This is huge huge huge! ZDNET is reporting that Comcast plans to launch a service called SmartZone, which will be a replacement for it's current users consumer email service. Comcast needs something like this to reverse the negativity that's been floating around regarding their ComCastrate services of late. Zimbra is, in case you haven't heard, perhaps one of the best things going on in the Opensource community today. Their desktop suite still has a long way to go on their windows client, it's still in Alpha and won't even install/uninstall easily on Windows Vista x86 or AMD64, but their server offering is a champion over OWA (Outlook Web Access) albeit a bit slower.

A quick round up of what you can do with a few hours, a spare computer and a Linux/Apache/Tomcat/Zimbra stack at your house.

1. Obviously, you'll be able to kick off emails from youremail@yourdomain.com
2. If a tracking number is sent to you, the tracking number gets auto-parsed into frame that loads in the background as you start reading your email. When you click on the window a window inside that email pops up and shows the current status page of our package. (The most efficient method that I can think)
3. Parses phone numbers, so if you click you can call using a VOIP client of your choice, no word on whether Comcast will restrict the use of the Zimlet feature to their own digital calling services but if so it will be a bastardization of what open source stands for and would be in line with some other incredibly stupid stuff Comcast has been doing lately. (Comcast, don't you realize youa re a commodity and the ONLY thing you have is your brand name??) Don't kill your only real asset that can't be commoditized.
4. Parses addresses right inside emails. If you click on an address that gets turned into something sort of like a "Smart Tag" (don't shoot me Zimlet developers) it will parse the address in such a way as if you click on it a DHTML layer pops up in your email that shows the list in Yahoo! Maps Beta.
5. Consume RSS.

Things Zimbra doesn't do that I'd like to see it do.

• Make it Faster! Zimbra is a bit slow in my experience! Perhaps this is something I'm doing wrong and no I don't have it on an 8 way Xeon Intel processor with 60 gigs of ram. But I have ran it on an high end workstation with minimal Linux config and things still seemed to labor. (Do Zimlets slow down Zimbra?)
• Import OPML (if there is a way to do this via a Zimlet please let me know)
• Incoming Pop and IMAP support. At least for other popular mail services: pulled into Zimbra, in addition to Pop and IMAP support of the Zimbra service to other clients. You have to think of webmail as a pop client as well as a service. This is a non-starter without this feature for most users. Very important to get this done.
• Faster client!! Did I already mention this?. Zimbra might scale better than I thought considering Comcast is going to use it but I need it to be faster without a 16x1U Zimbra cluster in the closet.

Do a search fro Zimlets with is "Zimbra" for plug-ins so that you can take in the shear amount of power you can add into Zimbra. Now my critical side. Zimlets won't be installable, in fact not much will be adjustable. This won't give Zimbra any brand name exposure as Comcast has chosen to replace the Zimbra brand name with Comcast, which is fine, (most user's won't know what they are using."

To those people working at Comcast

This also shows there are people at Comcast left who are looking out for improving the experience at Comcast. My word of advice to you folks, Comcast is a large company and sometimes it takes a lot of throwing your own reputation on the line, do it, you won't regret it later. Let your good ideas flow through the company and don't ever be afraid to send a very powerful officer an email telling him how he should or shouldn't be doing something. (Choose your words wisely and cunningly, don't cc anyone else if you do.) Limiting user's bandwidth is something you guys should be telling your company they should not do. If there isn't enough bandwidth in certain areas, then lay or buy more fibre. You don't want to be known as "Com-Castrater!"

Summary

We live in an age where advanced AJAX email systems are taking over our communications on the web. They are being moved from WOW, to that's nice, to the norm. I can't wait to see some of the true potential of Silverlight in the web mail areas, webmail is perhaps one of the most important apps in the world. Will Microsoft or someone else offer a Silverlight based email solution in the future that kills the competition? I sure hope so.

ZDNET points out that the new Comcast experience will also utilize Plaxo, Bizanga (imp specialists, worked directly with Cloudmark),Cloudmark (Cloudmark does anti-phishing tech, Spam and other stuff) and Trend Micro (a Anti-virus Suite that built a reputation by pointing out so many flaws in Windows in such a small amount of time that they almost became synonymous with AV. Good for them. I wonder if the Cloudmark service is getting included to stop the spam that will come from Plaxo? P Couldn't resist.

Some blog links to read more: ZDNET: Comcast goes with Zimbra for new collaborations suite, TechCrunch Via Michael himself. (yes he still does some work! :P )

Further Reading (via Google)

Zimbra offers Open Source email server software and shared ...                                                                                                                              Zimbra provides open source server and client software for messaging and collaboration -- email, shared calendar, and web documents -- is a popular choice ... www.zimbra.com/ - 13k - Cached - Similar pages
Products - www.zimbra.com/products/
Open Source Edition Downloads: ... - www.zimbra.com/community/downloads.html
for Businesses - www.zimbra.com/products/zimbra_for_businesses.html
Pricing - www.zimbra.com/products/pricing.html
More results from www.zimbra.com »

Plaxo                                                                                                                                                                                                                            Welcome to Plaxo. ... Plaxo: 15 million members and growing Staying in touch got a lot easier!: Tommy Jones keeps all his friends’ ...
www.plaxo.com/ - 13k - Cached - Similar pages
Downloads - www.plaxo.com/downloads
Products - www.plaxo.com/products
Premium Services - www.plaxo.com/premium?src=help
About Us - www.plaxo.com/about
More results from www.plaxo.com »

Cloudmark - Intelligent Messaging Security for Service Providers ...                                                                                                                     Cloudmark delivers the industry's only secure messaging solution that combines sophisticated technology with the feedback of millions of trusted users from ... cloudmark.com/ - 9k - Cached - Similar pages

Cloudmark Desktop - Spam Filter and Anti-Phishing Software                                                                                                     We're continuously developing a more accurate and easy-to-use product based on user feedback and the latest anti-spam techniques. Cloudmark Desktop notifies ... cloudmark.com/desktop/ - 12k - Cached - Similar pages
[ More results from cloudmark.com ]

Bizanga                                                                                                                                                               Bizanga builds and delivers a new generation of message processing and e-mail security platform. We make messaging infrastructure scalable, simple to manage ...
www.bizanga.com/ - 8k - Cached - Similar pages

The Linux Home Page at Linux Online                                                                                                                      Comprehensive information and resources about the Linux Operating System.
www.linux.org/ - May 5, 2007 - Similar pages
[ Download Info ] - www.linux.org/dist/download_info.html
Distributions and FTP Sites - www.linux.org/dist/
Applications - www.linux.org/apps/
About the Linux Operating System - www.linux.org/info/
More results from www.linux.org »