Letters to the Editor
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Gmail pro: multiple email addresses, computers, mobile
I've been experimenting with Gmail for a month or so to see how it manages my several email addresses and syncs desktop, laptop, and mobile. So far very good. Gmail lets you get mail from several POP accounts, allows you to reply from the address to which the email was sent, send from an address of your choice, choose reply to address, etc. I get the same view on my desktop and laptop, with changes updated very rapidly. And the mobile web interface lets me do much of what I can do on the computer, though occasionally an email message totally freezes my LG enV. I didn't expect to like a web based mail service, but it's excellent. And since Mail.app on my Mac collects all my gmail (all my accounts forward to gmail) I can easily go back to my old ways should I desire (i.e., when AT&T improves its service and I get an iPhone).
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Gmail vs Yahoo mail
Gmail had the capability to send text messages to cell phones long before Yahoo. As usual Gmail is ahead of the curve in more ways than one.
Jack Manger
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gmail still the winner
Don't forget that all gmail features are free. That means you mr pop download.
Don't forget that yahoo turns every email you send into span with its footer spam. Tres lame.
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yahoo's spam filter stopped working
Some months back, Yahoo's spam filter stopped working, dumping tons of spam into my inbox. It got so bad that I (finally) abandoned Yahoo completely.
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why not both / another gmail con
I have both Yahoo and Gmail and appreciate both for what they do. (Also have Outlook for my work, where it is mandatory.) The Yahoo ads don't bother me, certainly not as much as they used to (before Gmail upped the competition, perhaps, or maybe it's just that my cable internet is more reliable now).
But I use the Yahoo account for personal business, for one reason: in my experience, Gmail is less reliable. It has gone out, skype-like, at least three or four times over the past couple of years, sometimes for just a couple of hours, sometimes for an entire day or two. Hasn't anyone else ever noticed this? I can't take the risk of needing to pay a bill (or whatever) and not being able to until gmail decides to work again. In my experience, yahoo mail has never gone down.
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are you kidding?
Yahoo servers were intermittently down barely two weeks ago for nearly five days running. I've used gmail for over three years now, keeping an Inbox window open the entire time I'm at work, and have never had a problem connecting. Which reminds me: I don't know if Yahoo does this, but Gmail regularly refreshes on its own so I always know when I have new mail. That's a huge plus is my book.
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You forgot sorting by columns
I think you're (Manjoo) a bit more enamored by Gmail than I. I don't see how labelling a message is sooo much better than dragging a message to a folder, or clicking a bunch of messages, then moving them all to a folder. I've had the geeks at work tell me this is superior, but I just don't get it - I'll call it a tie at best.
The one feature that Gmail doesn't have is the ability to sort messages by date, sender, message type, attachments, etc... (7 in all). I get all sorts of crappy email in Gmail (and tons of spam), and it's tough to sort through all the garbage messages and delete them - you have to pick the messages one-by-one, then you can delete en masse', but this is a hassle. With Yahoo, you just sort by user (or by whatever), then pick and click and erase. Much simpler and faster.
Also, Yahoo has a nice calendar and can store more useful contact info over Gmail, like birthday and anniversary dates.
I agree that the speed of use and size of attachments is better with Gmail, but the Yahoo windows-like interface is a clear winner.
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G-Mail, etc.
Not only does a GMail account give you all the features listed, but the massive list of distributed applications. I am using the MS-Word-like and MS-Excel-like applications and the Picassa photo application ---- all of them are profound. This is a shift in internet technology that will go on and on.
BTW, have not been able to imbed graphics while composing in either YAHOO or GMail.....is there a way to do it? Both receive graphics quite well.
Cheers....
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Pros & Cons Correction
I've used both extensively and I'd like to add a note about Gmail.
The "conversation view" that you mention doesn't actually group conversation topics so much as it groups conversation threads. If I write two separate emails to two separate friends both with the subject line "celery" it will not group those two emails together. That's a difference worth mentioning in a high volume email environment. What it WILL do is group all my emails within one conversation. That's nice but not quite as clever as what you're implying. In fact, the thread clustering has actually been a problem in a work setting wherein twenty exchanges can be made in one conversation, sometimes out of the literal thread but within the same topic, all within a two-hour period.
I've used the same Yahoo account for over eight years. Many things have changed in my life but Yahoo almost never, ever lets me down. I've never lost a message or had data go missing. Furthermore, I'm inherently suspicious of the current belief that "newer and shinier" equals better. Google has some impressive tricks up their sleeve, but it hasn't proven itself yet.
Also BOTH systems use your private information as a marketing technique. This is actually where Google's prowess as the rulers of information technology turns around and bites us, the users, in the ass. It scares me to think of what Google can do with 1000's of my private emails, which are never EVER actually discarded by their system.
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All you whippersnappers and your text messaging
Don't use email anymore. eMail is so 10 minutes ago.
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Two leading web-based email systems????
From a userbase standpoint (which is the primary metric for measuring web-based applications), the number one and number two web-mail applications would be Yahoo! and Windows Live Hotmail. Gmail is a distant third with about 1/4 the userbase:
"A February, 2007 article in TechCrunch gives user numbers for Yahoo! Mail (250 million), Hotmail (228 million) and Gmail (51 million), but does not cite the source of the numbers." (source: Email Marketing Reports - http://www.email-marketing-reports.com/metrics/email-statistics.htm)
I realize you have a certain bias against Microsoft, but you should try to maintain some modicum of professional journalism and base your articles on facts. Just because it is associated with Google, doesn't mean that Gmail is a front-runner...yet.