Today, we review and visit the builders behind Verizon’s new Web 2.0-style Webmail service, which the service provider is integrating into it’s broadband portal (click the screenshot to enlarge):

• SERVICE SCENARIO: Verizon needed a next-generation Web e-mail client to keep its broadband customers using its portal applications and content. E-mail drives the majority of customer page-views on the portal and serves as a foundation upon which Verizon can up-sell and cross-sell other content and services.

• SERVICE SOLUTION: Verizon’s messaging team searched for a best-of-breed Web e-mail application/service that it could integrate into its existing application infrastructure. That infrastructure is largely open-source-based, relying on Tomcat application servers and messaging infrastructure from Sun Microsystems, including authentication and single sign-on capabilities. After evaluating several Web e-mail front-ends, Verizon chose Laszlo Systems’ WebMail, an AJAX-driven Web client. Telephony reviewed an alpha version of the application. The new Verizon-branded WebMail client works in a browser but feels like a desktop app, including a preview window for message view, drag-and-drop capability, built-in searching and automatic e-mail alerting. An integrated contact list can pop up or be docked in the top navigation toolbar.
• COMPETITIVE LANDSCAPE: Verizon users have the option of using Verizon WebMail or using third-party e-mail and portal services from AOL, Microsoft or Yahoo! “Owning” the customer experience and user interface on the desktop outright — vs. working with a content partner — is an important consideration for service providers like Verizon as they work to provide more telecom/Web services directly to customers.
• THE QUOTE: “[Customers] were looking more and more for features like drag-and-drop and auto-complete, all the things that got introduced with AJAX on the Web. Our goal was to go with an advanced product … and for our customers to have the most advanced features on the Web.”— Shamik Basu, senior manager of broadband product development for Verizon

Want to hear more about Verizon’s portal Webmail strategy and the new Laszlo app?

Listen to a podcast with Shamik Basu at TelephonyOnline.com.

* Have a telephony 2.0 service you’d like reviewed? E-mail rkarpinski@telephonyonline.com.

New product reviews are a staple of the PC trade press and the Web 2.0 blog world.

But what about us telecom-folks? It’s not often you see hands-on reviews of telephony services.

But that’s about to change… we’re going to start publishing a new type of story in this blog that we’re calling:

At Your Service

The stories — part review, part behind-the-scenes stories — will take a look at new telephony services (weighted heavily to Web 2.0/Telephony 2.0 services). We’ll show how they work for the end user, talk to the developers/service creators about how they were built and provide a look into the service creator’s Toolbox for the platforms, tools and APIs they used to build the application or service.

If you’d like to have your telecom-related service reviewed, email me at rkarpinski AT telephonyonline DOT com.

I’ll be looking for cool services to review; hope to hear from you.