Geir Arne Brevik, January 21 2006:
Why I moved all my email to Gmail
A couple of months ago, I told you about my experiences when I tried to switch from Safari to Firefox 1.5, which ended in switching back. But email is another story. It’s almost half a year since I left Apple Mail as my email client, and went Gmail fulltime. I won’t go back, and I’d like to tell you why.
- Peace of mind – I had to get this explained to me, but the Archive mail-function is probably the best thing about Gmail. It keeps my inbox empty, as I can move things away with one click as soon as I have dealt with it. You can set up any mail client to suit a GTD-like workflow, but in Gmail this is default. That means, you actually get things done.
- Better search – When Apple launched Tiger last year, Spotlight was supposed to change everybody’s life, also when it comes to Mail. But I find it more efficient to use Gmail’s search, like this:
label:work from:Boss "monday morning"You just can’t do that in Spotlight. And any search in Gmail is faster than in Spotlight (at least on my computer). - Truly universal access – With the mobile edition of Gmail I can read and answer my email anywhere. I don’t have to bring my laptop anymore. I can just bring my PSP, if I want to (although they should get that PSP keyboard coming soon).
- Good (enough) desktop integration – OK, I can’t click a button in Gmail to add a picture to my picture library, but with a little piece of software called
Gmail Notifier, Gmail will integrate in your OS, just any other email client. With add-ons like Gmail+Growl you can make it better. - Google is better at backup than me – If you’re concerned about Google analyzing all your private conversations, and maybe giving them out to the Feds, you probably should not switch to Gmail. After all, you’re trusting them all your mail. On the other hand, if my experience has told me one thing, it’s that I should not trust myself with my e-mail, as I have backup routines like something with a really crappy backup routine. That argument won me over.
- Superior user interface – Things like universal access and backup routines is true for many webmail services, but what really sets Gmail apart is it’s AJAX-driven interface. It auto-saves when I write, it auto-uploads when I attach, it auto-checks for new email. Without any distraction. It’s not perfect, and the new Yahoo! Mail looks promising, but it’s feels good enough.
- Enough space – At the time of writing, I have 2686 MB at my disposal on my Gmail account. That is enough for extensive daily use, and I can fill my hard drive with other things instead.
- I can keep my old addresses – This made me do the definite switch, when Google allowed me to send mail from Gmail while keeping my old accounts as the
from:-address. Then I just had to turn on forwarding on those addresses, and voila, Gmail is just another mail client. Genius. With Gmail Loader I can move my old mail into gmail, and with vcfconvert, I can take my contacts with me.
Gmail is not perfect, and if Google really turns out as the next decade’s Microsoft , I might regret this. But for now, Google’s web approach is the best way for me to handle my digital conversations.
