Whats the big deal with gmail ????

[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 , 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.