GMail - first impressions
I maintain another blog on the Blogger.com host related to information security and protecting your PC from virus, Trojan, and spyware attacks called The Invisible PC . It's part of a project I'm developing to support an e-book that will help PC owners, especially non-technical users, build a strong, layered defense against this malware. As a Blogger.com user, I received an early invitation to try out Google's new GMail service.
GMail is not generally available yet but you can read their FAQ.
Here are some immediate impressions.
The invitation:
Of course, one of the things everyone has probably heard about GMail is the one gigabyte of storage that comes with each account:
After years of free e-mail accounts with six megabytes of storage, I must admit this makes me smile every time I see it ;^)
From a usability perspective, GMail is a bit different than the Yahoo! or HotMail web-based mail you may be familiar with. GMail automatically threads messages into conversations in much the same way a news server threads posts. As a result, GMail's Help file makes some unusual recommendations:
- Use labels to "tag" messages and conversation threads to filter your Inbox and to make searches more productive.
- Folders don't exist in GMail. You basically have an Inbox and and "All Mail" box where archived mail (moved from the Inbox) can be viewed and searched. Here's a snip from the Help file:
Since you'll have 1,000 megabytes of storage, we recommend that you archive rather than delete. Once you delete a message, it's gone for good. By archiving messages and conversations, you can take advantage of Gmail's powerful search functionality to retrieve any message you've sent or received.
Archived conversations will appear in 'All Mail.' 'All Mail' is the holding place for all of the messages you've sent or received, but not deleted. When you delete a message, it's gone forever. With Gmail, you have enough storage space to last for years without deleting a single message. Just archive everything and all your messages will be searchable and easily accessible.
- GMail provides a wizard-style tool for building filters (Boolean searches) that can be saved and reused.
- Reporting spam is a one-click affair.
- You can alter the display quite a bit. Controls are provided to show or hide keyboard shortcuts, display "snippets" or the first few lines from a selected message, and more.
Here's what a threaded conversation looks like:
And of course, everyone is interested in the ads GMail displays. These contextual ads have some privacy activists very concerned. Senator Liz Figueroa of California has way too much time on her hands (note to Gov. Arnold - find something for this woman to do) and wants to shut down GMail because of the ads.
Whoa Liz! No one is forcing me to use GMail. Why is this different from any other ad-supported service? Oh right... my e-mail is being "read". By a computer program looking for keywords. Hmmm... sounds a lot like the web. Like TV advertising driven by Neilsen families, cable company set top boxes, and TiVo statistics. Like my credit card company stuffing my bill with ads for things I don't really need but that they want me to buy based on what I've bought before. Like a business model. Sheesh!
My radio show co-host Paul and I exchanged a few "keyword rich" e-mails and sure enough, my GMail displayed a series of ads related to digital photography (the subject of our messages). Like the AdWords we all have come to take for granted (or use as part of our search methodology) in Google, the GMail ads are text only, discreetly lodged on the right edge of the screen, and utterly relevant to the message I'm reading.
Do I feel "invaded". Heck no! I'm trying to figure out what I'm going to do with a gigabyte of mail storage.
Here's a test: send me e-mail at "mochant [at] gmail.com". Try to include some typical keywords like you would if you were searching Google. I'll send you back a small JPG image of the ads your message prompted GMail to display.
UPDATE: A great post by another Blogger.com user with some excellent suggestions on how Google can improve GMail.
UPDATE #2: Michael Gartenberg of Jupiter Research agrees with my take on California Senator Liz Figueroa's ill-advised attempt to legislate GMail.