I have a Gmail account but really don’t use it (yet)
Google is the debil!!!
0voters
Did you end up switching from your previous free webmail guy (hotmail, yahoo, etc.) to Gmail?
Gmail seems to kick the competition straight in the nuggets as far as I’m concerned.
First I got an account from… shit I can’t remember, but I wanted to see if it really had something cool, or if it was just hype. Then I started using among a few friends. Then I told all my friends never to email me at hotmail again (although noe still does) and I haven’t been back.
Don’t count your hosting/ISP pop account. I assume almost every has at least one free webmail account. I also assume that ones who haven’t began the assimilation process yet do most of their mailing via their ISP/hosting email account.
I love Gmail, and am trying to convince some of the groups that I belong to to switch to it - the way it orders ongoing correspondence makes so much sense, and for a forum junkie like me requires little getting used to.
My gmail is auto-forwarded to my main (real) email account. Honestly I get very little from gmail. Everyone I deal with just automatically sends email to my established email addys. And if I travel I can log into my main email account easy enough.
I switched to Thunderbird mail and it made doing this seamless.
I get mail from one high-volume list sent to my business Gmail address - which I have yet to switch to for anything else - and it’s proven decent, but I’m still not sold on Gmail. I use Thunderbird at this end and get all my mail from three accounts (one Gmail, two Fastmail) that way, which basically negates any and all advantage I can see from Gmail.
I couldn’t/haven’t gotten use to opening up Thunderbird (or any other email client) yet, so I’m always using web based email. I do have KDE’s PIM setup now and I’m slowy moving over to that.
Heh - my main (real) email is auto-forwarded to my gmail account! I used to keep everything on Thunderbird, and only used web-based mail when away from home, but since playing with gmail, I’m a complete convert.
I realised that the only times I had used a computer without internet access over the last few months was on an airplane - so it makes complete sense to keep all my email online. The fast response time of the google servers, the ability to search your mail easily, a good UI and access from anywhere are killer features …
[quote=“david”]Heh - my main (real) email is auto-forwarded to my gmail account! I used to keep everything on Thunderbird, and only used web-based mail when away from home, but since playing with gmail, I’m a complete convert.
I realised that the only times I had used a computer without internet access over the last few months was on an airplane - so it makes complete sense to keep all my email online. The fast response time of the google servers, the ability to search your mail easily, a good UI and access from anywhere are killer features …[/quote]
Yes, yes… After playing with the filters and labels, things can get setup real nice. I also thought archiving was stupid, until I realised it just moves things out of the inbox (before that I either deleted or left it in the inbox). Now my inbox is totally clean (it feels nice that way).
I have my own domain, and spam filters on my mail server so I don’t have to filter locally. I have several throw-away webmail accounts I use for stuff likely to expose me to spam/virus attacks. I also have a gmail account which is slowly getting used more often. I guess I like it, but the prospect of being able to recieve and store 2.5GB of spam and virus mail is a bit daunting. Maybe when the spam starts rolling I’ll see how the spam filtering works and that will decide whether or not I keep using it.
I have a Squirrel account through my company so if I’m not at the office that’s what I use. I have a yahoo one but its only for site registrations, so I can’t really see the point of Gmail for me. I also use PMs here, of course.
What is the big thing about Gmail anyway? I never really paid attention to it. How’s it different from Yahoo mail?
I’ve gotten 0 spam on my gmail account. I’m not exactly sure why either. I don’t do much to prevent it.
What I plan on doing is having all “non sensitive” things (notification emails, mailing list stuff, personal jibberish) going to Gmail and the rest to my domain email accounts.
[quote=“sandman”]I have a Squirrel account through my company so if I’m not at the office that’s what I use. I have a yahoo one but its only for site registrations, so I can’t really see the point of Gmail for me. I also use PMs here, of course.
What is the big thing about Gmail anyway? I never really paid attention to it. How’s it different from Yahoo mail?[/quote]
I use yahoo and I have no complaints. Does gmail have buttons and bells? I dont like buttons or bells.
[quote=“sandman”]
What is the big thing about Gmail anyway? I never really paid attention to it. How’s it different from Yahoo mail?[/quote]A buttload more disk space for a start. The way that convos get organized like threads is nice, as is the power of the search tool.
If you ask nicely I’ll send you an invite.
Thanks, but I just had a look at my Yahoo account that I’ve had for 3 years or so and have used zero percent of my 1 Gb space, I don’t think I need bother with another address.
Those are the 2 biggest things I think I like about it (not a bell or a whistle, just good design). The advanced search is really cool (like if you just want to see all the emails that have photo attachments).
The other cool thing is the use of labels instead of folders. I figured out why labels are cool after reading an article about Apple Tiger. Label are cool, folders = not as cool.
[quote=“sandman”]What is the big thing about Gmail anyway? I never really paid attention to it. How’s it different from
Yahoo mail?[/quote]
I don’t understand why everyone always talks about the 2+GB space as the most important feature - it isn’t. I’ve used Yahoo mail, and gmail is miles better. For example:
UI much better. When i login to yahoo, I can see the first 6 emails listed before having to scroll down the page. In gmail I can see the first 19 emails before scrolling. Why? There’s no adverts, or text wasting space on the screen. Similarly, when reading an email, the screen is much less cluttered. In general, most common actions requires less mouse clicks
Response times. Yahoo’s not bad, but gmail is faster - which makes it less frustrating to use.
Labels are better than folders. You can give an email multiple labels, while it can only be put in one folder
Search. Very easy to find any old email via search … of course Google do search much better than anyone.
If you use firefox, there’s a very nice extension which sits in the bottom right corner of your browser informing you when a new mail arrives and how many unread emails you have.
I’m sure there are other reasons, but if I add them everyone will think i work for google or something
I prefer Google’s own Gmail notifier which sits in the taskbar to the FF extension. It lets you know when new mail arrives even if you have the browser closed.
Yahoo is perfectly OK and I don’t have any complaints about it, but Gmail is faster and somehow the look and feel is neater and cleaner.
Gmail spell check is very cool and kicks the pants off Yahoo’s clunky and slow spell check.
I’ve just had a gmail disaster. It could have happened in any mail system but it was gmail. I was in Australia and had my password on my mums laptop. Now, I’m back in Taiwna. Today mum emailed me and said she did not want “private business information in her gmail as it worried her”
I spent a bit of time explaining to her on the phone how to delete them and it took her ages to get rid of them all. I patiently helped.
Then I opened my gmail account and you guessed it…All deleted.
I even helped her to delete the trash can so she could feel relaxed that the important business information was gone.
[quote=“Ironman”]I’ve just had a gmail disaster. It could have happened in any mail system but it was gmail. I was in Australia and had my password on my mums laptop. Now, I’m back in Taiwna. Today mum emailed me and said she did not want “private business information in her gmail as it worried her”
I spent a bit of time explaining to her on the phone how to delete them and it took her ages to get rid of them all. I patiently helped.
Then I opened my gmail account and you guessed it…All deleted.
I even helped her to delete the trash can so she could feel relaxed that the important business information was gone.
Yep, totally gone. 200 megabytes of my mail gone.[/quote]
oh shit.
