The Answer To All Your Email Problems
THE ANSWER TO ALL YOUR EMAIL PROBLEMS
Gmail is da bomb.
I have a lot of experience with email- not just as a unixy h4×0r- but as an actual user.
I have a 13 year old hotmail account. That should say something. And no; I do not use it.
I’ve used yahoo mail, mail through websites- squirrelmail, the outlooks, netscape mail client, command line sendmail, qmail.. etc.
And I have stopped using all of those in favor of Gmail. Gmail is the answer to all email.
Yes. No? Well as far as academia and development- of course not. But as far as a user is concerned- and by the way
I am a user! I don’t develop email- I use email. I could write my own client with perl - sure.. But… Really.
Yes, Gmail. Why??
WHAT’S SO DAMN GOOD ABOUT GMAIL
1)Spam filtering.
Their spam filtering is so damn good.. and I bet they use Bayessian filtering techniques ala Paul Graham… The fact
that users can deem email as spam wreaks of Graham’s Bayessian filtering implementations.
Gmail spam filtering is so damn amazing that now- when I see a spam email in my inbox, I am highly annoyed and disturbed.
2)It works.
Really well. All the time.
3)Space.
No deleting of messages. Abuse it.
4)Searching.
It’s google. Searching is incredible. You shouldn’t be able to use such a good search.
5)Uptime.
Yes.
WHAT YOU’RE SCARED ABOUT
Q: But But.. What if they stop working, what if it doesn’t work and I lose all my email??
A: You email is safer with Gmail’s servers than with your local internet service provider. You think your email with verizon, comcast, or whatever iffy joint is safe? You think data you keep in your hard drive is safe? From YOURSELF????
No. End of discussion, don’t be an idiot.
This is google. They’re not interested in messing with you- too much is at stake.
Q: But, I already have an email account!
A: You can still use your shitty email account. You can send as shittyemail@please.net and receive from there via your verygood@gmail.com account. Wait, no.. what did he just say? Yes. You heard right, believe it and move on. Stop arguing.
WHAT’S NOT SO GOOD ABOUT GMAIL
Not enough people are using it.
WHAT’S DIFFERENT ABOUT GMAIL
Your messages don’t have a directory like hierarchy. This threw me off at first. But it’s so much better. Searching for email instead of looking for it, works well. I don’t lose things anymore.
WHO SHOULD USE GMAIL
Everyone. Especially corporations.
WHAT ABOUT CORPORATIONS?
Yes, you should use gmail.
You can use google calendars, which is incredible. And have all the functionality of your shitty outlook- scheduling appointments, etc.
BUT I DO IT AND THEY WANT OUTLOOK
Have some balls. Just do it- I dare you.
BUT BUT…
Stop it. Use gmail. Stop your spam, stop not being able to access your email - go ahead and get email on your iphone and have a blast.
I’M NOT CONVINCED
You don’t deserve Gmail.
update
June 23rd, 2008: 1.5 Million Australian Students Dump Outlook/Exchange For Gmail.