What's the deal with gmail?

[User 1019]

Yesterday, I got more than 50 spam e-mails in my Yahoo! account. Not to mention that about five of my closest Nigerian/Indian/British friends wanted to give me a million bucks. ::)

I keep hearing folks talk about gmail and how good it is at blocking spam, etc. We've had our Yahoo! account for years, and everything we've done online is tied to that account so it wouldn't be an easy swap. But, if it'll keep me from having all that freaking spam, I'm willing try anything.

Is it worth the hassle?

If you have any, give me some pros and cons.

Thanks,

tbf

 

[imjustagirl]

Gmail is the greatest e-mail ever.

A.) The spam filter is great. I get spam, but it's in a separate folder and it's super easy to delete.

B.) It archives all your e-mails, and stacks your conversations. Let's say I send an e-mail to BYH, Flash and sportschick about a birthday party I'm having. Any of their replies, any of my replies, all are contained in that ONE conversation. It will say "Me, Flash, sportschick, BYH (15)" or however many messages there are. You click on that line, and there's every correspondence from there windowshaded together. Soooo easy to keep track of information.

3.) Gmail chat is awesome.

 

[User 1019]

Thanks. Sounds pretty good.

 

[pressmurphy]

As an added bonus, using Gmail will start you down the path of using Google calendar (slightly inferior to Yahoo for my own purposes but still very good) and Google Documents, the free alternative to Microsoft Word, Excel, etc.

I love how Google Document allows me to set user permissions on individual files so that I can give friends access to them online. They can edit Word and Excel files in their original location so that I don't have to e-mail the files to them. This come in handy when four or five of us are working on a project since we never have to worry about whether we're working on the most current version -- the most current version is always sitting on the server.

 

[StormSurge]

IJAG is right. I love my Gmail account. (and Google Reader)

 

[mike311gd]

If Gmail were a person, I'd have a crush on it. I starting using it after college; it's my "professional" account for resumes and important things. Then it became my full-time account. I've got many conversations that contain 100-plus messages. It really is the best e-mail system out there. It has a spam filter on it, and you can report undetected spam so you won't ever get it in your regular inbox again.

It might take you a little while to get used to it, but what program doesn't? Once you do get used to it, three_bags, you won't go back.

And for comparison, I use Yahoo!, too, and about 95 percent of my inbox is spam every day. I haven't gotten spam in my Gmail inbox in at least a month -- maybe more.

 

[2muchcoffeeman]

As an added bonus, using Gmail will start you down the path of using Google calendar (slightly inferior to Yahoo for my own purposes but still very good) and Google Documents, the free alternative to Microsoft Word, Excel, etc.

To be fair, Google Docs is the free online answer to MS Office, but you're screwed if there's a problem accessing the Internet, if you don't feel like paying for WiFi at a public access location (or when Google is hiccuping). The free alternative is [ur=http://download.openoffice.orgl]OpenOffice[/url], and you don't lose access to OpenOffice when you don't have Internet access.

Google's stuff is good for sharing documents (and it shares formats with OpenOffice and MS Office), but I would never use a Web-based service as a primary application.

Back to topic, Gmail is excellent. Vastly superior spam catching (Mr. Bags, I find it difficult to believe that Yahoo only started slipping on its spam-catching now) and free POP3/IMAP access for offline mail clients.

 

[User 1019]

Sounds like it's the way to go. I guess I'll start sending out the I've-changed-email addresses message.

 

[mustangj17]

If Gmail were a person, I'd have a crush on it. I starting using it after college; it's my "professional" account for resumes and important things. Then it became my full-time account. I've got many conversations that contain 100-plus messages. It really is the best e-mail system out there. It has a spam filter on it, and you can report undetected spam so you won't ever get it in your regular inbox again.

It might take you a little while to get used to it, but what program doesn't? Once you do get used to it, three_bags, you won't go back.

And for comparison, I use Yahoo!, too, and about 95 percent of my inbox is spam every day. I haven't gotten spam in my Gmail inbox in at least a month -- maybe more.

I still have a huge man crush on gmail. I love how it saves all your e-mail addresses for you, I love how it shows the emails in a conversational style so that when you are emailing with a group it conenses them on one page.

I love it when it saves something in the trash that I already deleted twice, because it knows its important.

Gmail is good to me.

 

[Moderator1]

I went through 60 applications for an intern spot last year - 58 of them used g-mail. It is the IN thing among the nation's youth, that's for sure. I have a g-mail account that I use some and I have no complaints. I don't see anything that makes it any better than several other programs but it is certainly fine.

 

[Norman Stansfield]

It's OK.

My only complaint is it seems to boot me unnecessarily any number of times during chat sessions.

 

[Diabeetus]

I used to have yahoo, but I've almost entirely made the switch. The only thing keeping me from deleting it is fantasy sports.

 

[ondeadline]

I love the way the folders function on Gmail as well. Some other e-mail programs have a general inbox, and then you can add folders and you have certain e-mail that automatically goes to that folder.

You can do that with Gmail as well. But with most programs, you have to call up that folder to see them. With Gmail, you can see all folders at the same time or you can decide to only see e-mail that's in one folder.

One of the things I like about going to Gmail is that I'll never have to change my e-mail address again. I've changed my e-mail address dozens of times since I first got a personal e-mail address because I HAD to change everytime I changed ISPs. Now, I can just stick with Gmail regardless of my ISP. I've had a Yahoo! address for years, but rarely use it because I've never liked the e-mail program.

I also like being able to access my e-mail wherever I have Internet access.

 

[mike311gd]

I used to have yahoo, but I've almost entirely made the switch. The only thing keeping me from deleting it is fantasy sports.

I actually just use Yahoo! to collect the junk. When I need an e-mail to sign up for something or some place, I throw down the Yahoo! address and let it get bombarded.

 

[imjustagirl]

I used to have yahoo, but I've almost entirely made the switch. The only thing keeping me from deleting it is fantasy sports.

I actually just use Yahoo! to collect the junk. When I need an e-mail to sign up for something or some place, I throw down the Yahoo! address and let it get bombarded.

Ding ding ding.

 

[zeke12]

I'll add to the chorus.

I've moved to gmail, and it's fantastic.

Chat is handy, archiving is awesome.

And I keep the yahoo account for spam. I have never gotten a spam message to my gmail account.

 

[Hank_Scorpio]

I'll add to the lovefest here. Gmail is awesome, for the reasons already stated.

Just a quick question: do you still need an invite to sign up for it? Or did it go public and anyone can sign up now?

If it still is invite only, I'm sure someone here has plenty of invites available to give TBF one.

 

[imjustagirl]

When I go to gmail.com, it says "Need an account?" and you can just start there.

if not, I can send an invite. PM me your e-mail addy if you want one.

 

[2muchcoffeeman]

I'll add to the lovefest here. Gmail is awesome, for the reasons already stated.

Just a quick question: do you still need an invite to sign up for it? Or did it go public and anyone can sign up now?

If it still is invite only, I'm sure someone here has plenty of invites available to give TBF one.

Anybody can sign up now at http://www.gmail.com. Too bad, too. I have 32,736,876,987,632,477,687,320,786 invitations left. :D

 

[accguy]

Ditto what everybody else said.

Not mentioned, however, is the search feature. It works very well. As does the way it saves drafts of emails as you're writing them.

Gmail is some really good free stuff.