Opinions on gmail?

[Psionicist]

I have a gmail account mainly when I register on dubious websites. There are several reasons I would never use one for more personal matters:

Google is an advertisement business. That's where they get all their money. The thing with Google is their products are _good_, such as the search engine and Google Groups. This however, doesn't mean I trust Google with my personal information, private life or other things commonly stored in email message.

Keywords harvested from your emails are used to target ads. The whole idea behind Google is to centralize all information (and as much information as possible) about you so ads can be targetted better. This is of course extremely valuable to those who buy ads. Google didn't make billions of dollars by giving away cool tech for free you know.

 

[Enforcer]

I love the massive storage size, but the real key for me is the POP access. It even works with Apple's Mail!

 

[Dark Jezter]

The whole idea behind Google is to centralize all information (and as much information as possible) about you so ads can be targetted better.

I can't wait until I can go to Google's web site and type in "Where did I leave my damn car keys?" or "What should I get my sister for Christmas?" and get a relevant answer.

 

[Dimwhit]

Yes, they do...
http://groups.google.com/

I wasn't very clear. That's not the type of groups I meant. I mean address book groups, so I put a dozen of my friend's email address in one group and just address the email to that one group instead of everyone individually. Google doesn't handle that (unless I've missed something).

 

[Cthulhu's Librarian]

I wasn't very clear. That's not the type of groups I meant. I mean address book groups, so I put a dozen of my friend's email address in one group and just address the email to that one group instead of everyone individually. Google doesn't handle that (unless I've missed something).

Ah, no, it doesn't do that.

 

[Wystan]

Actually it does.

Thanks .
I am too soon old, too late smart. After posting this, I did the smart
thing and searched the group, (who woulda thunk of using search in
Google?) and found a workable workaround.

Thanks again. Seems like a good email, but right now I feel like I am
driving a Porsche to go to the corner store for milk and bread.

Doug


Leebehr™
Sep 10, 8:46 pm show options
From: Leebehr™ - Find messages by this author
Date: Sat, 10 Sep 2005 18:46:16 -0700
Local: Sat, Sep 10 2005 8:46 pm
Subject: Re: [Gmail-Help-Discussion] Mailing list
Reply to Author | Forward | Print | Individual Message | Report Abuse

---------------------------------------------
*Creating a group of Contacts*
--------------------------------------------
Compiled with the contribution of Gmail users, thanks for all of them !
*How to build multipurpose contact groups*
1) click with your mouse on CONTACTS, ( blue link, left middle side )
2) choose contacts one by one
3) click on "edit contact information" ( a blue link, below the contact name
)
4) in the NOTES window write in column, "friends", "co-workers", "family"
...one or more in the same window for to do multiple choices, in other
words, any contact can be in multiple groups, and if you reach the limit of
100 addresses allowed for to send, split them as :"family1" and "family2"
"familyX...". and click SAVE
5) when you want to send to any group, in the top middle of the CONTACTS
window you will see SEARCH CONTACTS, write there "friends" or whatever else
and click the search button.
6) in the bottom you will see "all" and "none" , choose "all"
7) in the top of the same CONTACTS window you will see on left top a COMPOSE
button, click on it
8) now you have a COMPOSE window TO with all you chosen contacts, put your
mouse into and click Ctrl+A and CUT it with your mouse
9) chose BCC and paste on it...
*Hints*
1. It doesn't seem to allow an OR function in the search, but you can deal
with that with multiple searches. You do your search, add them, and then
click the "all contacts" tab, and the full list is displayed, with the
selected contacts checked. then just do another search, click the all as
before, click "all contacts" again, and you'll see both sets highlighted.
(And of course along the way you can selectively unhighlight any.)
*In Eudora if I had a person on three different mailing lists and selected
them all, he would be on this list twice (and get two copies of the
email--very annoying to him). This system allows me to put a person on as
many lists as I want, and makes sure he only gets the msg once. *

2. You can also use this multiple searching to simulate a NOT function.
e.g., I have a bunch of people marked friend and several marked journalists.
When I want a message to include only friends who are not journalists, I
just do the friend search first, and click all the mark them. Then I go back
to "all contacts," search on journalists and the list of journalists come
up, with the ones who are also friends highlighted. I click none, and they
are all highlighted. Now when I go back to "all contacts" only the friends
who are not journalists are highlighted.

 

[Wystan]

Second Method:

1. create a new contact
2. put something like MyList in the Name field
3. start entering the addresses. Format like this:
[email address]>,<[email address]>,<[email address]

Note that there is no < at the opening address, and no > after the
last. Also, make sure there are no spaces between the addresses.
Lastly, you *must* use autocomplete when sending to this list.
Clicking thru contacts will not work.

 

[Wystan]

Double Post.... OOps.

 

[DungeonmasterCal]

I've been using GMail for nearly a year now, and it's the best free email service I've ever used. Now, in response to your questions about it:

Pros: Lots of storage space, a big list of useful features, auto-saves drafts of emails so that you won't have to re-type a long email if your computer suddenly crashes. GMail is also a part of Google's personalized desktop (my browser home page features Google's search engine, links to the 5 most recent messages in my GMail inbox, the quote of the day, the word of the day, and the 3-day weather forcast for my area).

Cons: The rather unique interface might confuse new users or people who don't have much experience with computers/internet.

Reliable: GMail is very rarely down, and when it does go down it is usually fixed quite quickly.

Ad Intrusive: GMail does have ads, but they aren't very intrusive at all. I've been using GMail for so long that I hardly even notice them anymore.

I gave up the Hotmail addie I'd had for 8 years and switched over to Gmail last year. It was still a little cranky, but after a couple of mild glitches where I couldn't sign in for a day or so, it's been fixed. I love it.

 

[dpmcalister]

I've been using Gmail since the first beta invites got sent out and I wouldn't do without it.

Pros? Threaded e-mail viewing
Cons? None yet
Reliable? I've only once not been able to access my e-mail (the downtime lasted a day).
Ads intrusive? Not a all... but then I cheat... I use Firefox combined with the CustomizeGoogle extension (which, amongst a great deal of other things, removes Google's ads).