Gmail online or via Mail?

I use gmail with notifier. I dont really like Mail and there are so many cool gmail features.

i switched ot using Mail a few months ago because i couldn't stand the delay between an e-mail being sent and gmail notifier letting me know it was there, also everything just seems quicker using Mail.

I don't think you can beat the online interface myself. I also access it through the GMail app on my Android phone.

I recently purchased Mailplane, loving it and worth every penny. You get all the features of web-based Gmail, but in an app. Dock icon and menu bar icon badges are updated near instantly when getting new mail, unlike Gmail Notifier. I recommend downloading the trial.

I like having a local copy of my mail messages.

No option for it, but I use both. Mail at home and gmail online at work. The best thing I like about Mail is the red circle with the number of unread messages letting me know I have new mail and it's growl notifiers to let me know if I've received a message while at the computer.

I like the web interface, but I prefer to use Thunderbird 3.0 (beta 4 right now) in IMAP mode.

TB 3's tabbed interface is great too.

miles01110 said:

I like having a local copy of my mail messages.

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You can have a local copy of all your messages even if you only use the web client. Gmail has a "Gmail offline" tool that automatically downloads everything to your computer and keeps it in an application identical to the Gmail interface. This works great if you only need the local copy for when you don't have web access. If you like the local copy as a sort of back up, though, then I see your point.

I've abandoned Mail.app and have been using the web interface for a year or two now. I have been using it on my laptop in an SSB, but I might have to give Mailplane a look.

Tilpots said:

No option for it, but I use both. Mail at home and gmail online at work. The best thing I like about Mail is the red circle with the number of unread messages letting me know I have new mail and it's growl notifiers to let me know if I've received a message while at the computer.

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Mailplane does the badge and Growl notifications. I'm not affiliated with the product or developer in any way. I just think it's a great balance of the web interface and a stand-alone application.

fishkorp said:

Mailplane does the badge and Growl notifications. I'm not affiliated with the product or developer in any way. I just think it's a great balance of the web interface and a stand-alone application.

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Looks cool, but $25 cool? I guess it's just not for me. Thanks for the info though...

I like the gmail interface too much. It has all these nifty features, like preview in html and opening it as a google doc document.

But on my ipod touch is do use the mail app. I like it better than the Phone interface from gmail. And I can read e-mails offline. So get the mail, and read it during a travel.

I don't use any of the other Google services right now, besides Gmail, so I have no compelling reason to use the web interface unless I need something only it can provide. Therefore, Gmail access through Mail IMAP works perfectly for my needs.

I've been also thinking about this. I'm a long time fan and user of the online interface. I like it, it's fast and easy to find specific mail messages. I also love how emails are treated as "conversations".

I'm very interested though in the integration of mail.app to the OS.

Do emails in mail.app also come out as "conversations"? And how is it in searching emails and overall speed?

Thanks!

wayland1985 said:

Mail does a pretty good job of handling the mail (minus the tabs and such...). It is very quick, and works very well. Searching is great (you will have to sometimes open up the All Mail tab to get the result you're looking for), but overall it's a great program. The integration with the OS is one of the biggest advantages.


The problem I'm having (and the reason I brought this topic to the fore-front), is when using the online Gmail, you have issues. For one, unless you've uploaded all of your contacts to Google, you lose your address book. Also, like I said earlier, the way Mail and Gmail handle labels seems odd.

I'm up in the air as to what I like better!

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That's sad to hear. You lose the online address book or the one in mac osx?

Thanks for the input though! How does mail.app handle messages though? Is it old school type or are the messages handled like "conversations" like online gmail?

I actually use both methods, through apple mail and through the web browser.

Mail, all the way

I never use the browser based version, probably because I attach big files everyday and it sucks at this. At least with mail you can see your 5mb file sending while you do something else.

I've got to admit, the google articles in "how to setup" you Gmail account in Mail is dreadful. I've had to ignore and tweak my setup to get it right.

After playing around I found this thread which pretty much says the same things. I'll post a screen capture of my ideal set-up (at a friends house right now) so the internal Sent, Drafts, Junk folders are gone and these appear underneath Inbox where they should be.

http://db.tidbits.com/article/10253

Plus all the folders you create still sync perfectly with the browser based version.

Definitely via the Gmail site

For some reason, I've never been a big fan of mail clients. The gmail site does everything so well, there is absolutely no need to launch the mail client. Sometimes I'll accidentally click on an email link and it will launch the Mail client. I force quit immediately...

Really enjoy the themes too. So relaxing.

Quick question: If you use Mail (IMAP), do your msgs get stored on your computer too, or would you have to add POP Gmail account on your Mail for it to do so?

I use Gmail online. I don't like the way it handles offline mail clients (folders=labels, etc).

mail.app vs google offline

I just installed Google Offline (via google gears). It sure looks interesting and it's like a "sure" way of using gmail without an internet connection. So no problems syncing and all, but you still don't have the OSX integration.

Has anyone compared it to using mail.app and imap?

Maybe its just me but I find doing absolutely everything with apps better than through a browser. Using mail.app with the old POP accounts was pretty stupid, but IMAP has fixed that now for me.

Just find storing emails in folders within mail.app a much more solid way of sorting than the conversions google mail online does.

Each to their own I guess though.

wayland1985 said:

Mail does a pretty good job of handling the mail (minus the tabs and such...). It is very quick, and works very well. Searching is great (you will have to sometimes open up the All Mail tab to get the result you're looking for), but overall it's a great program. The integration with the OS is one of the biggest advantages.


The problem I'm having (and the reason I brought this topic to the fore-front), is when using the online Gmail, you have issues. For one, unless you've uploaded all of your contacts to Google, you lose your address book. Also, like I said earlier, the way Mail and Gmail handle labels seems odd.

I'm up in the air as to what I like better!

Click to expand...

Snow Leopard allows you to sync your address book and calendar with Google so you don't loose anything