Questions about GMail (was Re: [Hidden-tech] An Idea about Email)

[Joseph Steig]

Shel,

I'll answer as best I can. Not an expert. Answers to your questions below.

* I archive tons of mail and often go through it for stuff from years ago.
How does one bring gmail's archives onto one's own computer--including sent
mail?

You should experiment with this but I'm fairly sure that an e-mail program
like Entourage or Eudora can pull down any GMail mail by POP or IMAP
protocol. GMail has so much capacity and flexibility that you'll never have
to throw anything out--or that's the claim.

* How good is support for filtering, folders, etc.? I take it does pretty
well managing multiple addresses.

It handles multiple addresses infinitely and perfectly, as far as I can
tell, always giving you the option to change the "from" of an outgoing
message, whether a new message or a reply.

GMail does not use folders. Folders are really an artifact of an old form of
database architecture where an "object" like an e-mail can only be in one
place, that is one folder. GMail uses tagging, which means that any e-mail
can be in an almost infinite number of places at the same time (I don't know
if there's any limit to the number of tags). GMail "folders" sort of look
like tags but really what they are is search quereries against the database
of e-mails that are then displayed according to how you've tagged them. For
me, tremendously better and more flexible. I could never go back to the old
architecture. And searching for any text is almost instant.

Filtering seems very good.

* How serious are the privacy issues?

If a court wants to subpoena your e-mail, I suppose it's easier if it's
sitting on someone else's server. And I think Google stores even deleted
e-mail, so you're out of luck if you're trying to hide something. And, if
someone gets your password, they can access your e-mail from anywhere. On
the other hand, if your computer is lost or stolen, your e-mail is always
backed up if you're on GMail (or any other online service). Just don't save
your passwords on your computer and they won't be able to get to your mail.
And I think Sergey and Larry have better things to do than reading our
e-mail. But who knows . . . they do datamine it and then feed back to you
contextually appropriate advertising on the sidebar to the right of your
mail (unless you're using the $50 per year version, as I do). And if that
makes you uncomfortable, don't use the product or at least not the free
version.

* Are there other solutions that run on a Mac, filter well, support
different sigs and addresses, and are still supported?

GMail is browswer based, so entirely cross-platform. Other solutions?
Nothing is quite like GMail. It's really a very different way of using
e-mail and is based on a different database design than any other mail
program that I've used (Entourage, Apple Mail, Outlook etc.).

* Although I have broadband, I find the Web can be quite pokey. I find
Mail2Web very frustrating because it takes so long for a window to open when
I preview a message. Is this a problem on GMail?

I find GMail on broadband generally snappier than a normal e-mail program.
Never had any speed complaints at all.

* How does Gmail stack up on false-positive spam, which has been a major
problem with every spam solution I've tried? Particularly want to hear on
that last one from people in marketing/sa les.

As noted, I've had almost entirely good luck with GMail. Their Spam fighters
have almost never flagged something that wasn't Spam. Other users may have
had different experiences.

On the marketing/sales front, there is a pretty decent integration between
Salesforce and GMail (only the "for domains" version I believe, not the
standard consumer version). Far from perfect, and with some major gaps but
it's useful.

(I have a few more notes on this on my blog,
http://www.2muchtech.blogspot.com.)

One fundamental difference with GMail is that ALL e-mail conversations are
threaded. I find this a dream but you may not like it. You will always see a
thread of e-mails, BOTH the incoming mail and your outgoing replies, all
nested together. I couldn't go back to any other method but a lot of people
don't like it. And unless you're careful, you'll delete the entire e-mail
thread--this is the default--rather than the specific e-mail message.

---------
joseph at steig.com | 617-500-7376 EST


On Tue, Aug 26, 2008 at 5:45 PM, Shel Horowitz <shel at frugalfun.com> wrote:

>      I received over 88,000 Spam messages in the last 30 days! Just
> checked my Spam "folder" which I never normally do.
>
>     And almost NONE of them came into my inbox--perhaps a dozen a day at
> most on a bad day.
>
>     I use Google's GMail. I have seven e-mail addresses that neatly flow
> into one inbox. I have only ONCE in the last year had Google incorrectly
> identify something as SPAM--I never normally check my Spam "folder".
> ("Folder" is in quotes because GMail doesn't actually use folders but rather
> uses tags.)
>
>     I sound like an advertisement for Google, but with Google in my life,
> Spam no longer exists as a concern for me--it's Google's worry and they
> handle it beautifully.
>
>     And yes I know, Sergey and Larry and the CIA are reading my e-mail. But
> small price to pay . . .
>
>
> I have been thinking about Gmail for months, as it becomes painfully
> obvious that the thousands and thousands of messages in my mail folder (300
> new ones per day) are overwhelming Eudora, and the company is no longer
> supporting it. My questions:
>
> * I archive tons of mail and often go through it for stuff from years ago.
> How does one bring gmail's archives onto one's own computer--including sent
> mail?
> * How good is support for filtering, folders, etc.? I take it does pretty
> well managing multiple addresses.
> * How serious are the privacy issues?
> * Are there other solutions that run on a Mac, filter well, support
> different sigs and addresses, and are still supported?
> * Although I have broadband, I find the Web can be quite pokey. I find
> Mail2Web very frustrating because it takes so long for a window to open when
> I preview a message. Is this a problem on GMail?
> * How does Gmail stack up on false-positive spam, which has been a major
> problem with every spam solution I've tried? Particularly want to hear on
> that last one from people in marketing/sa les.
>
> Thanks so much!
>
> --
>
>
> _________________________________________________
> Shel Horowitz - 413-586-2388/800-683-WORD shel at frugalfun.com
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