Google Gmail

Google Gmail Travels

If you store your emails on your PC or laptop, you are doomed to being separated from your email at times when you need it. With Google Gmail, your email is stored on the Google servers and accessible from any computer, pocket PC, or cell phone that can connect to the Internet.

Google provides each of its Gmail customers with 2,500 megabytes of storage, which means you can save both your sent messages and archives. Even your trash can remain available to you for an almost infinite amount of time.

Cost and Time Effective Email

If you were to use software like Microsoft Outlook to handle your email needs, you would still need to be concerned with frequent updates, spam management, and investing in anti-virus software, which will also need frequent updates. Google Gmail handles all these headaches for you and at a cost that you can pass up—it's free!

Address Options

If you like the custom email address that reflects your domain name, you can easily set up POP3 access to your existing email accounts. What this does is allow for the automatic forwarding of email from your server to Gmail, where you can view and store it on the Google servers. However, if anonymity or if you do not already have an email account, Google Gmail can provide you that service as well.

The Google Email Difference

With so many other online email services available, such as Yahoo and Hotmail, Google set out to design an email program that offered more than its competitors. Most email programs offer:

• Spam filters/folders
• Address books
• POP3 email
• Drafts folders
• Sent email folders
• Trash folders

Google goes a couple of steps farther by also grouping your email, sent mail, and responses into conversations. With little effort, you can see the entire correspondence about a single topic.

Another interesting feature of Google Gmail is the archive capabilities. As you wrap up conversations, there is no need to delete them. Simply use the archive feature to store the conversations away, then to retrieve the information later, use the search feature, or look in All Mail. All Mail is an easy way to see all mail sent, trashed, sitting in your inbox, and archived all in one place.

Google Gmail also lets you label your contacts and emails. This gives you another option for keeping your emails organized based on project, department, or priority.

Additional features available from Gmail include:

• Chat
• Instant email alert
• Capability to send and read in 38 languages

Google Gmail Drawbacks

No email service is perfect, and Google Gmail is not exception.

• For those who are accustomed to using Microsoft Outlook or one of its many clones, there will be a learning curve. Once you have archived your emails, it takes a while to get in the habit of using the search feature to find it.
• Nothing free is really free. While Google does not use pop-up ads or banner ads in Gmail, it does run Google ads to the right of each email.
• Signing up to use Google Gmail requires a referral from an existing Gmail user or a cell phone.
• Once you have set up a user name and Gmail address, you cannot change it. You can add POP accounts, but you cannot get a second Gmail address attached to your existing account.

Summary

When you are looking for a secure email service that will keep your email at your fingertips, even when you are away from your computer, look to Google Gmail. Google has designed an innovative new way to keep your emails organized and has provided its customers with enough space to successfully maintain an extensive email history.

To find out more about whether your computer and browser are compatible with Gmail, visit Gmail Quick Facts.