I've been using Google's e-mail service, gmail, and found it great. I don't want to make a post saying only this, so I'll make a comparation of its features against its competitor's ones.

Space: MSN Hotmail, in its paid version, provides 2GB of storage. Gmail currently gives you 2,5GB. The fact is that this space is continuosly increasing, and you may check it at gmail's homepage. So, it is not only the biggest e-mail, it's also the only one that grows. Comparing to free services, the biggest one I've found is at spymac.com, which is 1GB. In this aspect, gmail beats competence.

Pricings: Gmail is free. Such a price, by definition, is unbeatable. There are a lot of free e-mail services, but they can only tie, never win, to gmail, since they offer the same price: free. So, in pricing, gmail is tied with many sites at top.

Advertising: I'll avoid comparing with paid systems, because they do not need advertising, only to free services. Hotmail's free e-mail main window takes about a half of the screen, since the other half is invaded by banners. Other systems are a bit discrete, but there is always at least a banner ad. In a gmail account, when you open a message it is scanned automatically for keywords; these keywords are used to select a set of text ads that are clearly separated in a column at the right, as done in Google's search results. No banners at all, and all ads are relevant, so Gmail beats again.

Language: Currently, gmail is available at 29 different languages, and they are working on more. In most e-mail services, you have only english available. There are many that also allow the local language of the providers, so you'll normally have one or two languages to choose from. Another point for gmail.

POP access: Of course, gmail provides you POP access, to download your mail through the software you prefer. But gmail goes beyond allowing, it helps you to configure your e-mail client step by step and even provides a tool that does it for you on the most used clients: Outlook (& Express), Eudora, etc. The nearest competition on this feature is the Outlook-Hotmail combo: since they are both from Microsoft, Outlook is able to access your Hotmail account giving only the username and password. Even so, gmail's tools are wider and better. Once again, gmail clearly beats.

HTML mail: well, they are not the best here. Even gmail gives many options for html formatting, such as font, color & style, it's beaten by those services that allow you to write your own code. So, in this aspect it's good but not the best. Maybe only half point here? Anyhow, remember that gmail is still a beta, and it won't surprise me if in some weeks they improve that.

Xtras: Gmail notifier allows you to monitor your mail from the system tray. Picassa makes managing and mailing image files a children game; you may convert among formats, resize to save space and bandwith, and many other features.

So, features speak for themselves: gmail rocks! Also, I'd like to make some comments: Google's philosophy is to beat competence by making its products widely better. Even if they achieve this or not, there is no doubt they do their best. That forces the competition to improve a lot to keep the bussines going on, and in a medium and long term, it's a great benefit for users. Also, remember that gmail is still in a beta stage, which means that Google still do not consider it enough.

Hoping be useful,
Herenvardo

PS: I've a lot of invitations for gmail. If you need an account, PM me telling why do you need it and I might send you one.

 

 

 

Reply

You said it all in one post. I use Hotmail as of now, but I am going to start using GMail very soon because someone just sent me a invite. I am going to need GMail to recive big files from my friends so I can host them on my website, otherwise Hotmail won't do it. They don't support big file attactments.

Reply

Here here! GMail is by far the best free e-mail service I have ever used! There are a few features that you failed to mention, however.

1) Gmail has an excelent SPAM filter. It usualy out-right blocks odvious virus-mails. It also dumps all suspect SPAM into a SPAM folder for your conveniance.

2) Gmail also allows you to archive your mail. This means that it will not appear in any of your folders, but is still held on your account. This leads me to my next point.

3) Gmail allows you to search your e-mails, both active and archived, with the Google search engine. For anyone that uses Google as thier primary search engine, this provides a very familar and powerful way to find that one piece of mail that you need.

4) Gmail automaticlay groups reply / re-reply chains into "conversations". Not only does this save space in the inbox, it also alows you to review the entire chain of e-mails should you need to before you reply. I find this particularly useful.

Basicaly, Gmail signifies the next generation of web-based e-mail. It's unbeatable for the price, and with POP3 access, it's also very tech-head friendly.

Gmail is currently still in beta, which means it's by invitation only. However, I have 50 invites sitting around that I'm not useing. If anyone would like an invite, feel free to e-mail me at "qbradq AT gmail DOT com" from the address you wish the invite to go to.

I hope this isn't viewed as spaming or advertising or anything. I simply want to share the gospel of Gmail Besides, it's just e-mail, so isn't in competition with AstaHost.

[EDIT]
Forgot to mention this. If you need to exceed the file size limit, there are programs out there that will fragment files and then upload them to your e-mail account. www.peer2mail.com is one that I have used, and found it quite useful. This tool also allows you to download the fragments from your account and reconstruct the full file.

QBRADQ

 

 

 

Reply

Very nice review, Herenvardo. Everything you have written in your review is correct word by word. I am also using Gmail and it is the only regular Email for me since I have got the inviation last year. Gmail has bring revolution in the field of emails because after entry of gmail every other mail provider like yahoo, hotmail , rediffmail etc has to increase its size.
I hope Gmail will improve a lot day by day when its first version will be out.

Reply

Cheers!
Gmail's great. You can also download a plugin to make an account a drive (Gmail drive) but I don't think the designers like it, so they try to deter use. But if you have data you don't mind forfeiting, it can have its uses.

One more thing: not that the above info was inaccurate, but maybe misleading to anyone not familiar with the term 'beta'; here's the definition off GuruNet:

beta

Used in software publishing, "beta" is the name given to a pre-release version of a software product. This beta version is used for testing purposes, is often problematic and thus only available to specific users who are encouraged to provide feedback for improvement. Beta versions are commonly found on company websites and can be downloaded. Many include expiration dates to eliminate proliferation of flawed software.

Reply

+1 for gmail.
And also, remember the gmail virtual drive, sometimes very useful.
I have seen paid mails which have more adverising than gmail.
by the way, the beta-test gmail version is free, will the production version remain free ?

Reply

Gmail is simply the best. Uses my hotmail to, but that is just because that i have many services on it. But im changing over as many that i cah to Gmail. Because it is so Good. 10 of 10 to Gmail

Reply

Yes of course. I've been using Gmail for ages now since my cousin sent me the invite. Of course i spread the knowledge to others and given them all 6 of my invites. Lucky me though, right after i gave off my last invite, then came the 50 invites. Actually, gmail doesn't really need the invite thing anymore because when you've used one invite, you'll get 1 more so you get unlimited invites. I'm guessing Google wants more gossip about their invites. This leads to my second question:

Will it stay free?
Many say no, most say yes. I have no comments to give about this idea. Gmail spends thousands of dollars in keeping their server up, especially the one for gmail. They earn their keep by advertisement and some basic paid tools but most of Google's tools are free. How does Google gain a profit from its spendings? I mean, many companies like to advertise with Google but Google pays others for advertising the same company over again. Of course there would be a profit in doing that but its basically the only profit-gaining part of Google I've ever seen so far. This makes no sense.

Reply

hi,
I agree just like everyone else here to that Gmail is the best free email provider around(even better than a lot of paid ones).
A few points in Gmail's favor:
1. The search technology is Google so it does give out excellent results.
2. The labelling scheme instead of the folders allow a mail to be grouped under multiple heads unlike folders where u can move it only into a single folder.
3. The space is increasing though I have never used more than a few MBs.
4. The interface is very clean and simple.
5. The keyboard shortcuts is a nice feature.
6. The free POP3 and mail forwarding.
7. And no advertisement in the mails that are sent from this service.

Cheers.
Himanshu

Reply

hi evry one :

all off my emails account can't provide me 10% of what gmail can give . please some one please can give me an invitation
my email : promote@hotmail.fr

Reply