The Bottom Line
Gmail is the Google approach to email, chat and social networking. Practically unlimited free online storage allows you to collect all your messages, and Gmail's simple but very smart interface lets you find mail precisely and see it in context without effort. POP and powerful IMAP access bring Gmail to any email program or device.
Gmail puts contextual advertising next to the emails you read.
Gmail puts contextual advertising next to the emails you read.
Pros
- Gmail offers continuously growing storage, free IMAP or POP access and sending from any address
- Smart sorting, searching and starring let you find and organize emails and chat conversations
- Gmail's web interface is both fast and rich, Gears lets you read and write mail offline
Cons
- Gmail could help with organizing mail even more, e.g. with learning labels or reply suggestions
- Searching mail in Gmail is not nearly as smart and comfortable as searching the web with Google
- Gmail does not offer unlimited online space, and does not support secure, encrypted mail
Description
- Gmail offers free email with growing storage space. Additional storage can be purchased and shared among Google services.
- Next to mail, Gmail shows contextual ads machine-matched to keywords found in messages.
- Starring and custom color labels let you neatly organize threads (conversations) and precise search options find emails fast.
- Gmail's filters can organize, forward and respond with a canned reply. You can use templates for new messages as well.
- IMAP, POP, forwarding, ActiveSync and web apps bring Gmail to many a device and program. Gears offers offline browser access.
- Google Buzz integrates social networking and sharing with email; Buzz as well as Gmail are available in mobile versions.
- Gmail retrieves mail from up to 5 POP accounts and lets you use these email addresses (or others) in the From: line of mail.
- Connecting to Google Talk, you can IM and group chat. Integration with Google Calendar lets you create events and invite.
- Gmail supports rich text formatting and can display many attachment types (PDF, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc.).
- A spam filter tries to sort out the junk and fraud, and Gmail scans for viruses and worms, too.
Guide Review - Gmail Review - Free Email and Chat Service
What do you expect from Google? Search, simplicity and speed? That's what you can get from Gmail, Google's approach to email, instant messaging, social networking and group video chat. Gmail's interface is simple and elegant, but also remarkably clever with useful keyboard shortcuts and speedy operation.
Of course, Gmail boasts a search box, which usually returns useful results; Gmail's search is still a far cry from the smarts of common web searches with their word stemming, spell checking, suggestions and understanding of synonyms, for example. In any event, finding single emails precisely is not the best thing about Gmail: smarter still is its keeping everything in context.
With nary a miss, Gmail identifies the relationships between emails to construct "conversations". You can quickly see what has happened previously, or whether somebody has already replied. Gmail also offers "stars" for quick flagging and free-form color labels that can work wonders to organize an inbox.
If a contact is currently online in either Gmail or Google Talk, you can chat right from Gmail, with the conversation archived and indexed. Turning emails into Google Calendar events is just as easy.
In addition to instant messaging and a calendar, Gmail integrates milliblogging with social network underpinnings. In Gmail's Google Buzz, it's easy to share thoughts, links, photos and videos with both select friends and the world. Of course, Buzz lets readers comment and discuss. Personal messages and replies, by default, show up in the Gmail inbox like email conversations.
All this makes no sense if you can't keep all relevant data, of course. So Gmail grows as you use it, and you can purchase additional storage. To avoid the truly unneeded mail, Gmail sports efficient and effortless spam and virus filters.
If you do not like the idea of Google displaying ads next to emails based on keywords found in the messages (the emails themselves remain private), you can use encryption or access your Gmail using POP and IMAP. (You can also put Gmail's web interface in offline mode with Gears and read as well as compose mail while disconnected.)
If, conversely, you want to use the Gmail web interface for all your email, you can have it collect mail from up to five POP accounts automatically and put these accounts' email addresses (and all your others) in the From: line of messages you send.
Of course, Gmail boasts a search box, which usually returns useful results; Gmail's search is still a far cry from the smarts of common web searches with their word stemming, spell checking, suggestions and understanding of synonyms, for example. In any event, finding single emails precisely is not the best thing about Gmail: smarter still is its keeping everything in context.
With nary a miss, Gmail identifies the relationships between emails to construct "conversations". You can quickly see what has happened previously, or whether somebody has already replied. Gmail also offers "stars" for quick flagging and free-form color labels that can work wonders to organize an inbox.
If a contact is currently online in either Gmail or Google Talk, you can chat right from Gmail, with the conversation archived and indexed. Turning emails into Google Calendar events is just as easy.
In addition to instant messaging and a calendar, Gmail integrates milliblogging with social network underpinnings. In Gmail's Google Buzz, it's easy to share thoughts, links, photos and videos with both select friends and the world. Of course, Buzz lets readers comment and discuss. Personal messages and replies, by default, show up in the Gmail inbox like email conversations.
All this makes no sense if you can't keep all relevant data, of course. So Gmail grows as you use it, and you can purchase additional storage. To avoid the truly unneeded mail, Gmail sports efficient and effortless spam and virus filters.
If you do not like the idea of Google displaying ads next to emails based on keywords found in the messages (the emails themselves remain private), you can use encryption or access your Gmail using POP and IMAP. (You can also put Gmail's web interface in offline mode with Gears and read as well as compose mail while disconnected.)
If, conversely, you want to use the Gmail web interface for all your email, you can have it collect mail from up to five POP accounts automatically and put these accounts' email addresses (and all your others) in the From: line of messages you send.
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