A while ago we ran a survey, and found out that two thirds of the people who download Thunderbird expected us to give them an email address as part of Thunderbird. It makes sense, as all of the “new email” alternatives that consumers have (Gmail, Hotmail, GMX, etc…) package email addresses, storage & service with their interfaces. They’re quite surprised to find that we don’t. Of course, for enterprise users used to the notion of an “email client” like Outlook, Thunderbird’s model makes sense but for many people first trying Thunderbird, the first question we ask them — “What is your email address?” — is unexpected. We suspect that not only do new users expect us to give them an email address, but they like being able to try out new software with a blank slate. That way, it’s easier for them to decide whether they like the software without right away needing to a) trust the software with email addresses and passwords, and b) trust the software to not “mess up” their accounts.
A Prototype
Here is our first attempt to fix that. In partnership with our friends at Tucows/Hover, we’ve built a new account creation feature, which allows new users to set up new email accounts easily. The addon replaces the default New Mail Account dialog (found by going to the File » New » Mail Account… menu entry) with a new dialog which allows people to purchase a new personalized email address. (Don’t worry, if you decide you don’t want to pay for an email address and prefer free ad-supported email services, we also have links to the most popular email providers, and we hope to integrate them further in the process at some point. And if you’ve
already got an email address, you can just click the “Skip this” button at the bottom, and be taken to a slightly-prettier version of the previous New Mail Account dialog.
The purpose of this prototype is to gather as much feedback as possible, to help us decide whether this feature would work well in Thunderbird. Of course, being aimed at people who don’t currently use Thunderbird, we’ll have to seek out more representative users, but we still would like input from readers of this blog.
A note about money: running high quality email services cost money, which comes either from paid services or from ads. We hope to be able to offer a variety of email providers as part of Thunderbird, making it easier for users to choose what model works best for them.
We’ve also thought about offering Thunderbird-branded email accounts, and may consider that in a future release of this addon.
What’s Next?
With your help, we’re hoping to get this add-on built directly into future versions of Thunderbird so please try it out and leave your feedback. For installation, more information and a screen cast explaining the add-on, check out the Get An Account project page.
A VERY bad idea and an attempt to address an issue that may not be as great as the writeup above makes it sound. Yes, there are folks who expect to get an email address like JohnSmith@Thunderbird.com but not all that many. Most seeking support ask for information about accessing their existing email account when using a client.
The email client is free. What makes anyone think that users seeking a free email client will happily lay out money for their email? Particularly when the best know email providers (other than the user’s own ISP) like Hotmail, Gmail and Yahoo! all offer free email. Better to point users to such free services in the new account creation process rather than try to go the commercial route.
At the end of the day, the whole “New Account Wizard” functionality has been more problematic than helpful. Maybe it would be better to return to the previous, simpler to understand process.
Interesting… makes sense I guess based on the survey. I wish the opening screen provided a clear, flat list of the three options:
1. Create a paid, personalized email account through Hover (ie: john@doe.net, jane@doe.net)
2. Create a free email account from one of these providers (yahoo, gmail, etc)
3. Use an existing email address
I'd be afraid that some users would balk at paying $20 a year for email, and miss that there were other options.
It would be nice to provide an example of what the paid email address would look like before you have to enter in your own name. For example, include: "john@doe.com" or "bugs@bunny.com" etc. in the text describing it.
Also, I'm getting the following error page when I click the link for "free email account alternatives":
URL: http://momo.last-chance.net/en-US/thunderbird/fea...
Which contains this error message:
Notice: l10n file not found in /home/sancus/svnstuff/trunk/includes/l10n_moz.class.php on line 34
Warning: require_once(/srv/www/vhosts/www.mozillamessaging.com/trunk/en-US/404.html) [function.require-once]: failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /home/sancus/svnstuff/trunk/includes/prefetch.php on line 246
Fatal error: require_once() [function.require]: Failed opening required '/srv/www/vhosts/www.mozillamessaging.com/trunk/en-US/404.html' (include_path='.:/usr/share/pear:/usr/share/php') in /home/sancus/svnstuff/trunk/includes/prefetch.php on line 246
(Note that this add on does not currently work with the 3.3 alpha, just TB 3.1)
I installed version 1.0 of "Get An Account" using Thunderbird 3.1.7 under XP SP3. That breaks tools -> account settings -> account actions -> "Add Mail Account". The activity manager doesn't mention anything. The error console reports:
Error: openAddonsMgr is not defined
Source File: chrome://getanaccount/content/overlay.js;version=1.8
Line: 76
The problem goes way if I disable the add-on and restart, and returns if I enable it and restart. I've never had this type of problem with any of the other experimental add-ons.
Since I can't get it to work yet I've only looked at the provided screen shot but I think it does a dis-service by hiding the identity of who the email provider is. That implies that all email providers are commodities whose only added value is whether they provide a email address you like. Many email providers offer domains that don't provide any clue as to who they are. It doesn't even mention whether they offer POP or IMAP or the mailbox size.
The provided screen shot has "First lets create a email address (optional *)" which makes me wonder how clear it is that you can skip this feature and use a free email provider. Its not good enough just to provide that option, if you don't make it just as obvious/prominent as the choice that costs money you're taking advantage of users (who may be overwhelmed trying to figure out what to do, especially if they're not very computer literate or are only used to webmail).
Yahoo! doesn't allow free accounts to use desktop e-mail clients like Thunderbird. =/
(Which is odd since they allow free accounts to use mobile e-mail clients like OZ Consumer Email…)
When I download an open source program, I don't expect the first thing I see to be 20$/year buttons. I haven't seen the survey, but I'd prefer the "three options" opening screen the previous poster suggested.
I completely agree with PWM's statement on the first screen needing some improvement, and actually made an almost identical suggestion in the corresponding MozillaZine thread in response to similar concerns there. While it is a good idea to aid first-time users in setting up their e-mail account from scratch, the current design too much suggests that you won't be able to use Thunderbird unless you pay $20 to set up an account (and yes, I see the boxes at the bottom for the free-provider list and to set up an existing account, but those are overshadowed by the list of for-fee options).
Thus, while I realize that further agreements with providers are yet to come, (1) don't make this part of the regular Thunderbird release unless it's equally easy to set up an account with a free provider, (2) clearly state the options (and where they come from) upfront, and (3) only on the secondary level ask for cash if the user picked the option to obtain a customized e-mail address.
Also, (4) let's not forget the other third of users who already have an account (and I'd bet there are more than that), thus continuing on improving the current Account Wizard (Bug 549045 comes immediately into my mind) and the associated ISPDB are at least equally important.
Another thought, after doing a search the buttons for the other two options are pushed all the way at the bottom of a very long list of possible email addresses. You have to scroll a long way to see them again. I'd rather see them remain visible and accessible at the bottom of the window, and not displaced by the list.
I am interested that Mozilla would promote OpenSRS PNS. From a first glance, it looks like a terrible lock-in. You get no control over the email address in the long term at all. They could hike up fees, shut down the service, do what they liked with it. Unlikely, but putting one's online identity so firmly into someone else' hands is a big deal. If people want that, fine, but I am surprised Mozilla would promote it so readily.
You have to be kidding me! Why would a person pay money for an e-mail address? An advantage might be having Jane@jocobs.net but once that is gone why would I pay for anything else. This is a step backwards not forwards.
Why not provide username@thundermail.com or something like that, a free address that promotes your products and FLOSS while also being free for people to try?
Or have tabs, 'Paid options' and 'Free options' maybe? Getting people to register a domain seems a bit overkill and they'll never ever remember how they got that address or where to go to change/renew it etc.
PWM: Thanks for the bug report. We’ve fixed this both on the server and in version 1.0.1 of the addon.
We are also integrating with a “free” provider for the next release of the addon, but felt that it would be useful to get this version in front of people, to gather some early feedback. Once we do, the paid option will have less of the space allocated to it.
Tanstaafl: D’oh! Thanks for the bug report, I’ll fix that as soon as I can. In the meantime, you can launch the plugin from the “File >> New >> Mail Account” menu item. Hopefully the paragraph above will help address your concerns about the prominence of the paid option.
rsx11m: In order
1) I have no plans on adding this feature to Thunderbird until we have one or more free providers integrated.
2 and 3) That’s a good idea, and I’m sure we will do that.
4) BenB and Sancus are working on those pieces, and I expect them to get more reliable and easier to use in upcoming releases.
PWM (part two): You can click the “optional” link at the top, and it will scroll you to the buttons at the bottom, but I agree, it would be nice to have just the list scroll.
Nicholas: Many of our users create GMail, Hotmail, and Yahoo accounts, all of which give you no control over the email address. How is OpenSRS PNS different from these services?
lefty.krupps: We are looking into that, but don’t have all the details figured out yet. Also, who would be paying for those addresses? Finally, the personal email address doesn’t give you the domain, just an email address under it. Hover will let you know when the time comes to renew it, since they’ll be billing you, and they will have your email address.
andrew hunter: Thank you for asking that. I’ve been trying to figure out how to say this for a while now, and your question has given me the perfect opportunity.
In essence, “free” email accounts aren’t quite as free as some people think they are. As someone on twitter said recently, “If you’re not paying for the service, you’re not the customer, you’re the product being sold.” To put it another way, having an email account in which your email isn’t being read for the purpose of serving you ads (and who knows what else?) might be worth paying for for some of our users.
Thank you everyone for your comments, and keep them coming!
When I sign with an ISP, I am given 1 to 10 free addresses, this is not a perfect solution because many of the cancel the addresses when I cancel : I prefer an addresses provider to have life (mine or ISP's) long addresses ! But I do not accept to pay 20 $ for this ! Perhaps only 1 to 5 $ .
Ideally the address should have an encrypted connection dialogue (so my id and password are protected when I use a free and unprotected Wifi hotspot) but I do not accept to give the copyright on the content (except if the email is used only for subscriptions to newsletters as the present one) and the right to reproduce or sell it ) of my messages as gmail requires.
It should be protected against spam in a way as good as gmail.
It is useful to have the possibility to check and receive mails from other accounts. To be used for protection when connected through Wifi see upper. The list of accounts to check should be memorized when this function is inactivated (gmail does not offer this).
I do not accept addresses as surname@name.xyz because they are too easy to spam using the telephone book !
That kind of list of options is the eventual goal of this system. Right now we only have one provider who was excellent to work with and willing to create an API for email account creation. This prototype hopefully opens up the doorway for other providers to create a similar API which should create a different set of prices and domains available. The interface will likely have to change to allow for showing who the providers are once we have more than one.
And some users aren't going to want to pay for an email address and we are working with free email address providers to get an API to create an email address through them. However free email isn't actually "free". The free providers rely on page views (ads) to pay for their free service and so it's harder for them to create an API that avoids their pages. Obviously this is possible with some services like gmail but their IMAP support was really added to allow for iPhone users to access their gmail accounts and they still expect people to use their web based interface.
I'm looking for ideas on how we could create a mutually beneficial relationship with these free providers. Any ideas people have on that would be really helpful. Things like changing the start page to be the email providers page might work. But there must be other ways that people would get a benefit from having better integration. And just to note, we are Mozilla, so obviously anything we do here isn't in the direction of locking Thunderbird users into a single provider; our mission is to encourage choice. Things like changing the start page to my yahoo page would still be an option for the user but might be a default we provide.
Agreed. This prototype only has a single provider who has an API for creating accounts. We are at the same situation like when we started ISPDB. It wasn't a good service at all until most of the providers information was included and now it has an excellent hit rate to get people setup.
The next steps are to get a couple more providers, hopefully a free one, but see my comments above about the issues with free providers. Once we get a couple more providers we'll likely have to change the interface to represent the greater number of choices available.
So far I'm thinking the choices should look like this:
Do you have an email? Yes / No
If Yes -> Auto Config
If No -> What kind of address do you want?
And from here I think we'll continue to ask for your name or some search terms for the username / domain name you're interested in. However our result list would likely be grouped by providers
Gmail (20+ available) – Free
joeuser39829@gmail.com
Yahoo (20+ available) – Free
joeuser83292@yahoo.com
Hover (10 available) – $20 / year
joeuser@joe.com
Each provider giving a rough number of possible results with the likely total cost and a preview of the top result. When you choose a provider we expand those results to browse and you could go back up to the top list or do a new search at anytime.
Anyway, that's the likely direction we'll go in assuming we can bring in more providers. Again I'd really love to hear ideas about how free providers could be integrated with Thunderbird. It's important to think of the free providers concerns for giving away email and having no contact (page views) with the user at all, while at the same time providing a more valuable experience to Thunderbird users. Kind of a hard problem…
Here is my feedback from shortly testing the Account provisioning add-on.
• It doesn't worked for me for the first time, after installing it. I first had to restart TB once again, to get it to work (but maybe thats because I've switched for the test from 3.3a back to 3.1).
• It seems german umlauts in the name are not handled correctly. If you have german umlauts in your name, than the suggestions for a payed email address are a bit strange. So e.g. you need to autoconvert an "ä" into "ae" or so.
• At the moment the prices are only in $, will the prices be converted into the local currency in the final version?
• I like the new background of the "Skip this and use my existing email" window (Account Auto-Configuration).
As we get more providers people will have the choice between a system like this and others. The situation is actually very similar to most systems unless you own your own domain. Free providers can shut down and go away or start charging you. An ISP can hike its rates. I would really love to get a domain provider who offered this API so we could actually provide people with some greater choice and control. We are offering Hover because they were the first ones to step up and help us craft an API, they really deserve some credit for changing the landscape even if you don't want their service. But I understand that in the prototype it looks like we're only interested in them.
"It's important to think of the free providers concerns for giving away email and having no contact (page views) with the user at all, while at the same time providing a more valuable experience to Thunderbird users. Kind of a hard problem…"
1) I concur that a solicitation should never be the first thing a new user sees.
2) Gmail/Yahoo and other free providers.
If they are interested in "page views". why not just offer that to them.
A couple ways come to mind;
Why be concerned with a specific setup AP!, just point the user to the web page with specific instructions on how to set up TB. This benefits both the user (by pointing to the web accessability of the account) and the provider.
I personally wouldn't even care if we popped up the Gmail web page momentarily when using TB to access my Gmail account. Something like 3 or 4 seconds wouldn't be too intrusive at all, and might make them happy for the exposure.
"It's important to think of the free providers concerns for giving away email and having no contact (page views) with the user at all, while at the same time providing a more valuable experience to Thunderbird users. Kind of a hard problem…"
This forum's format has got me all confused (apologize if this is a repeat post)
Give the free providers what they want..exposure, and a brief advertising window (maybe 3-4 seconds)
Instead of messing with an API, just link to their web setup page. This will also inform the user that the account is also web accessible. A good thing for both the user and the provider.
I wouldn't object if there was a popup of the gmail main page when using TB to Pop messages down.
As it is now, I'm using their services absolutely free, and seldom use their web access.