What's So Great About Gmail?

Features and Benefits of Gmail

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By Marziah Karch, About.com Guide

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Space, Space, and More Space.

Gmail gives each user more than 2 gigs of storage space. That's a lot of space and more than most other web based email services. In fact, some third party software developers have created ways to use Gmail's storage for more than storing email and chat messages. The average user will never have to delete old messages to make room for new.

Free POP and IMAP

POP is the Internet protocol that most desktop mail readers use to retrieve mail messages. That means you can use programs like Outlook or Apple Mail to check your Gmail account.Similar mail services from Google competitors either charge for POP access or do not offer it.

Google also provides free IMAP access. IMAP is the preferred protocol for people who use more than one computer or device to check their email.

Search

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You can search through saved email and Talk transcripts with Google as if you were searching for web pages. Google automatically skips searching through spam and trash folders, so you have results that are more likely to be relevant.

Gmail Labs and To-Do Lists

Gmail introduces experimental add-ons and features through Gmail Labs. This lets you decide which features you'd like to use while they're still being developed.
How to Turn on Gmail Labs Features

Part of those Gmail Labs features is a to-do list. This is a feature that was sorely needed for users who want to replace their traditional email account with Gmail.
How to Create a Gmail To-Do List

Offline Access

If you download Google Gears, a browser extension, you can access your Gmail account from your browser window even when your computer is not connected. New messages will be received and sent when your computer is connected again.
Lean More About Google Gears

Other Features

You can check your Gmail through your mobile phone, or you can get notifications of new messages on your desktop. You can set up filters and labels to organize your mail. You can archive your mail for easier searches. You can subscribe to RSS and Atom feeds and receive feed summaries as if they were mail messages, and you can flag special messages with a gold star.

What's Not to Love?

Gmail has exploded in popularity, which means that there are occasional server slow downs and down times. Although Gmail lets you keep your mail archived on their server, don't count on it being the only backup for important data, just as you wouldn't leave important data on only one hard drive.

The Bottom Line

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Gmail is one of the best, if not the best free email service out there. It is good enough that many users rely on their Gmail account as a primary email address. Gmail offers an amazing amount of options and features and the ads are barely noticeable compared to the intrusion of ads in some other free services. If you don't have a Gmail account, it is time to get one.

Gmail is available at mail.google.com.
Learn how to easily find directions from Gmail messages.

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User Reviews

4 out of 5

Gmail is great, but has some issues, Member azurecrimsonrose

I have used GMail since it first came out and while I am mostly impressed with the features and ease of use that this mail client has, there are still some issues that need to be worked on that made me decide to give GMail a four out of five star rating. I will start with the positives first. I like how Gmail's interface is simple and easy to use. It takes a very short amount of time to load my inbox and any messages that I have received. I like that Google has integrated Google Talk into their email client and how I have the ability to sign in and sign out of the chat at will and not automatically be signed in. I also like the fact that Gmail offers some services that no other free email provider currently offers, such as being able to recognize if a person chatting on Google Talk is using an android device and the ability to undo send on a message. Now for the cons of Gmail. Gmail currently has issues with security, something that I have experienced first hand with several of my Gmail accounts being hacked into. While Gmail has some things that need to be worked on, I really do like the service and will continue to use it. I do recommend them to a friend.

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