Do you still use Microsoft Outlook or Eudora for your emails, or maybe something else? If you do, you probably are not having the most productive and user friendly experience that you could be having.
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Up until about a month ago I had been using Outlook entirely for my emails, then I trialled Gmail (Google’s Free Email service) for 2 weeks and since getting to know Gmail, I have not turned back… there are just so many more features that make Outlook (and other similar email programs) seem just unworthy. Even Darren Rowse from Problogger has made the switch.
Although it may take a week or two to get used to gmail, over the many years to come, it will literally save you weeks of your time. I highly recommend to switch to Gmail and below I give 12 reasons why.
12 Reasons To Switch To Gmail
- Gmail spam filters block 99% of the spam that usually makes it to your inbox. Although Outlook 2007 had a good spam filter, I still usually got around 2 or 3 emails a week sneaking into my inbox… not with Gmail.
- With Gmail you get to keep your old email account, and all incoming emails will be forwarded to your new Gmail account . Also, emails that you send from your new account will have your old email account in the from area.
- You can create Word docs, PDF’s and spread sheets with Gmail via the use of GoogleDocs.
- Gmail allows you to schedule events with the Google Calendar that will notify you by email to remind you of an appointment or meeting. It can also send a reminder to the person or persons that you will be meeting with.
- Gmail has something called ‘Stars’ and which allows you to tag emails you find important. You can actually do a search for ‘Starred‘ emails and they all pop up, and as quick as a normal google search!
- Your emails are tabbed into a thread, which means you no longer have to look for old emails… it is more like a conversation window.
- You can archive old emails or whole conversations so that you can keep your Inbox clear.
- You can set up filters and labels to keep your Inbox organised and clutter free.
- It has a fast, easy search function which means you will never lose an email again. The search is as fast a normal google search which is ace.
- All your emails are online which means that you access your emails from anywhere, not just one computer.
- Update: Forgot to mention how much space there is with Gmail… you will never have to delete an email again.
- Update: The ‘Canned Responses’ aka drafts feature is great. When you need to email something over and over, this function will save you a lot of time.
Learn About Gmail
Below are some great videos to get you started with Gmail. If you have a website and an email related with your website you should be using Google Apps to set up your Gmail Account… the videos below will explain.
Using Gmail – Part 1 (5m 38s)- Learn about the basic features of gmail in this video.
Using Gmail – Part 2 (7m 50s)- Learn about how to retrieve other (ie. your old email address) email into Gmail, setup labels and filters, explain the Archive function and Gmail conversation.
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Using Gmail – Part 3 (4m 39s)- Explore the more advanced settings options and some of the features coming out of Google Labs
Further Email Tips
- Want a rich text signature in your gmail account? Now you can.
- Are you getting too much email? Learn how to get a grip on email.
- Not getting enough email from clients? Learn how to get more email.
- 10 Tips to writing effective emails.
Anyway I hope you give Gmail a try… it really is worth it. What other email programs / sites do people use and why?
I can give you two reasons not to move to Gmail:
1. I think Big Brother G. Already knows more then enough of you, why let them also read your e-mail?
2. It was down a couple of times last week I heard 😉
Another reason not to switch to Gmail… Everything listed as a reason to move to gmail can be done with Outlook.
Ah – you’ve obviously not read David Airey’s two articles on how his gmail account got hacked due to a gmail security flaw.
Quote: “I’ve read in the comments on other websites that I deserved what I got, and that to use Google’s free GMail service for anything business-related is naive. This is a valid point.”
http://www.davidairey.com/google-gmail-security-hijack/
http://www.davidairey.com/david-airey-dot-com-restored/
wvpv,
Thank you for the link error.
Dan,
Thanks for that, I just added #11 too.
Doug,
Actually with Gmail you can use Outlook and Gmail at the same time if you so wish… I am sure you could do that with Thunderbird too. Having your email online is always handy, especially if you travel a lot.
Edwin,
I can understand about the whole Big Brother thing, but I am sure if someone wants to read your email bad enough, they will be able to do it whatever way they so see fit, whether it be Gmail or your own self hosted email.
If Google ever does go down, the email is still stored on your own server, where you can log into your own control panel to retrieve it.
Jonathan,
I have read those articles, and many of the 500+ comments however it was a filter security flaw, which has been secured now. It also pays not to just have one email address… ie. you can have a several more private addresses where you can keep confidential emails, such as ones to your website control panel which would have paid off for David.
David’s situation could have happened to anyone and not only with Gmail… there are many scam emails circulating, many that Gmail picks up on that other email programs do not… which in turn make them less secure.
i use Gmail,hotmail and Yahoo:)but i prefer more on Gmail. and also on search engine last time i was using yahoo not until I start blogging i use google on searching.
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I aam an Outlook man!. I dont even like Google searc, I use Bing.
Ive had a Gmail account for ages ive just never looked at the benefits of it, ive always been achored to live mail and forwarded every email to there, i may give Gmail anouther try if i can set up all the forwarding and filtering of messages.
Good read Thanks,
Max | Design Shards last blog post..Typographic + Design inspiration from music magazine ads – pt 2
Naldz,
I wouldn’t like to count how many different emails I have had over the past 10 years. I think I have always used google as my search engine of choice… Maybe yahoo back in the 90s?
Daiver,
Yeah I use Apps as our MX also… only way to go for a business account.
And I have to agree with you on the point on big brother and ISPs… I seem to trust Google a bit more than a small hosting company who has access to all of your details… including your credit card. And like you said, everything has flaws and security holes.
Thank you for the tips also about how you can use different browsers for different tasks.
Doug,
Thanks for the link to PortableApps.
Helena,
I would be interested in knowing what the extra features are that make it worth the $100+? Do you use an iPhone?
Daniel,
Yeah I hold 2 accounts also and I also like the clean (fast) layout.
Max,
Trust me, once you fiddle with the filters and labels and have them set up correctly, that is when you start saving hours of your time!
Ivan,
I believe most people use the strategy of not using their business email when signing up on the web. Is there anything that Outlook offers that you wouldn’t find in Gmail? You can use contacts, filters and labels to categorise emails and you can even have multiple emails in the one account if you run different businesses. Why would you not use Gmail Apps for your business?
Anton,
Thank you for your summary of Gmail!
Min,
Ahh I didn’t mention that you could upgrade your account too so thanks for that.
Helena,
Yeah they are so fair behind here in Australia… so frustrating.
I need to have an offsite backup, if there was ever a house fire, I wouldn’t have much of a backup.
There are many benefits, no doubt. Lately I’ve been getting more spam reach my inbox however, a little more than what you mention you had with Outlook, which isn’t ideal. For me, GMail’s ‘conversation’ element is one of the best features. Very helpful.
David Aireys last blog post..Your questions answered #3
You only switched now?
I’ve been on it since 2005. Gmail is the way forward. Good choice mate 🙂
Before anyone makes the switch, they should make a list of the features they need and verify that Gmail has them. More often than not, Gmail will. However, there are 2 features people tend to forget:
1) Backups – does Google guarantee you will never lose any of your information (email/contacts/etc.)? A friend of mine recently discovered that all his trash pre-March 2008 had been completely deleted and he’s sure that he didn’t do it.
2) Portability – what happens if you decide to leave Gmail? Can you export all the stored information (messages, contacts, etc.) and revert to the system you’re using now, or another of you’re choosing? What Google calls the ‘migration options’ aren’t exactly user friendly:
http://www.google.com/support/a/bin/answer.py?answer=57920&topic=14870
I also recommend Gmail for most people but I prefer they fully realize what they’re getting themselves into. No system is perfect.
Jacob from JobMobs last blog post..The Secret “So What?†Method To Resume Writing Success
Been a Gmailer for a long time I have no complaints about it; it’s my primary mail even though I have my own server. Only fault is its poor/null css support… turns a bit tricky to generate valid templates, as you can see at http://www.email-standards.org/
“Gmail spam filters block 99% of the spam” …that certainly is not the case in my 4 years of using Gmail. I see on average 4-5 spam emails slip through to my inbox each day. The spam filter is pretty good, but I wouldn’t call it excellent.
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The link to the second Gmail video is broken. Should be http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sk058WJpDL4 according to the page source — as far as I can tell.
Well, No doubt gmail is good, but m quite bored with its scenario. So I surfed a new email site, Email.biz which is provides free and premium email accounts. It provides the user an email with desired domain name with .biz extension which is quite interesting.
Check that — the previous one I posted was the third video. Here’s the second: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lErySsL-Kwg
11. Not to mention you never have to delete a single email ever…ever. I have archives of emails (which come in handy every so often!) dating back years.
I use Mozilla’s Thunderbird. Excellent e-mail program. Beats all others hands-down (in my opinion). I’ve never cared much for having my e-mail on the Web.
Doug C.s last blog post..My 21 Favorite Photoshop Tips
I was thinking about getting a Gmail account a while ago, but then I started using MediaTemple’s online service (with my hosting account). It looks fantastic, and has loads of features, but doesn’t have the features of Gmail, so after reading this, I may still give it a go. What do I have to loose…
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Thanks for the article. I just switched over, and it’s been a welcome switch thus far!
Andrew Houles last blog post..5 Steps Towards Great Web Design
You should really look into Google Apps. We use it as our MX.
Imagine… Everything’s archived, searchable, zero downtime, SSL, zero spam, instant, neat, etc.
People will inevitably complain about letting Google know that much about you and your business. I just want these people to know that it is more likely that someone at your ISP is looking through your mail than someone at Google.
Google is clearly pursuing the business segment and they are developing tools for it. It is not naive to think that quality service can’t be free, especially from a company like Google who’s entire business model is just that.
Everything has flaws and security holes, there’s no question about it. However, an SLL connection to Gmail is and will always be safer than a plain connection to your own hosted MX that can be viewed by anyone at your ISP or at your host.
One way to prevent scripts from affecting your mail is to check email on a “safe” browser, one that is not used for anything else.
I have IE, FF, Flock, Opera, and Safari installed and have a specific use for each and every one of them based on cookies. For example, I may have my Gmail email boxes open on IE, while I use FF to to my regular browsing and use to other browsers to store different cookies of the same sites.
In all honesty, I do not think that using Gmail as your business email solution (using Google Apps you can use your own [email protected]) is naive or dumb. It is probably a lot more reliable in all ways possible than if you store it yourself.
When traveling I just use Thunderbird on my USB drive, courtesy of PortableApps.
Doug C.s last blog post..My 21 Favorite Photoshop Tips
Hi Jacob,
I use a Mac & have a ME membership (formerly .MAC) & I have almost all of that functionality you describe above as part of Gmail.
Yes, a ME membership does cost money, but there are additional features which make the cost well worth it.
Love my mac 🙂
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Hey Jacob!
I’m also a Gmail user. In fact I hold like 3 accts? One for each of my domains. 🙂
Their features are really neat and the clean layout got me to use this as my main email host.
Daniel
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For me there’s no comparison between Gmail and Outlook – I would never consider making the switch.
I use Gmail as well to sign up for web services that require an email address when I don’t want to give my business address.
And all my business addresses are nicely set up and organized in Outlook – and combined with my Security system no Spam goes into my inbox.
And when travelling or for mobility I make use of a nice service called exchange hosting. Not expensive at all and allows me to use all the features Outlook offers through all my devices.
But I agree when you say gmail is the best free email account…but would I use it for business? dont think so…
Do not use Gmail or any other email service located in the United States.
Your email is not safe.
The US government does surveillance of all email traffic and have full access.
Choose an email service provider outside the USA. Find a good provider in the U.K. or in Scandinavia.
Do not store your email in the USA, you will live to regret it.
I’ve been using G-Mail since beta release and it’s hooked me ever since. Theres nothing more i need from what G-Mail offers to control my e-mail. Log in from anywhere? Quickly check over your e-mail? Label your important ones? Delete all spam with one click? Easy interface that even begginners can understand? The address book system gives you everything you need to add a contact easily and effective? These are only the small additions that G-Mail offer and in my opinion, its the best e-mail service on the net. Full stop.
Reason #12 You can connect Gmail with your own domain name via Google Apps (http://www.google.com/a). If you need more email storage, you can even buy 25GB/account for $50/account/year in premier edition.
I have been with Gmail for almost 4 years. Gmail is my primary email account.
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How about free POP & IMAP email? Yahoo charges for POP, let alone for allowing IMAP on many different devices :-).
No, don’t have an iPhone yet, still waiting for the Three network to get it (not prepared to pay the outrageous price for a prepaid account with Optus).
I use the iDisk to save MYOB backups to, so I have offsite backup in addition to home backups.
I have a Family pack, so both Warren’s & my computers have accounts & therefore we have synchronised calendars – handy for keeping track of each others appointments (no double booking).
I’ve also created websites using iWeb to share photos etc with family.
Helena Denleys last blog post..The art of delegating
Dude, I’ll give you one good reason not to switch to Gmail.
You won’t be registering at our forums if you do. Gmail accounts at our forum are banned because spamnmers use them to spam us.
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Am I the only person alive looking for LESS features in an email service?
Personally I like gmail for all the stuff I don’t want to use my real email address for.
But for my personal mail? Well, I’ve got this little linux server sitting around, which receives all my personal email, archives it exactly like I want it, and which is available via ssh wherever in the world I am.
I really need to be able to ssh to my server. Without the option of ssh’ing home, I’m quite simply not a happy camper. There I’ve got mutt hanging around in a screen session, together with my irc-client and slrn (to read usenet).
email, irc and news. I read it from my own server. Only.
🙂
“You can create Word docs,” PDF’s and spread sheets with Gmail via the use of GoogleDocs.”
I don’t believe that that’s a good reason to switch EMAIL services
“Gmail has something called ‘Stars’ and which allows you to tag emails you find important. You can actually do a search for ‘Starred’ emails and they all pop up, and as quick as a normal google search!”
I believe hotmail lets you ‘flag’ emails
“You can archive old emails or whole conversations so that you can keep your Inbox clear.”
“You can set up filters and labels to keep your Inbox organised and clutter free.”
As with any email account
“It has a fast, easy search function which means you will never lose an email again. The search is as fast a normal google search which is ace.”
My hotmail account searches as I’m typing
“All your emails are online which means that you access your emails from anywhere, not just one computer.”
Never had my emails stored on my computer, compared to an actual server
Good list. Gmail apps for domains is what I use.
Nice to have my own external email accessible from anywhere.
Auto-backup and the best spam filtering (for free!).
And, when you run apps for domains, your have effectively outsourced some of your network administration. Again, for free. Hard to beat that.
— Brad
Brad Griers last blog post..Links for 2008-08-15 [del.icio.us]
none of the other free e-mails come close to matching G-mail
It sounds like the TOP 10 list is what GMAIL puts up as the best features about its product. Not a real list of what you like about it.
Great article for GOOGLE!
I should mention that I set up Gmail for my Mom and I also configured Thunderbird for her so it will download her Gmail messages.
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Gmail is old and out, Zenbe is even better! If you’re going to make a switch, go with Zenbe.com.
Zenbe is fairly new, and it has a few things to catch up with, but overall it’s a much better (and prettier) experience than Gmail.
I have been using gmail since day one. what else could you ask for its FREE! I have some of my own domain emails and they never give you enough space to archive messages.
David,
Actually to be honest, in the past 2 weeks I have not got one spam email in my inbox however I have been pretty good in keeping my email address spam free. So I guess you still use Gmail even after your hacked account?
Kris,
I have had an gmail account since it came out in beta however I never used it entirely.
Doug,
very kind of you Doug 😛
Jacob,
Thanks for the heads up about the backups… I actually keep a backup on my webserver just incase, and they also do regular backups.
Regarding portability, I haven’t looked into that so thanks for bringing it up. But like you said, no system is perfect.
Luis,
Thanks for the link Luis, I wasn’t aware of that site.
XXdesmus,
In the past two weeks for myself it has blocked 100% of my spam so I am pretty happy with it.
Andrew,
Good luck with it. Those videos will help you out.
Nick,
That is strange, because like I mentioned to David and XXdesmus, I have not received any in the past 2 weeks but good that you set up extra filters.
Peterson,
You can turn off Gmail advertisements in the settings.
Hans,
I am sure if someone wants to read your email that bad, that they will do so no matter where your email is located.
John,
Tell me about it, I have not got one spam email in the past 2 weeks. Thanks for the link, strange coincidence?
Jeremie,
That could easily be #12 or #13 🙂 Thanks.
Saad,
Good to hear.
Retro,
That is unfortunate but I know that nearly everyone has more than just one email so there is always away around it.
Ryan,
Send / Recieve?
Oslofyr,
Each to their own… still using irc eh?
Joe,
Being able to have the services on the go, all conveniently in the same place is a huge bonus I believe.
Many email providers have flagging systems, however not all so it is a feature worth mentioning… some people do not even know about it.
Brad,
I also use Apps and it is great and it being free is the best bit!
UselessBrain,
Have you set up any labels or filters? That is how Gmail’s folder system works. A good labeling system is the only way to go!
Shawn,
I put up the list of what the best features were in my opinion, in no particular order.
Anthony,
Yet another great feature of Gmail. I haven’t really got to use it, due to my time difference down under but I have seen it there.
Durban,
Whitelisting is a good way around it… much alike all systems, you must build the system around your preferences, habits and personal likes.
Ryan (Modemlooper),
Yeah me too except not entirely for business.
Thank You Everyone for your comments.
Gmail is the best! Btw nice blog has a sweet style!
I don’t understand. All of the features you have outlined exist in Outlook Web Access, outlook, and even windows live mail.
Richard Harbridges last blog post..To My Sons and Daughters
Ooops. Bad me, I see free email account at the top. I’m a dunce.
Richard Harbridges last blog post..To My Sons and Daughters
one thing you fail to mention is that gmail is still listed as “BETA”. Google makes no promises about the continued usability of beta applications. Therefore your beloved gmail could be gone tomorrow.
That said I still like it.
Gmail is one the best mail services and it also provides many other services beyond mailing.
Antolias last blog post..Garden Grove, California
I was making a reference to designers. We send large files and it can eat up our email space quickly as a lot of web hosts don’t give you a lot. I get around this with send file services. But I like gmails unlimited archiving.
Min,
Thank You.
Richard,
No worries Richard.
John,
Unlikely but very plausible.
Ryan,
There were actually other Ryans in the post, I think I was referring to their questions but thanks for clarifying none the less. Yeah 8gb of space is pretty ace.
Hi Bernie,
I suppose you could look at it both ways… one way it is safe, but one way inconvenient… I am not sure how often you send .exe files however I would rather be safe than have to be inconvenienced every so often.
I always prefer Gmail to use as an email client. It’s very nice features bcz of which emails always load fast and quick. I am using Gmail since last 2 year and till now I do not remember if I had any problem. Nice article, thanks for sharing with us. Cheers:)
Gmail can over filter spam in many cases. Be very, very careful. Might miss something you want. At my office, I have been running SpamBully lately since it’s Bayesian and learns from my habits.
Ok, since everyone is giving reasons why GMail is great, I’ll tell you where it sucks.
I have 2 GMail accounts (both Apps for Domain variety) and I think GMail is the best of the bunch, but it definetely has room for improvement.
Ok, top X things that GMail sucks at:
1. You can’t use Firefox’s “Search for Text when I start typing” feature. This seriously sucks and impeeds me from finding a certain email on the page.
2. You can’t wheel-click on an email and get it opened up in another tab, like you can with other free email providers.
3. You can’t resize the sidebar on the left. I have some email from ages ago that got labeled with really long labels.
4. The availability of Google Labs goodies to Google Apps for Domain users is massively spotty. I still don’t have those features 6 months after they came out.
5. Google Reader accounts cannot be associated with GMail Apps for Domain accounts.
Regards
I like gmail, although I still get about 10 spam emails a day per inbox. It never seems to filter the simplest keywords sometimes, although I’ve manually setup filters which now deal with any extra spam, so overall, gmail is the best 🙂
Nicks last blog post..Guzel Magazine
In Re: to Gmail and big brother.
Nothing worse than discussing pricing on business cards, for example, with a client via email, then lo and behold an ad for cheap 99$ business cards on the top.
Yep, I still use GMail, although not for account sensitive information, which I’d highly recommend.
Off topic, nice work on hugely surpassing the 100 Digg count, which is where my blog posts mysteriously disappear from that site. 😉
David Aireys last blog post..Your questions answered #3
Hi Jacob,
In #1 you mention the Gmail spam filters. They seem suspiciously too efficient to me sometimes, as I blogged here.
http://blogs.gcigroup.com/fineprint/2008/07/29/gmail-spam-filters/
Sometimes a spam comes in the exact second I send an e-mail out. Maybe I’m reading too much into it.
Cheers,
John Carson.
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Yeah Gmail Is my Favourite email service using it since it was in beta and only people with invites could use it! I just love it
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Shawnon,
You are welcome.
Matthew,
Usually my spam is only about 10 tops a week so it is very easy to see if something has slipped through… it is not so hard to distinguish a “Viagra 50% off” email from a genuine one.
Frank,
I also agree there are some things for improvement such as the sidebar being able to be resized.
For the search for text, press Ctrl+F on your keyboard, works for me.
To open another browser hold down the Ctrl key then click… this will get over your middle mouse click issue.
Michael,
You can do all of those things with Gmail but with enhanced productivity, plus it is online which is a huge bonus if you need to travel… even if you forward your email.
PinkPetrol,
Yes, however you need a plugin for it:
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/7757
Angie,
Well said and like I said in the post, it does take a little bit of tweaking and getting everything sorted however once you do, it is well worth it.
David,
Thanks for the recommendation and yeah I am always surprised by what makes Digg. I put the digg badge on this post after I saw 30 diggs on the post within 20minutes then went to bed and when I woke up it had over 1000 digg’s, then 6 hours later 2000 and now the actual digg post has over 430 comments as well… crazy. And yeah mine usually fade out at about 130 diggs.
I think gmail is the best online e-mail manager.
But the thing I dont like is that you can’t make more folders to sort your e-mail. Yes maybe there is a great search function in it. But what if you can’t remember a damn thing what was in your mail. Like login information etc. The other thing I dont like is when u search a mail and your archive is to stuffed u get to many search results. Afcourse Gmail will improve and it’s a great programm, for now I stick to Mozilla Thunderbird.
UselessBrain.coms last blog post..Buy massive website traffic?
Gchat is one of the best features on Gmail. It allows you to chat live with other gmail contacts, and you can import your AIM buddy list as well. If you aren’t using Gmail, quit wasting time and do it now.
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I find Gmails spam filter to be too aggressive … it might be the fact that it is trapping over 8000 spams for me within a 30 day cycle.
Apparently the solution is to go and “whitelist” everyone by adding them as contacts, this mostly works, but is rather tedious.
reason number 12ish:
https
checking your email from behind the strict company firewall is possible via gmail and free from the prying eyes of the network admin via https.
Not a small reason.
I’m curious how many hits you’ve received by simply stating the obvious.
🙂
1 Reason to NOT use GMail:
Executable file attachments are not allowed due to “security” reasons, EVEN if you hide them in a .zip file!
Y!Mail gladly attaches anything I throw at it.
Go Yahoo! =P~~~~
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I don’t know…I’m used to Outlook. I like that it can manage everything in one spot…email, calendar, tasks…I also like the ability to create a task out of an email. I don’t know…maybe one of these days.
Gmail wins hands down!
Does GMAIL have the features to do HTML footers etc?
I resisted gmail for a long time because it used tags instead of folders. However, once I finally made the switch, I started kicking myself for not doing it sooner. Now I’ve forwarded all of my various addresses to gmail and it’s all I use.
And for the person who mentioned big brother reading your email, it doesn’t really matter where you choose to store them. Unless some heavy encryption is used on both ends, your email isn’t going to be secure.
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Joe, Semaho,
It will only get better as you customise it more and more.
Joe 2,
Did you know you can turn off the ads in gmail? Just go into the settings and turn off.
Klang,
Thanks for the tip!
Trench,
Not everyone has the same knowledge on the interweb, there are people who range from not even knowing about gmail, to people who use gmail to make their breakfast. However I was surprised by the amount of diggs (3180+ now) it received. Maybe I should write 10 reasons to switch to firefox… I wonder how many people even know about FF? My stats tell me 20% still use IE!
Sara,
Your welcome! Google Apps is great if you own a domain also.
Y!Mail: Convenient & Safe
Allows ALL attachments and scans said files with Norton AntiVirus before allowing you to download them.
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Gmail incorrectly puts about 1 out of 100 of my “good” incoming emails into the spam bucket–along with thousands of actual spam messages.
Unfortunately there is NO WAY to fix this when it happens. There is no way to add a filter that says “any incoming mail that contains ‘xyzzy’ is NOT SPAM”.
I have just started trying out Gmail and it does seem to be pretty simple, powerful and effective. I’m now just summoning up the courage and mental wherewithal to transfer all my email life across to it!
Mark,
You can add the email address to your whitelist and over time, the system will work for itself.
Adding to the whitelist helps a lot, but:
1) I have found cases where simply sending an email TO MYSELF ended up in the spam bucket AND
2) Email generated by visitors to my web site often gets marked as spam. Of course these people are not on my white list. Putting unique markers in the subject line, and looking for them with filters, does not help keep these messages out of the spam bucket.
If Google would simply add a NOT SPAM option to their filters, this could be fixed.
I have always been a yahoo girl not until I tried using gmail… I really really love the spam filter… 🙂
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Great article.
I’m moving out of Gmail after using it since the beginning. I used to use it for everything but after the contextual ads showing me everything that’s in my email. It kinda got a little scary since it was based on some very personal self addressed notes.
Not to mention, if you’re using multi-tab and/or same browser. Google knows your searches and mail + everything you wrote in ALL your emails.
That’s.. too much information.
Think about what google DOESN’T know about you and I’d bet that’s a shorter list that what google does know about you….
something to think about….
Gmail is good, yeah 🙂
Thank you for this.
I didn’t know that I could use Gmail for all my email accounts. I’ve been using Gmail since it launched, how did I miss that?!
Nice to hear you switching to GMail.
And you know, Google Calendar can even send a reminder to your mobile through SMS.
Chaitanya VRKs last blog post..Few unseen but awesome print Ads
Mark,
Really, email to yourself going to spam, that is pretty funny. Email from your website visitors I get around by using contact forms… each form has the same subject line each time so I can just set up a filter for that.
Zeniamai,
Glad you made the switch.
Chaitanya,
Ah thanks for the tip 🙂
Laura,
I do suppose that it does depend on your internet speed. Another way is too use both outlook and an online service that the email gets forwarded too… I was doing that for a while.
Jacob,
Filtering on the subject line does not prevent the message from going to spam, neither by tagging nor by setting a Star. The mail will be Starred (which means “important!”) but sitting there along with all the Viagra ads.
The sad thing is that you will only learn about this by accident, since the ratio of correctly identified spam to these “false positives” is high.
One thing you can do is to occasionally do a search of your spam for your special subject. It’s possible to do this via a customized URL, but it’s not as straightforward as you might think. You have to hand craft the URL.
Mark
I’d never move to online email. Several reasons, but every advantage you mention for Gmail (that would matter to me) is currently available to me through Thunderbird and on my desktop. Since I have a laptop, I can take it anywhere I choose anyway.
I don’t want to be dependent on a flaky internet connection to access archived emails. Since internet out here is slow, I’d LOSE more time than I’d save by moving to a web interface. Online apps just don’t cut it when you have to wait for a page refresh every time you initiate an action.
Laura
Thank you Jacob.
Forgot to mention yesterday, GMail also had Snake game in its new version.
By enabling the labs features, GMail provides more things like Superstars, Mouse Gestures, Old Snakey etc…
Make that 11 reasons – Gmail has a media player, and you can instantly play sent songs right on the email. With all that storage, people have been known to back up much of their hard drives with it!
I host 6 personal domains with Google Apps for domains, and route all those into my one main Gmail account, as well as a few other email forwards.
Every few weeks, I launch Outlook on my home PC and grab all of the emails in Google.
Best of all worlds – free hosted domain email, once box to rule them all, and local backup.
Mark,
Can’t you set up a filter that says if the subject line is this, move to inbox?
Chaitanya,
I saw that in Google Labs… if only we had time.
Buck,
Ah nice one, thanks for that!
Bryan,
Yeah it is good to have backups and Outlook is good at that, just make sure you back up your backup.
Google apparently just added a “Never Send it to Spam” option to filters! It’s only available with the “Newer version”
wow great article..
sharing through digg
I’ve been using Gmail for a while, and it’s ok, but one thing I don’t quite understand is how to search for mail from someone. If I’m looking for mail from person A, with other e-mail products I can sort by the From field and easily find it, but this seems surprisingly difficult using Gmail.
Some posts such as http://danwarne.com/gmails-missed-potential/ and http://pandali.com/cgi-bin/pforum/pforum.pl?num=1216621349/0 show other people are also running into similar issues.
Bryan,
to search for things like that, try:
From:brenda
From:[email protected]
To:me
To:[email protected]
Subject:ninja
Subject:C14l4$
Gmail is truly the best of the best when it comes to email. The 13th reason to switch could also be Picasa and Picasa Web Albums which also works through your Gmail account! Picasa and Picasa Web Albums are simply the best of the best in working with your photos and displaying them.
We as a Web design company utilize both gmail and our hosting email for different purposes. Security is always an issue but we found that having all of our gmail forwarded automatically to our appropriate business email address with a copy left on gmail is productive and serves as a backup.
It’s the Internet folks… So there’s a give and take. If you want 100% security. Go back to paper, lock it up in a fire proof filing cabinet and hope you don’t get hit by a tornado, hurricane or earthquate and you should be just fine…
Casey,
I have been using both and would have to argue that Gmail really does outdo Outlook. If I get over 50 emails at a time which is not rare, Outlook takes at least 2 minutes to download them, let alone load the program. Gmail is instant, has 0.001% spam (I haven’t had one for months) and integrates much easier with everything else.
One feature I would like to see in Gmail is drag and drop file attachments into email.
Interesting list… but those who know how to use Outlook… the professional email solution, knows that all of these 13 reasons are bogus since they can be done with Outlook as well. I guess I better write the counter blog since gmail fanboys just can’t admit facts.
new email account
Woah… Didn’t know that Gmail can be used as an efficient email manager. Thanks for the article.
Gotta fire up my ignored Gmail account then. hehe
Gmail Is Da Bomb!
I use both Hotmail and Gmail;)But Gmail is waaaay faster and efficient than Hotmail. Gmail has heaps of storage, super fast and, I could name a million more things about why I recommend Gmail. I only use Hotmail to get into MSN. MSN is great but Hotmail is quite slow on my computer, so yeah. And Gmail is simple and not too complicated.
GMAIL ROX!!!!!!
The information on this page was helpful. It mentioned everything I was wondering in my search for an email provider. The only thing that bothered me was:
“and below I give 10 reasons why.
12 Reasons To Switch To Gmail”
I just came across this post and the simple fact is, there is no comparison between GMail and Outlook – they target different markets.
I agree Gmail has some serious advantages over Outlook, but there are a ton of things Outlook does that GMail doesn’t…
1.)Offline. Can’t take GMail with me on a plane. Even with Gears, not fully functional yet.
2.)The rest of the business world uses Outlook, not iCalendar. So your appointments, may or may not work as expected.
3.)A TON of apps integrate with Outlook such as WebEx, Plaxo, Xobni, and more to extend Outlook to what it can be.
4.)Folders. I want a clean inbox. I don’t care how many labels I can create, I still have 7,431 emails in my inbox that happen to be tagged.
5.)Paginating. If I’m sifting through 200 emails, I to scroll down in one fluid motion. I don’t want to scan 50, click next, scan, etc. Why GMail still limits 50 at a time is beyond me.
6.)Integration with Exchange. ‘Nuff said
7.)IMAP. Outlook can connect to my IMAP accounts, why can’t Gmail?
8.)Mobile Phone synching. 1 step to get everything I need on my mobile, with Outlook.
9.)Accountability. Who do you call if something’s not working with GMail? It’s a free service, so you can’t expect more than you pay for. And how exactly am I supposed to backup my GMail account? I’m not willing to ‘assume’ everything will be ok with my data. Things happen all the time…
It’s unfortunate that people look to specific tools as being the definitive ‘silver bullet’ over another tool. Every tool has its place.
I use a fork for 90% of all that I eat…until I eat soup.
Google has a lock on many things web related. But I’ll stick to my hotmail accounts. Thank you. 🙂 (I’m not dissing Google. How can you? I just like some independence from all things Google.)
Hi, my name is James O Gwyn, I have an e-mail ACCT
& every so often here lately the e-mail can’t be
retrieved, and when I give my e-mail plus password
the tell me it don’t match, why is this
[email protected], password is heavenly
child. thank you very much.
I decided to switch to gmail, because it is so much easier, it has superior spam blocker, efficient, safe and not sluggish.
I have no problem with my Hotmail account. It’s gotten much better in the last year or so.
Can someone please explain why my new gmail account lists only 7597 MG of space (with 0% used) on the frontpage (with the option to buy more), when gmail is advertised as offering 8 GB of storage space on all the reviews??? Thanks.
I completely agree.
Gmail is the best at this moment. Any one able to beat Gmail?
Well, actually I am about to delete my Gmail account.
Why? 2 years ago I closed my youtube account. Recently and without my consent Youtube decided to reopen it. I tried to close it – guess what?! Not possible. I do not get the option.
Contacted Google, Gmail and Youtube – guess what?!
Not only no one answered my questions, but they did not close my account.
I repeatedly asked for it and all I got was a “we really respect your privacy and you will love our services”.
A pity when companies amass too much power. I for one, have just changed and will soon enough delete all my Google related accounts and stuff. There is a big world out there outside of Google and friends.