over social news sites such as Digg. Therefore, no remark just yet.

However, the news sharing platform of CyVee looks nice and could be very useful in promoting company brand like the way Tim of TRG is doing.

Additionally, if Vietnamese service provider can create something like StumbleUpon, it would make a hit and I’ll definitely consider.

Photos Networking

Picasa has everything I need: 1Gb free account, folders, tagging and an uploader.

Is there a local site focusing on photos networking?

Music Networking

I’m enjoying sharing music on imeem. I am more into English songs. I like new age, hard rock and symphony and I’m not sure whether nhacso, Zing mp3 are rich of such genres.

Video Networking

Youtube is absolutely wonderful. I am amazed by its fast connection speed and stability.

Therefore, I don’t have the plan to move to Clip.vn just yet.

Mobile Networking

Has any Vietnamese vendor invest in this area?

Blogging

I am maintaining my different blogs on self-hosted WordPress, Yahoo! 360 and Windows Live Spaces.

If local blogging providers such as ngoisaoblog, blog.com.vn want to attract me, they would have to ensure:

1. High SEO compatibility
2. High security, including spam protection and splog tracking
3. Backup options and standard-compliant import/export functionalities
4. Permalinks

Instant Messaging

My clients in the US are using MSN Messenger. Most of my friends are using Yahoo! Messenger. For conference, Skype is just wonderful.

I don’t feel the urge of switching to Zing chat.

Email

Apart from professional emails on my domain, I use a Gmail account to access Google services and a Yahoo! email to make it easier for my friends.

Any company is investing in providing free email service in Vietnam?

Portal

I use my portal for work purpose and netvibes is still number one.

Zing looks very nice, but I’d rather having something customizable.

e-Commerce

I’m not having a real need of C2C e-Commerce, so no comment on this.

Map

A vote for diadiem, simply because I need to find ways in my local areas.

Entertainment

I’d rather go out playing sports than wandering online, so good luck socvui, hihihehe and so on

Conclusion

In conclusion, the 2 local web services that I utilize are CyVee and diadiem

CyVee give me real local opportunities and diadiem is definitely more useful than its Google counterpart.

For others, if they can bring me real values I’m seeking…

Recap of new features

Though you might have experienced them already. I’ll make a quick recap when the new Yahoo! Mail turns official and becomes default.

New hot keys

Although Yahoo! Mail classic already provided hot keys and prompts, new Yahoo! Mail makes them shorter thus more memorable.

Tabs

Tabs come into place. Now we have different tabs for each of our task, whether it is reading different messages or composing different letters.

Integrated RSS reader

It allows you to forward a post as an email.

Unlimited Storage

I still remembered the time when we used to have only 4Mb per account. It was only 4 years ago. Time flies any now we have more and more and more storage due to cheaper hardware.

In 2007, storage is no longer a big concern of users. At the time of this post, Hotmail already offers 5Gb, Gmail will be offering 4Gb. Nevertheless, unlimited is always nice.

 

 

Integrated Yahoo! Messenger chat

Though basic, it comes in handy.

SMS Messaging

It currently works for U.S., India, Philippines and Canadian mobile numbers.

More effective spam-filters

It’s hard to estimate how effective it is, but it works well on my account.

Built-in Context Menu

Context Menu refers to a menu that appears when you right-click on a Graphical User Interface element.

Hint: in some browsers, the browser’s Context Menu is displayed together with Yahoo! Mail Context Menu and is of higher priority. To use Yahoo! Mail Context Menu, hit “Esc” once.

What I wish Yahoo! had offered

• Forwarding
  It’s only available with Yahoo! Plus. Gmail offers forwarding for their free account. The strategy is Yahoo! and Google is different so I have to learn to live with it.
• POP3
  Also available with Yahoo! Plus

How I use different email services

I tried around 40 free email services in 2003. I now narrow down to one Yahoo! Mail, one Gmail, one Hotmail and some email accounts on my professional website taitran.com

1. Yahoo! Mail and other Yahoo! services such 360 are for staying in touch with my personal networks
2. Gmail is for more professional connections such as organizations, societies
3. The Hotmail account is more exploring Microsoft Live, MSN and Hotmail
4. My professional email at taitran dot com is for occasions when branding is really important

Which email services do you use? Do you use different email services for different purpose?