Whats the big deal with gmail ????

[AJ Muni]

Ive noticed alot or people raving about having a gmail email account. whats the big deal ?? am i missing out on something?? i had the same thoughts about ADIUM, and downloaded it last night, and WOW is it a great program (i was missing out)... so whats the hype of having a gmail account??? :confused: :confused: i do know about the 2gb of free space...

[wako]

Ive noticed alot or people raving about having a gmail email account. whats the big deal ?? am i missing out on something?? i had the same thoughts about ADIUM, and downloaded it last night, and WOW is it a great program (i was missing out)... so whats the hype of having a gmail account??? :confused: :confused: i do know about the 2gb of free space...


pop email supported
no big banner ads just very small text boxes at the right side
extremely easy interface
alot of options you can do
UNLIMITED amount of email space.
THE BEST SPAM BLOCKER EVER

I just wanted to point out the misconception. If you goto the website gmail.com, you can see a little counter always counting up. Theoretically you have unlimited space for email.

[Verto]

Ive noticed alot or people raving about having a gmail email account. whats the big deal ?? am i missing out on something?? i had the same thoughts about ADIUM, and downloaded it last night, and WOW is it a great program (i was missing out)... so whats the hype of having a gmail account??? :confused: :confused: i do know about the 2gb of free space...

You get geek street cred for using and loving all things Google.

[Project]

Its simply the best web based email service out there to me... lightning fast, groundbreaking features, AJAX, conversation views, labels, constantly increasing space (2620mb and counting), no banner ads etc. People will talk about the contextual ads, but I NEVER notice them. Its funny though, because they are usually relevant and I sometimes click them lol....

Look out for the next Yahoo Mail though. Oddpost was a superb email service, and Yahoo have added to it since they bought out the company.

[Project]

Good point about the spam filter. I have not received one single spam email into my inbox in over a years use of the program. Thats amazing. It all gets filtered to the spam folder, which I often double check just to make sure it didnt mistakenly put in legit email in there. But it never does.

Another feature is the search. Its great.

And its extremely customisable with Greasemonkey.

However, I have some annoyances about Gmail....

- no IMAP support
- no ability to sort messages by a particular field (ie sender, message size etc)
- ability to manage more than 1 gmail account from a single account..
- calendar with support for ical format
- smart folders / searches

[alexeismertin]

1. It is free
2. Mega space for storage
3. Works with Apple Mail

[AJ Muni]

thanks for the info guys....i currently have my aol account being used in apple's mail ....but im confused about the diff of POP and IMAP mail....can i use gmail with apple mail app ??

[Project]

The best way to think of IMAP is this.. say you have Mail configured to your Gmail account (presuming it had IMAP support)... say you was away from home and was checking your email on somebodys net connection... read through about 10 of your 15 unread mails, applied labels to some of them, archived some others, deleted some etc... when you came home and used Mail, it would keep track of the emails you had read before elsewhere...

With POP, it would just retrieve all your emails as unread...

I think!

[neocell]

..can i use gmail with apple mail app ??
Yes you can
Go into mail>preferences click on accounts (if it doesn't come up in it already) then click the plus sign at the bottom left and fill in your gmail info.

**EDIT**
Here's the gmail link (http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=13275) to tell you how to do it

[WRXHokie]

It has best features of any free mail service i've seen, plus it has the best spam blocker that i've ever seen.

Not quite John C. Dvorak "i get no spam", but pretty damn close.

[ahunter3]

I have to confess I still don't get it.

It's freakin' web mail. I hate web mail. OK, so I can use my regular email program to fetch it. So it's free email. I've already got free email, it comes with my internet access, from my ISP. I've got several dozen gigs of unused storage space on my hard drive, what do I need with extra storage space for email?

All in all, looks like a reasonable solution to a problem I'm not having.

[fayans]

Google! Period!

The creators of it rank as the 16th richest in America with $11b

[oldpismo]

The best thing about the gmail account from my point of view is that is sorts your emails by conversation. Having all your emails to and from someone on a particular subject in one link makes it really easy to check what was previously said.

The search is also good, and saves having to have a large/confusing set of folders into which you try and assign your messages.

[oober_freak]

THE BEST SPAM BLOCKER EVER


Can't agree more. It's just too good. Spam mails which yahoo delivers to my inbox go straight to my Gmail spam list. AFAIK, i haven't received a spam mail which hasn't been detected as spam.

Another thing that rocks is the Java Interface. IMO, that's the best in business.

But, i have seen many many mail servers blocking gmail! I just can't understand why!

[Dagless]

im pretty happy with my own email service, came with my web hosting. really has got unlimited space (coupled with unlimited space web space too). its all good :) more than that 2gb you get with Google :D

sorry... Gmail is good. i hear. if i didn't have my own private email i'd use Gmail over anything else free anyday.

[yippy]

I have to confess I still don't get it.

It's freakin' web mail. I hate web mail. OK, so I can use my regular email program to fetch it. So it's free email. I've already got free email, it comes with my internet access, from my ISP. I've got several dozen gigs of unused storage space on my hard drive, what do I need with extra storage space for email?

All in all, looks like a reasonable solution to a problem I'm not having.


Because with gmail you can leave ALL of your email on their server so it is accessible from anywhere AND if something happens to you computer or harddrive you still have it. Try doing that with your ISP email.

[wordmunger]

So, can I use my old e-mail address? I know I can forward from that address to GMail, but what I'd like to do is make a seamless transition, so that my reply-to address is the same as well. I think if I could do that, I'd be sold.

[opusthe2nd]

You can now stick your own personal email address into Gmail. You can also keep a copy of your mail on the server. I dont use my Gmail address, I use my own address.

Granted, its not IMAP but its almost as good. I shutdown my own personal mail server, after 3 yrs, because I liked Gmail so much and didnt really feel the NEED to have a server.

I am pleased as I could be at this time.

[maya]

Ive noticed alot or people raving about having a gmail email account. whats the big deal ?? am i missing out on something?? i had the same thoughts about ADIUM, and downloaded it last night, and WOW is it a great program (i was missing out)... so whats the hype of having a gmail account??? :confused: :confused: i do know about the 2gb of free space...

Many MRU's have mentioned many of the benefits, however I love the inching storage space which is nearing 3 gigs. :eek: :D

[fayans]

So, can I use my old e-mail address? I know I can forward from that address to GMail, but what I'd like to do is make a seamless transition, so that my reply-to address is the same as well. I think if I could do that, I'd be sold.
If you prefer you could have your outgoing Gmail messages to display another one of your email addresses in the 'From:' field (instead of your Gmail address)

[eRondeau]

Here's the single best thing about Gmail in my humble opinion...

EmailDisk (http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/16201) -- Configure it once and leave it in your dock or on your desktop. Drag-and-drop any file onto the icon and it gets instantly uploaded to your Gmail account. Amazing little Applescript! By far the easiest, fastest way to do an off-site backup of photos, documents, whatever. I love it!

And -- although I use my ISP's POP3 for my "normal" email through Apple Mail, the 50MB they supply can get clogged-up pretty quickly if you send and receive a lot of photos or music. No problem with Gmail. As long as you keep each attachment under 10MB you can have as many as you want.

Google and Apple are both masters of the intuitive user interface. Compare that with Microsoft and their slow, clunky Hotmail -- which has more advertising than a Nascar race by the way -- and you'll quickly realize that Apple and Google were made for each other.

[Le Big Mac]

Because with gmail you can leave ALL of your email on their server so it is accessible from anywhere AND if something happens to you computer or harddrive you still have it. Try doing that with your ISP email.

I can do this with hotmail and entourage. Although it's technically not IMAP it essentially is. my home and work accounts sync adn reflect changes/deletions/etc. that I make.

I live in fear they'll cut out the imap/httpmail support, but it's been going well for some time.

[fayans]

Thanks for sharing! EmailDisk is another good applescript to use with Gmail.

[chokedamp]

You just have to look at all the reply's to see why everyone is so enthusiastic about Gmail. For example, I hate Hotmail: it has an archaical architecture, banners, it's borring slow and it's completely linked to all microsoft net services (which could have all of them the same description).

Gmail is simply to use, awesome fast and, above all, it's Google! XD

[WRXHokie]

Basically i think what we're all trying to say is that you have to try it to see how good it is. Its the best spam blocker i've ever seen, and the features are just amazing.

[bbarnhart]

I foward a copy of my e-mail from all my accounts to one on Google. That way it's all in one place. My main e-mail is one that I have through a hosted server. However, their webmail does not work when I'm at work because it wants to use a certain port. Typical with inexpenisve shared hosted services. Now that all my e-mail is forwared to Gmail, I can read it and respond.

[iDM]

1.You never need to delete another email ever again.
2. I'm in the process of backing and storing all of my documents for easy access anywhere in the world
3. It loads fast and feels very snappy and is childs play to compose new emails, reply to existing and everything is streamlined with the contact lists
4. CONVERSATIONS are under one tab as opposed to 20 spaces being taken up from the same person responding back and forth and gettings emails that have the subject Re:Re:Re:Re:Re: Hello
5. It's free
6. The Spam Blocker is top notch
7. It's going to set the standard and be around for a long time
8. I have the email address that has my first name spelled correctly and last name @gmail.com First.Last@gmail.com How cool is that as opposed to SkateOrDieSurfDude@hotmail.com, 2Stuburn2Switch@yahoo.com

Edit: I could go on..............

[Project]

Some other not well known features....

The ability to use + and other characters in your email address and it will still send to your account. For instance, if I sign up on Amazon, I will use firstname.surname+amazon@gmail.com and it will send emails to my account. This is especially useful because you can then monitor where your spam is being sent to. You will then know who the culprit is who sold your information. Also, this is useful for setting up labels. For instance, I might set up a filter that labels anything coming from a Mac website by using first.secondname+mac@gmail.com, and have it automatically archive those emails so they are out of the way... every time I register for a Mac site for instance, I will use the +Mac address.

Another little hint is that it supports the full stop (period) anywhere in the address. For instance, you can send an email to macforums@gmail.com, mac.forums@gmail.com, ma.cforums@gmail.com etc and they will all go to macforums@gmail.com...


As for Hotmail, well, MSN know they have a weak product, and are currently in beta stage for their new version of it, codenamed "Kahuna". The interface looks nice, and offers a widescreen 3 pane view a la Outlook. It means you can check your inbox and individual messages all on the same screen without having to refresh the page to load up the message... its pretty nice..

And I have to mention the new Yahoo Beta again... it WILL offer a serious threat to Gmail... its basically an email CLIENT, but web based... it even offers right clicking and drag n drop...

I badly want Google to implement a calendaring service to integrate with Gmail... it would be great if they could do it using the same AJAX technology they use with Gmail...

[Savage Henry]

The ability to use + and other characters in your email address and it will still send to your account.Nice one . I must admit I didn't know that ... but then I've been pretty low on the spam since my Gmail account.

[Bern]

Unlike .Mac, Gmail is free

[m-dogg]

wow, it seems like google has a stronger kool-aide recipe than apple these days...

[ahunter3]

Because with gmail you can leave ALL of your email on their server so it is accessible from anywhere AND if something happens to you computer or harddrive you still have it. Try doing that with your ISP email.

I'm a PowerBook user. I'm never where my PowerBook is not. Or at least on the extremely rare occasions when I am, I'm not online via some other computer or device instead.

If something happens to Google, gmail, or your network connectivity, your gmail account is not quite so accessible from anywhere, now is it? Me, I've got all my email dating back to 1991 right here in Eudora, which can sort and find and make "smart mailboxes" from complex searches at ease. I can search for all emails from anyone at domainx after April 31 2002 before Jan 1 2003 containing a file attachment with the string "report", sort them by Subject line (i.e., threading by conversation). And I can do it without being online, and without latency issues, and I'm not vulnerable to any possible future decision by Google to discontinue a freebie service. (And yes, it's all backed up, like the rest of my local hard drive).

[weg]

I have to confess I still don't get it.

I've got several dozen gigs of unused storage space on my hard drive,



Which you are of course always carrying around with you. Well, I don't, and I prefer having access to my email from every computer with an internet connection. With Google Mail, that's possible, and I always have the same user interface (the fastest webmail interface I've ever used).

[fayans]

Some other not well known features....
The best reply out of this thread! Well done
;)

[SummerBreeze]

I'm a student, and in the past couple years I've used our school's network and then the network in my apartment building. I don't have an ISP that gives out email addresses, and handing out my school email address everywhere is the same as telling complete strangers my full name and where I go to school. I like gmail as I can use it with Mail (unlike most other big online email providers) and it offers me a backup of all my email.

Plus, I think part of gmail's popularity comes with the fact that you have to be "invited" to join gmail. Sure, invitations aren't exactly hard to come by, but the fact that it feels exclusive makes people seem to want to join just to see what's there.

[Sca1pel]

I want gmail now....

[Project]

^ PM me your email address and i'll invite you.....


Ive just heard about Zimbra (http://www.zimbra.com) , which is an open sourced web based email service with calendaring and contact management integrated. This is POWERFUL stuff... much more powerful than Gmail dare I say it, lol. For instance, if somebody sends you an email saying, "can we meet tomorrow?", the tomorrow becomes a contextual word. You can hover the cursor over it and it checks your availability in your calendar. Wow. If you are free, you can choose to accept, decline or mark as tentative by right clicking, just as you would in Outlook. But remember, this is web based. This is some next generation stuff... plus its cross platform, IMAP, and the calendar supports iCal...

Check out the demo - its blown me away...

[wordmunger]

Just signed up for Gmail and it looks pretty nice. However, one thing appears to be a dealbreaker. If I send mail from Mail.App using gmail, it doesn't save my sent message. It only saves sent messages when sent from the Web interface.