Gmail by Google? Anyone use this and what is your opinion on this service?

[Orchidflower]

I've heard of Hushmail, but don't know anyone who uses it. Does anyone on this board use Hushmail here that can offer an opinion?

 

[TromboneAl]

Why never delete a message? I don't understand, TromboneAl.

Because there's no reason to. True it takes a little space, but you will probably never run out of space. It doesn't slow things down to have a ton of old emails around.

The advantages of having your old emails around are huge. You can find that password for the application you installed 4 years ago, for example.

 

[Orchidflower]

Thank you for the explantation, TromboneAl. I just always delete spam or anything from someone I don't know. I likes my computer clean, but I can see the definite advantage of keeping valuable emails.

 

[walkinwood]

If you aren't sold yet...

Gmail has one of the best spam filters around.

It is also easy to learn to customize its filters so if you have some company send you emails & you can't get them to stop, you can just send them straight to the trash-bin.

I have had the occasional issue with Gmail being down, but that's true with any online service. The important thing is that I've never lost any email.

If you like the option to access your email off-line, you could use Mozilla Thunderbird or some other email program that works with gmail. Most do now.

 

[TromboneAl]

I would like to find an easy way to download and backup the 1.569 Gigabytes of emails that I have on gmail.

 

[Orchidflower]

Uhhhh...this has been more than a wonderful sales job. I'm going to Disneyland!!! Oh, no...I mean I'm going with Gmail!!!! Sounds great to me!!!

 

[Sam]

I would like to find an easy way to download and backup the 1.569 Gigabytes of emails that I have on gmail.

Offline GMail works for me.

Official Gmail Blog: New in Labs: Offline Gmail

 

[Rustic23]

T-Al,
I have not tried this but it should work. Put all your mail in the inbox, then route you email to a pop-3 account. Then use microsoft mail or outlook to open the box and then back up your email from that program. That was quick and dirty, most likely would take a while, but should work. Once you have them copied you would only have to backup the outlook every month or so as it would have all your mail in it forwarded from gmail.

 

[W2R]

T-Al,
I have not tried this but it should work. Put all your mail in the inbox, then route you email to a pop-3 account. Then use microsoft mail or outlook to open the box and then back up your email from that program. That was quick and dirty, most likely would take a while, but should work. Once you have them copied you would only have to backup the outlook every month or so as it would have all your mail in it forwarded from gmail.

Outlook does this. I tried Outlook a few weeks ago (being retired, and just fiddling around). I am used to Outlook from w*rk. Anyway, I told it to connect with my AOL account (gave it the username and password), and it did, and I was able to download my e-mails from AOL to Outlook. I am sure it would do the same from g-mail. After downloading very quickly, Outlook then had those e-mails and I could back them up or do whatever I wanted to do with them. I could respond from Outlook, and my e-mail would be uploaded to AOL and sent from there seamlessly. Very cool.

The problem for me was that Outlook either will delete the e-mails on the other account as they are downloaded, or not (you pick). If it doesn't delete them, then it will download them AGAIN the next time and have duplicates. If it does delete them, then you don't have access via the web from other computers when traveling or whatever.

So, having sated my curiousity, I don't use Outlook now.

 

[Bestwifeever]

I have used Yahoo since forever and since I have that e-mail address for all my online stuff (even things I have forgotten about) and it's second nature to use it, I'm not going to change it now.

But I did open a g-mail account a couple of years ago because I wanted to get my own name before someone else did, so I can use it in the future for specialized correspondence. I send/receive an e-mail from myself there every few weeks to keep it active and might start giving it out to people I know (my Yahoo address is random and doesn't identify me, unlike my g-mail address). I don't think I'll link it with the Yahoo account, though.

 

[W2R]

OK, I am easily influenced, I guess! At any rate I just opened a g-mail account, and it was easy to get my AOL e-mails transferred over. You can either have it continue to check and transfer new e-mails over periodically, or not.

I didn't choose to link it with my Yahoo account either, BestWifeEver. My Yahoo account is old and little used - - it gets zero spam - - but my primary AOL accountname is tied to New Orleans (similar to "XYZinNOLA") and I don't expect to be living here a year from now. So, I need to start changing my e-mail address to something else. Given all the rumors about AOL being on the brink of collapse, g-mail seemed wise.

It seems pretty user-friendly. Also if I had an iPhone or other web enabled phone, it looks pretty easy to set it up to read g-mail.

 

[Free To Canoe]

Gmail is so much better than AOL in ways too numerous to list here.
Got the tip for it here on the forum.

Thanks,

Free to canoe

 

[tgotch]

the Gmail user interface was a little odd for me at first, but now I use it a lot.

One thing to note: I have 2 accounts (or should say had 2 accounts). One of my gmail accounts was recently hacked, and taken over. I could not reset the password or anything, since the hacker reset all that.

Google has a process that will send you verification email to get your account back, but you need to know when you created the account (exact dates), names of several labels, email addresses in your address book, etc. So make sure you choose a good password, and remember your details.

Unfortunately I had none of this, and could not get my account back (its all automated, so don't even waste time trying). The good thing is, this was a throw-away account for me anyway. But it taught me a lesson.

 

[walkinwood]

I would like to find an easy way to download and backup the 1.569 Gigabytes of emails that I have on gmail.

gmail supports a protocol called IMAP that allows you to synchronize your offline storage with the online one. Try Mozilla's thunderbird to do this (free). I'm sure there are other email programs that do this too. Plenty of help online to help you configure all sorts of mail programs to work with gmail.

Thunderbird also has a plug-in called Zindus that allows you to synchronize your google contacts with an offline copy.

Then, you can back up your offline store the same way you back up your computer.

 

[W2R]

the Gmail user interface was a little odd for me at first, but now I use it a lot.

One thing to note: I have 2 accounts (or should say had 2 accounts). One of my gmail accounts was recently hacked, and taken over.

Well, so far it seems pretty much like any other web based e-mail to me. The threading of messages was confusing for about a minute and a half, but isn't confusing any more for me. It can do a lot of things, but so far I haven't encountered anything extra that I plan to use.

It doesn't have an audible alert (such as the infamous "you've got mail", that I found very useful in helping me with more immediate response to mod duties) but I downloaded their "notifier" software which produces an icon in my system tray that will let me visually check and see if I have new e-mail. I was hoping that it would have an audible alert that would summon me if, for example, I was cooking dinner at the time or something, but apparently not.

Hacking can be a problem with email accounts, and it is awful when it happens! My daughter even had her livejournal account hacked at one time (so being the techie-kid that she is, she hacked back into it and changed the password to something more secure).

 

[Katsmeow]

but you need to know when you created the account (exact dates), names of several labels, email addresses in your address book, etc. So make sure you choose a good password, and remember your details.

Is the exact date only one thing among many and if you know everything else it doesn't matter if you don't know the exact date? I have 3 gmail accounts actually but don't know the exact date I created any of them. Is there any way to find out that information for future? Hmm...Wonder if I should create a different gmail account where I would know that...but what a pain.

 

[donheff]

Because there's no reason to. True it takes a little space, but you will probably never run out of space. It doesn't slow things down to have a ton of old emails around.

The advantages of having your old emails around are huge. You can find that password for the application you installed 4 years ago, for example.

That was Google's recommendation when I signed up during the early beta phase. If I recall correctly, GMail originally came with a gig of storage and I figured it would eventually fill up. So I got in the habit of keeping everything that may have any value but I delete useless stuff (e.g. an exchange about where to eat dinner). I just checked my settings and saw that I am using 3% of my current 7.4 G allotment so maybe I will never run out. But I create a ton of useless stuff since I email time sensitive reminders, links and other junk to myself (e.g. travel itineraries) that I know I will never have a future use for. When I police my inbox I first delete all that stuff then archive all the stuff I may have use for.

I also use Google docs and the Google spread sheet for storing copies of stuff I want to make sure is accessible anywhere I go. The Gmail calendar is a life saver. I have a severe case of CRS syndrome so I set the calendar to send me email reminders a day ahead and a second reminder a few hours ahead. Gmail copies my Blackberry so I get my reminders on the move.

 

[harley]

I disagree with T-Al's "don't delete any email ever" rule. I keep anything of any value at all, like the password email he mentioned. And I work the folders well (finance has sub folders, fantasy football, funny stuff, family, etc). But unless you never get any spam, requested but unneccesary sales stuff (like my TigerDirect mailers), e-zines and mailing list stuff that you've read once, notifications that your CC statement is available, useless joke messages from friends, etc, I think there is plenty to delete without any penalty. If I want to look something general up that I once read, I don't dig through my email, I use Google. I've had email since 1984. If I had (or even could have) kept all of it, I can guarantee I wouldn't be able to find what I was looking for amongst all the well organised detritus. Even with getting rid of junk, and not counting my old w*rk email (which I have archived and stored for some reason), I have GBs of the stuff. Keep anything that is personal, even potentially useful, or just interesting, and get rid of the rest of it. Just like in real life, hoarding is not a useful trait.

 

[tgotch]

Is the exact date only one thing among many and if you know everything else it doesn't matter if you don't know the exact date? I have 3 gmail accounts actually but don't know the exact date I created any of them. Is there any way to find out that information for future? Hmm...Wonder if I should create a different gmail account where I would know that...but what a pain.

Here is the url for account recovery:

https://www.google.com/support/accounts/bin/request.py?ara=1&hl=en&contact_type=ara&ctx=ara

If I remember correctly, I did have to enter an account creation date, or it would not let me submit the form. (which I had no clue...who does? I just entered a date to get the form to submit)

If you check the "do you use gmail for this account" box, they will give you more options of what they require. Since this was a "throwaway" account, I didn't spend much time trying to figure out what is required for them to reinstate my account. I just got back automated responses saying I did not provide enough info, and to try again....

 

[Alan]

Another thumbs up for gmail from me. I have used it for years and it is extremely reliable and easy to use for all the reasons mentioned above.

One feature not mentioned in this thread is the Calendar feature. You can set up appointments and it will e-mail you reminders, plus you can set up your cell phone and then for really important appointments you can have it send an sms to your phone - great for forgetful folks like yours truly