Gmail: more space, less hassle

E-mail can be so restrictive. Take Fresno State’s student e-mail accounts for example. With a limit of 10 megabytes (MB) of storage space, it is hard to keep a lot of files or attachments.

That’s why I decided to join the wonderful world of Gmail.

Gmail is a new kind of Web-based e-mail by Google, built on the idea you should never have to delete mail and you should always be able to search and find any message you want.

The key features according to Gmail’s Web site are:

•Search, don’t sort. You use a Google style search to find the exact message you want, no matter when it was sent or received. If you need to find an old message, you can find it fast.

• Don’t throw anything away. With over 2,650 MB (and counting) of free storage, you will never have to delete another message.

Currently, I am only taking up 39MB of storage on my Gmail account. I wouldn’t be able to keep all those messages with my Fresno State account.

• Keeping it all in context. Each message is grouped with all its replies and displayed as a conversation.

Multiple messages about the same topic are lumped together in your inbox.

• No pop-ups and untargeted banners. Next to your message you see only relevant text ads and links to related Web pages of interest.

For example, an e-mail my friend sent me with her resume attached resulted in ads for free resumes and resume writing.

• Gmail also has good spam filtering and is good with organizing contacts.

• Gmail used to be available by invitation only, but now potential users can to go to www.google.com/accounts /SmsMailSignup1 and register there for a code that will be sent to a cell phone of their choice.

According to Poynter Online, it doesn’t have to be your own phone, just one you have access to (say, a friend’s or a co-worker’s).

At one time, a short string of numbers will be sent via text message to that phone, which then has to be copied and typed onto the Gmail sign-up page. Once that’s done, you get a new Gmail account.

Right now, this works only with cell phones in the United States.

Gmail isn’t perfect of course. A few of the issues you might come across include:

• It’s not a traditional folder system. You have to use “labels” that just put a tag next to your message, so it isn’t easy to sort messages by subject or sender.

• Deleting messages takes time. You have to go through two steps (this is based on Gmail’s idea that because you have so much storage, you don’t need to delete any messages).

Despite of a few flaws, Gmail is very easy to use and is great with organizing your messages. I love that I don’t have to delete anything and can search for a message using a word from anywhere in the message.

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