Gmail, Google’s web-based email service, is an awesome way to deal with your email. I recently converted AWAY from Microsoft Outlook to Gmail. Here’s why.

I don’t like to tie myself to a single computer. I have a notebook computer which I like to use alot, but I also have a primary desktop machine. When using a program like Outlook (or any email program which resides on your hard drive), the email is downloaded to the computer and then stored on THAT computer. When using any other computer other than that one, you either don’t have your email or you have to remotely access your main machine (using VNC or a service like LogMeIn.com ) to get to it. This is what I used to do. At the same time, you have to worry about backing up your email. If anything happens to the computer the email is on, you can’t get to it. If you don’t practice sound backup strategies, you risk losing all of your email.

Enter Gmail. With Gmail, your email resides on Google’s servers (which are not likely to crash). Being that it is a web-based service, you can get to your email from anywhere in the world – as long as you have internet access. Keeping your email in synch between different computers is a thing of the past. Anything you read or send on one computer will be exactly the same if accessing your account from another computer. Gmail has all the capabilities of a typical email program. You can also access Gmail from any internet-enabled mobile device, which means I can even check my email on my cell phone.

Gmail Versus Outlook

Outlook is a very robust email client. It is one of those email programs that has so much power under the surface that most people don’t know about. So, I have no complaints with Outlook. That said, most of those features of Outlook go unused by almost all users of Outlook. In my case, I used Outlook to send/receive email and handle my contacts. Well, Gmail can do the exact same thing. All of the primary email features of Outlook are in Gmail. I can also store my contacts in Gmail.

Really, unless you are using some of the more enterprise-level capabilities of Outlook, there isn’t really anything you’ll find missing with Gmail. And, Gmail does some things better:

• VERY good spam filters, fully “trained” already to catch spam. My experience has been that Gmail’s filters are highly accurate.
• Grouping of related emails into conversations. More like a threaded discussion than a bunch of loose emails. Takes a little getting used to, I admit.
• Google’s search power to quickly search your emails
• Convenient features like tracking and maps. For example, if Google sees a tracking number in an email, they will link you to UPS or Fedex tracking. If it sees an address, it will provide a link to a Google Map of the location.

Having your email on the web means it is a lot more interactive.

You DON’T Need to Use GMAIL Addresses

This is one misconception. Yes, you do need a Google account to use Gmail. This means that you will get a GMAIL email address. However, this doesn’t mean you need to use it. If I were forced to use GMAIL as my incoming or out-going email address, I would NEVER use Gmail.

You can, though, use Gmail simply as an email client for any existing email account. Some people do this by using Google Apps, a method of using Google services on your own domain. Using Google Apps for email on your domain, though, requires the ability to assign custom email routing at your web host. A simpler method is to use Gmail as a POP3 client. In Gmail, if you go to Settings > Accounts, you see “Get mail from other accounts”. Here, you can specify the information for any POP3 email account., Gmail will then log in and download your email into your Gmail account. I therefore have Gmail fetching my email directly from pcmech.com and bringing it into Gmail. On the out-going side, you can set Gmail to use a different address as the reply-to address. Between the two options, I am using Gmail as an email client, but using my usual pcmech.com email address as both incoming and out-going. Nobody will ever know that I am using Gmail unless I tell them.

You can actually set up multiple POP3 accounts and bring them all into a single Gmail account.

Gmail Filters?

Yes, they are there. For filtering SPAM, the filters are already in place. Nothing to do there. But, you can set up your own filters in order to act on incoming mail. For example, if you want all emails from pcmech.com (like our newsletter ) to be labeled “PCMech” as soon as they arrive in your Gmail account, you can easily do so.

Gmail Notifier

If you use Gmail as your email client, you want it to ACT like an email client. This means you want to be notified if you get new messages and you want mailto: links in your browser to allow you to send an email. Gmail Notifier is how to do it. It is a small little utility which sits in your taskbar. When a new message arrives in your Gmail account, the little envelope will highlight blue and a little sound will play. You can also have it flash the email subject in a small popup window, just like Outlook does. The utility also allows mailto: links to be intercepted by Gmail.

If you want to use Gmail, you need the Notifier. At least in my opinion.

Privacy

Google has been the target of privacy concerns, and this is just an issue you will need to decide on for yourself. Yes, your email is on Google’s servers. Yes, they are scanning your email in order to provide you contextual ads on your email content and allow quick search. They are only doing this in order to provide the service, but a real privacy freak may not like it much. If that’s the case, you shouldn’t use any web-based email program. In fact, email, by it’s nature, is insecure even if you use a desktop email client. So, it’s just a matter of where you draw the line.

Gmail Versus The Others

Gmail is my personal fave, but there are other options such as Yahoo Mail and Hotmail. If you want the most desktop like experience, you’ll probably appreciate Yahoo Mail. Their interface is fantastic. However, they do not offer as much storage capacity. Plus, it is not truly free. You get basic service for free, but some of the other features come with a charge. Gmail is truly free. It is fast as well.

Yeah, I’m a Google Whore

Sorry if I sound like I’m selling you Gmail, but in a way, I am. I am really happy with Gmail and am eagerly saying bye-bye to Outlook. If you are not using Gmail, you may want to evaluate your email needs and see if Gmail will fit the bill. Again, you don’t need to use a gmail.com email address. You will have one, but once set up in conjunction with your existing POP3 account, nobody will ever know Gmail is in the equation. And when you combine Gmail with Google Calendar, Docs & Spreadsheets, and some of the other tools, Google really proves to me that they know how to create truly useful web-based software.

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