This month marks the one year mark with me using Gmail as my email provider. I stuck it out with Yahoo for quite some time before making the switch, and I have been thoroughly impressed. Gmail is still, technically, in beta, as apparent by the logo above. But there is nothing beta about the service.
One thing I like about the platform is the ability to group similar messages into threads. Let’s say you email someone, or a few people, and that person, or people, respond. In a typical non-Gmail environment, your inbox can get very full of responses, whether they are one word responses, or lengthy contributions to the subject at hand. Regardless, this one conversation can clutter the inbox and prevent you from engaging in other emails, or other conversations. In Gmail, if someone replies to a message sent, it appears on the same line as the original message, with additional text in the from field to indicate there have been responses to the message. Upon opening the message, one can scroll through all the responses of an email conversation, without ever having to return to the inbox. The threads feature may take a bit of getting used to, but once you see the benefits, you will be hooked.
Another nice thing about Gmail is the speed of the web based interface. Yahoo has, at times, seemed sluggish from everything to logging in to opening a message. Gmail opens instantly and very rarely has delays in anything you do, whether it’s opening a message, replying to a message, etc.
Last, but certainly not least, Gmail provides free POP access. This means if you prefer to use an application such as Outlook, Outlook Express, Thunderbird, etc., you can do so free of charge. Other “free” email providers charge a premium to grant you POP access.
So, what are you waiting for? Oh, storage you ask? Gmail offers 2 GB of free storage. In case you’re wondering, that’s a gazillion email messages.
Tech Spinning 