Why I became a Gmail convert

Here's why I'm a Gmail convert: for the first time since I started using e-mail nearly 20 years ago, I can keep my in-box tidy.

A month ago, I switched my personal e-mail from Yahoo Mail, with which I've been generally happy. What attracted me to Gmail was a number of specific Gmail features, but what I've come to appreciate is the big picture: a new way to look at the task of e-mail.

The old paradigm follows the metaphor of a paper-pushing office job with an in-box, trash can, and filing cabinet.

Gmail brings that paper pushing into the computer age. Most messages I care about are already organized with labels automatically as they arrive. I still must read and reply if necessary, but after that I just plop messages into a giant archive with no pesky manual filing. They can be retrieved easily via search or labels.

The result: my Gmail in-box has 14 messages in it, and I've had no trouble thus far keeping it in that neighborhood. I wouldn't say it's life-changing, but it's an improvement.

Here's one measure of its user interface success: several times a day, I miss Gmail features absent from my work e-mail, which uses Microsoft Outlook connected to an Exchange server. That Gmail accomplishment is notable given that its interface uses a relatively primitive Web-based foundation, while Outlook gets all the computing horsepower and interface richness of a Windows PC.

Google's filters automate the drudgery of organizing many e-mails, for example by applying specific labels to incoming e-mail. (Click to enlarge.)

(Credit: Google)

Google's philosophy with Gmail is to aim for the needs of power users. That might sound like foolishly overlooking the much larger mainstream market. But I think it's smart, because given the increasing importance of Internet communications, an ordinary user tomorrow will face the same challenges as a power user today.

Despite my overall satisfaction, though, the advantages I found in Gmail made its deficiencies all the more glaring. And the transition from Yahoo was extremely unpleasant. Here are some details for those of you thinking of taking the plunge.

The three Gmail features that wooed me
Three Gmail features got me to make the move, and all three proved just as desirable as I anticipated.

The first feature is labels. Yahoo Mail, like Outlook, Thunderbird, Eudora, and every other e-mail client I've used, requires me to sort keeper e-mail into folders. Many times, though, I've been bothered by folders' fundamental organizational limit: you can put a message in only one folder. So with a message from my old roommate about his new camera, do I put that into the folder for him or the one for photography? And a year later, when I want to retrieve it, where should I look?

With Gmail, you can have multiple labels on a particular e-mail--one for both "family" and "wife," for example, not to mention "money," "travel," "tech support," and various other categories I use often. By color-coding labels, various categories are easily found in my in-box, and clicking a label shows all mails that use it.

Yahoo Mail made major progress around this problem by finally fixing its previously ineffectual search ability, but I still like labels a lot better.

The second feature is filters, the automated tasks Gmail performs before I even touch my e-mail. Instead of having to manually move mail from my wife to a particular folder, I set Gmail to attach the appropriate label to any message from her. Any message I get that includes the words "itinerary" or "SFO" automatically gets a "travel" label, for example. Organizational drudgery is down and findability is up.

Filters can also forward, delete, and archive mail automatically. And when I set up my filters, it applies them to the existing archive, which helps ensure e-mail stays organized even years after I received it.

Third is IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol). I've spent years using the earlier but decidedly inferior POP (Post Office Protocol), but IMAP handles remote access to e-mail much more gracefully. What surprised me was that I ended up liking Gmail's Web interface better than the e-mail client software running on my computer, so IMAP isn't as important as I initially envisioned.

Yahoo charges $25 a year just for POP access and at present doesn't grant IMAP access except to business partners.

The advantages I found later
I use search a lot. Gmail's search is fast and thorough. I particularly like how it can be controlled, for example by searching e-mail from a particular date range or searching for all messages labeled both "family" and "things to do."

I also expected to use Gmail keyboard controls extensively--I find it much faster than a mouse for the most part. Yahoo Mail has keyboard shortcuts, but they work erratically for me and don't cover as much ground as Gmail's. Less time pawing my mouse, combined with Gmail's generally snappy interface, means handling e-mail feels much breezier.

If you have Gmail keyboard shortcuts enabled, typing ? will pop up this summary of keyboard commands. (Click to enlarge.)

(Credit: Google)

The archive feature is nice. I worry that my e-mail usage will encroach on Gmail's storage limits, but so far it looks like my needs won't outpace the gradually rising limit. Mostly I like it because I'm a pack rat; though I certainly delete dozens a day, too, I've often found it handy to refer later to seemingly nonhistoric messages such as flight confirmations. Gmail's archive-and-search philosophy is a refreshing change from the keep-your-in-box-small-or-we'll-revoke-your-privileges attitude that still prevails in many parts of the world (not at Yahoo Mail, though, which offers me unlimited storage.)

Gmail also seems to be under more active development. I've seen essentially one change in Yahoo Mail since 1998, the arrival of the "all-new" interface. Though Yahoo is working on more changes now, some of them potentially dramatic, I like Gmail's lab projects, a few of which I use.

The final pleasant surprise was conversation view, which assembles the back and forth of e-mail exchanges into a compact thread. Once I got used to typing P and N to navigate to a list's previous and next messages and O to expand a message from a title to its full content, I was sold. I also like the fact that an archived conversation pops back into my in-box when a new reply in the thread emerges.

What I don't like
My biggest complaint about Gmail is its contacts system, though I say this advisedly because I have yet to run into an address book I like and it's still a step ahead of the primitivist Yahoo Mail address book. Google made Gmail contact list improvements last week that help distinguish people I care about from anyone I've ever e-mailed, but managing contacts still involves a lot of tedious pointing and clicking and scrolling, especially when it comes to dealing with hundreds of contacts.

It took me some time to master the selection of messages I wanted to do something with. Both a small pointer and a check box to the left of each message can be used to select them; the pointer is used to open messages or add stars, but the check boxes are used to delete, archive, or label them. This particular complication isn't a big deal if you're a point-and-click mouse user.

The 'labs' tab in Gmail settings has experimental options for users.

(Credit: Google)

It falls short for people with multiple e-mail addresses; I couldn't find any way except deleting and re-adding e-mail addresses to make sure a contact's particular e-mail address is the top and therefore primary one that will be used in a mailing list, for example, unless you want multiple entries for a single individual.

Another gripe is with conversations. It's fine for one-on-one chats, but group mailings can blossom into a confusing, hard-to-navigate morass.

I'd love to see offline access for Gmail, which is in the works. So far I don't care much if I'm only able to check personal e-mail while online, and I could always use client software if I really wanted to work offline, but for companies thinking of Gmail, some of the cost advantages of cloud computing are eroded if the IT department still must set up Outlook on every employee's computer.

I initially missed the Yahoo Mail feature that let me write multiple e-mails simultaneously. It's possible with Gmail--typing Shift+C will pop up an empty message in a new browser window--but Yahoo Mail's tabbed interface made me feel like the mail operation is in one place.

Transition woes
Some of my biggest troubles with Gmail were related to my transition from Yahoo Mail.

First off, when I set Gmail to slurp in my Yahoo Mail archive, I neglected to check the button that would have left the originals alone and Gmail gutted my archive. Be careful if you're making the move. Google sets the default to delete the remote messages because people often have capacity limits on the other accounts, but for me, it effectively meant no going back to Yahoo Mail.

Keystrokes are often a matter of programming one's muscle memory, and shifting to a new set of motions made me clumsy. Gmail takes its cue from vi, the venerable Unix text editor that, for example, uses the forward slash key to initiate a search and J and K to scroll up and down. Yahoo Mail uses Outlook-like conventions, though, with the up and down arrow for moving through the in-box and the delete button for deleting messages. I'm most of the way there with the new shortcuts, but I still mess up and type A rather than E to archive.

The biggest single pain of moving was getting my address book out of Yahoo and into Gmail, and frankly, I'm still only partway there. Some of the blame here goes to Yahoo, whose interface on more than one occasion deterred me from trying to clean up my contacts.

I ended up exporting my contacts and manually scrubbing them in Excel before importing them into Gmail. Even then, a large amount of structured data, while preserved, lost its meaning. Many instant messenger nicknames, birthdays, and mailing lists were converted into boring text, so it's up to me to go through my list to fix it. Yahoo had labeled this data, so I put the blame here on Google's inadequate parsing tools. Perhaps with Yahoo's newly open address book interface this pain will become a thing of the past.

But now that I'm up and running, Gmail works well for me. And until Google dramatically departs from its don't-be-evil philosophy or something even better comes along, I'm willing to entrust the company with an important part of my electronic life.

[JimmyCrackhead]

GMail totally ROCKS. I have used them since they first came out and love them. Much better than Yahoo mail I think.
http://www.FIreMe.To/udi

[magicmaster]

Perdon me, but at the initial sight of your title led me to mistake it for "Why I became a Gmail pervert."

I got a perverted mind ( ^_^b)

[ThreeMilesNorth]

I did the opposite--I got fed up with GMail and Hotmail months ago, and closed most of my accounts. The spam filter is terrible. Yahoo! has much better spam filters than GMail and Hotmail. Since GMail is in Beta, one cannot take a crack at it yet, but for me it is not fully ready yet. This disappointment with GMail and Hotmail comes with my experience from years of traveling--Yahoo! does a better job when the internet connection is slow.

[belal12]

Same here. I switched from gmail to ymail the other week. I doubt i'll get rid of gmail altogether because gmail has become such a standard for me, like when thinking of "searching" my fingers will automatically type "google.com" when I open firefox, so when I think of e-mail, i goto gmail.com. Also, I've used the same gmail address for so many things, its difficult to move to yahoo so suddenly. I'm sure it'll take some time to switch (and hopefully by then, ymail will offer imap but i wont hold my breath).

[Shankland]

I think Google needs to dump the "beta" tag now. They say they put it there because they consider Gmail a work in progress, which is fine, but to me it looks a little like they're trying to evade responsibility for their product's maturity and reliability.

[skillingssucks]

You're about the only person on Earth that thinks Yahoo! Mail has better spam filters than does Gmail. Absolutely no way.

[The_Decider]

If you need a spam filter you aren't educated enough to be using email.

[bj00rn]

Funny to discover this article when I've just gone through the process of moving my years worth of mail from my Mac to my Gmail account (With an IMAP transition) - With labels and everything... Never felt so good in this context before. The label system is so useful, the agony of sorting mails has vanished.

[pjk0]

I hope all you free webmail users have figured out a nice way to backup all those web-based email archives and contacts. Because in the final analysis, a free webmail provider's committment to you, ie when it comes to data security and backups in case either you or they make an error and lose something (or everything) - is worth exactly what you pay them: Zero.

[blubdog]

I've switched all my email to google/gmail, using the free google-apps service.
As far as backing up your email, that is a very good point. I periodically back up my archived email on gmail to my local PC (and then to backup disks) using POP3. Any POP3 client will do the job (I personally use 'getmail' on Linux), and it only downloads the new messages since the last time I backed up.

[Shankland]

I use Thunderbird to back up my e-mail on my local machine; with IMAP, it synchronizes well. As for contacts, Google has an open API, but I haven't looked into a good way to use it in a particularly sophisticated way. I export the contacts into a comma-separated values text file so I at least have the raw data, though:

http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=24911

[GeneP1]

You can also have gmail mail download to local Outlook Express that can then be backed up offline locally.

[tpullano]

Sure have....easy. I backup through Thunderbird using IMAP to Gmail. Now I have my online email and a backup...which I can even port to a thumb drive for further protection.

Once you log into TB, it automatically syncs with online gmail.

[skillingssucks]

I've used just about every web based email service at one time or another, over the course of a decade...and not one email...on any service...has ever been lost.

[Harry D]

I agree - Gmail is better than Yahoo. and when used with Opera's mail, IMAP is a thing to behold.

The one bad thing for me, though, is that IMAP access can be slow. otherwise, I switched to gmail from both hotmail and yahoo and like it a lot.

[cidman2001]

I switched to Gmail from Hotmail as my primary account. I ditched Yahoo years before that, as the spam was simply out of control. I hardly ever see spam in my inbox with Gmail. I use Windows Live Mail to back up my Hotmail as well as my Gmail...just in case.

[mzupan]

I just recently consolidated my Yahoo and Hotmail emails to my Gmail account. To do this, I paid for the Yahoo POP service (which you can then cancel and get a prorated refund) and let Gmail POP the email from Yahoo and I had a filter to automatically assign a 'Yahoo' tag so I know it is from my Yahoo email. For Hotmail, I opened up Hotmail and Gmail in Outlook and just dragged all of the emails over to Gmail and applied a 'Hotmail' filter to these emails. I agree that the Contacts in Gmail is lacking. I'd like to see Google Calendar integration for birthday/anniversary dates, and also a better way to promote email addresses to be the primary address. But overall, Gmail has some outstanding features that the other two don't have (or charge for). The relatively small effort it takes to migrate everything is time well spent.

[cuwickliffe]

Stephen, just a quick note that if you're used to certain keyboard shortcuts you can remap them. Go to Settings > Keyboard Shortcuts. It's pretty easy if you're used to a certain set.

[Shankland]

Yes, actually, it's one of the Labs projects I'm in favor of. I just often feel like I should get used to the "stock" service--I figure maybe there's a reason for Google's choices, and perhaps I should learn them before I remap my keyboard. One nice thing about Web-based services, though, as opposed to my various customizations of PC-based apps, is that I change it once and it's changed on all the computers I use. Right now I have a different set of keyboard shortcuts at home with Office 2003 and at work with Office 2007. Blech. I might try adding "delete" into the mix though...

[srhoda]

"Yahoo! has much better spam filters than GMail and Hotmail. "

Yahoo's spam filter is pretty much non-existent and FAR WORSE than gmail.

[thedreaming]

I agree, Yahoo's spam filters are non existant and I've been convincing people to leave yahoo left and right. Google's spam filters are almost 100% effective. I might get 1 or 2 pieces of spam in my inbox a week and everything else is caught and placed in the spam folder.

[Shankland]

I label the messages that are sent to my older Yahoo e-mail, and I see about one to three a week that weren't caught by Yahoo's filters that end up in Gmail's spam box. So Gmail's doing something right. But I'm unwilling to pass judgment because my Yahoo account, which has been around a lot longer, probably gets a lot more spam in absolute terms.

When I switched and slurped my Yahoo e-mail into Gmail, about three dozen (of several thousand) legitimate e-mails were labeled as spam. I found them and un-labeled them. Since then, I've noticed three other non-spam messages labeled as spam. So perhaps Gmail is a smidgen too hair-trigger.

Since I moved to Gmail, exactly one spam message has shown up in my inbox, which is nice. Overall, though I'm reserving judgment on this particular point until I've used it for more than a few weeks.

[fafafooey]

One thing I don't like is how Gmail automatically whitelists everyone in your contacts list. I have a situation (my children's school, where I volunteer as a system admin and use Google Apps for Education) where they get lots of spam with spoofed From addresses, and those addresses are valid addresses and in everyone's contact list. So that spam gets through unfiltered. I'd prefer an option to spam filter everything.

[skillingssucks]

They just changed automatic adding of addresses to the "Contacts List". Try it now.

[jamalystic]

I recetly do the same changing from yahoomail to gmail and i must confess the benefits have been huge and now i donm't regret doing that. I agreed with all that you have written because within these two months , i have experience the difference between yahoo and gmail. Here is an interesting testimony of a gmail devotee: Gmail: How Do I Love Thee?(http://www.internetevolution.com/author.asp?section_id=466&doc_id=141218&F_src=flftwo)

[Niniri]

Given that I have both a paid/premium Yahoo email and a free Gmail account (that's only used for coupon mailings, product registrations and software updates) I have to say that I prefer Yahoo mail over all. I can set up my own mail filters in Yahoo, and the spamtrap works pretty darn well for me, while the reverse is true for my experiences with important software updates geting stuck in its spamtrap. I back up my Yahoo mail, since I pay for the premuim service that permists POP3 accesss, to my Thunderbird, and download my Gmail w/an IMAP connection.

It took me a few days to get used to Yahoo's 'new' interface, but now that I've got a grip on it, I rather like it--and I definately like the option to chat with my Yahoo buddies through the built-in chat interface. The address book works and given that both have "unlimited storage" space, I don't have a reason to switch services for my email.

Google's web interface drives me nuts, plain and simple...if I wanted 'threading' messages, I'd set up a forum...it's a fair secondary, but it's not made that much of an impression on me that I'd give up Yahoo--which I've been using for over 10 years now.

[TV James]

I'd also like the ability to mark an email address invalid.

If I'm going to keep emails forever in my archive, after awhile, people will abandon old email addresses. I need to keep them on their contact so that all their old mail will show up together, but I don't need them popping up in the auto-suggest.

[Mister C]

"Why I became a Gmail convert"

Cause your not too bright?

If you are using a web based email for important stuff then
you are just begging for a disaster.

Get Eudora, I have been using it since Win3.1 and it works
great. You can easily save and move mail from one machine
to another and it is the best mail interface there is. The best
part is it's now free. Then write about how you dumped web
based email.

[Shankland]

I'm often checking e-mail from multiple computers and like Web-based e-mail.

I used Eudora for many years (and it's always been free, at least in one incarnation or another) and found its interface great in the early 1990s. Now it just looks same-old-same-old, and as I mentioned, I vastly prefer labels to folders. (I haven't checked out the Penelope version--it's still very much in beta: http://wiki.mozilla.org/Penelope#Current_Status)

Also, my Web browser runs on Linux (which I use though not as my primary OS), and Eudora doesn't. Last, I hate installing any extra applications.

[darreld]

You really must be joking. Eudora would be the single worst client you could recommend. Old hat. I'm getting ready to switch my domain email to gmail. I've been paying for hosted service for years and there's nothing inherently riskier that web-based email if it's a premium account. With a free you get what you pay for.

Time to move on. No reason to horde your mail on your Windows 95 machine.

[johnpent]

Eudora?

I trust gmail over some server. How many of use that have multiple servers in use have "lost a server" when it crashes. GMAIL I trust far beyond any Eudora instalation. That is so 1996.

[angrykeyboarder]

Eudora is soooo 1995.

[i_made_this]

The essential reason why the world has switched from Hotmail and YahooMail to GMail is that, of the three, GMail works. All the time, every time. Its Spam Filter is ruthless and follows user-cue'd rules in addition to the traditional Spam Filtering Techniques - this is an additional benefit over and above its two competitors.

[rapier1]

What I like the most about GMail is how it scans your incoming messages for hooks it can hang advertising on! Wow! I mean, how cool is that? Taking my personal information and building targeted advertising profiles because I'm too damn cheap to pay for software? Its a brave new world baby! I can't wait to start moving confidential business mail over to GMail. I don't consider anything in my personal life confidential anymore so why should my business?

[Shankland]

This privacy issue is certainly an issue for Gmail. And for Hotmail, and Yahoo Mail, and using online search, and using Facebook, and using Twitter, and surfing the Internet. I don't see any easy answers here.

[rapier1]

The easy answer is to not reward companies that ask for more of our confidential data. The easy answer is to *ask* for companies to preserve privacy by using opaque (as possible) data handling. What makes the easy answer difficult is that we are a nation of cheapskates who demand critical services for free. I'm not saying that we should become cryptofreaks hiding in faraday cages but damnit, do we have to hand *all* of our lives over to advertising companies? Remember, Google isn't a tech company that sells ads. Its an advertising company that uses technology to sell *more* ads.

[skillingssucks]

You obviously have no idea how it works. Scanning for key words is not "building a targeted advertising profile". I suggest you get a clue.

[rapier1]

You are right, scanning for key words in and of itself, does not built an advertising profile. Keeping a per user record of the scanned keywords and the click through rates on the ads *do* though. When this is combined with search behaviour and other records that are being kept by Google the end result is a very detailed portrait of a person's consumer behaviour.

[RompStar_420]

The Best thing to do if one has the time and inspiration is to do it yourself. Learn how to setup an MTA, learn how the Filter works, learn how blacklists work. Learn to analyze your network with tools like snort or whatever you like. The only downfall is that this takes time, equipment and some expense of equipment, energy.

Otherwise I think I like Google the best. As far as their Spam filter goes, it does let through a lot of Spam, but it does identify it correctly, because it puts most of it into the Spam folder.

If it didn't, it would have placed most of it into your In Box.

[supoman]

I switched 3 years ago. My wife who still uses yahoo has to deal with the occasional good mail marked as spam as well as loosing messages all together. I archive everything and my email experience in gmail still feels like I have a small mailbox. That's the way it should be.

[supoman]

BTW, I still use my yahoo address when I sign up for something on the web that I feel might spam me in the future. That way I keep my gmail inbox clean and free of garbarge.

[Shankland]

One thing you can do with Gmail is add some extra characters to create a variation of your e-mail address, then filter on that particular combination. Here's one example: http://www.seandeasy.com/multiple-email-addresses-for-one-gmail-account/