Gmail if You Haven’t Already.
I wanted to take the time to do a post about email accounts because chances are if you’re anything like me you probably have a variety of accounts and can’t keep track of where you’re being sent what! Between Facebook, MySpace, college email accounts, etc… what you don’t need is another account for something, but what you DO need is a way to streamline some of those accounts into a single, free, and reliable application… am I right? We’ll if I am - then my answer to you is Gmail.I’m going just lay it all out there and say that I have tried my hand at a bunch of different free email accounts, and Gmail is by far the crème of the email crop. Since I signed up for my free Gmail account, I can really say my “cyber mail situation” has gotten a lot more streamlined, and my life has gotten a bit more organized. So why Gmail? Get GSchooled below.
Storage:
Gmail is practically unlimited in storage bytes per user, and your storage limits keep growing as you use it. This allows you to keep all your messages, organize them, and only have to delete them when you want to.
Streamline:
Gmail gives you a web interface option for all your email accounts (other than your Gmail – i.e. yourname@wisc.edu). Gmail users can have their Gmail account collect mail from up to five POP accounts automatically, this means only checking your one Gmail account to view emails from your college accounts and work accounts! You can also set a feature to have any email you reply to carry the default domain of a specific account in the “From:” line, so the person receiving the email only sees that particular email account name (i.e. From: yourname@wisc.edu).
Integration:
Gmail has a sleek and simple application design that is highly compatible with any browser (perfect for us who flip back and forth between a Mac and PC). It supports rich text formatting and I have yet to find an attachment type I needed, that it would or could not display. A big bonus for me as an iphone user is the mobile Gmail application. It’s highly bad-ass, and allows for easy viewing and quick attachment downloads.
Organization:
Gmail offers some pretty basic but highly functional organization tools such as starring and custom color labels which help you to organize your emails to your own specifications. Gmail's application also lets you forward and respond with a canned reply, as well as use templates for new messages – always a time saver. A big part of email organization to most is a “SPAM filter”, Gmail has one of these which is pretty decent at filtering our junk mail, and very good at scanning for worms and viruses.
Lastly, where would I be without my Google Calendar? This is a totally rad feature that lets you organize your day, send text message alerts to your phone, and best of all you can access this calendar from any computer with an internet connection.
