Yahoo mimics a Gmail Feature

I first read the news from the Gmail Users community in orkut, and it was only now that I noticed: Yahoo has indeed introduced a new feature in Mail: Address Autocomplete. From YahooMail:

You start. We finish.

• Begin typing an email address.
  
• AutoComplete lists matching addresses from your Yahoo! Address Book.
  
• You click on the exact address you want.
  
• That's it - dozens of keystrokes replaced with just one click.
  

Click Download Now to begin using the AutoComplete feature on this PC - but first, close any additional Internet Explorer windows you have open

Autocomplete is one of the nifty features of Gmail, and now it seems Yahoo is trying to match the feature. While both rely on your address book to look for auto-complete matches, there are differences in the implementation. In Gmail, the feature is default for all users, and is not dependent on the computer that you are working on. Yahoo however requires each user to enable the feature in each computer she uses if she wants to use it. Although installation of the features is quick and pretty straightforward (i think the trick is just a cookie), the extra steps are not good for the user. Gmail's autocomplete is also smarter. It looks for matches both in the email and name field of the address book, and provides a better feedback of the match. Parity of feature is the minimum that Yahoo should do, if it doesn't want to lose a big chunk of its user base to Gmail. And though they did make the right step here, Gmail is still ahead.