I became aware of Gmail approximately five or six years ago. The IT guy where I worked shared it with me by sending an invitation for me to join. At that time, you could only open an account by invitation. I believe it's been approximately one year since that requirement ended.
When I joined, I was given 100 invitations to invite others to join Gmail. What confuses me a bit, but not enough to research it is, the email software is still in Beta.
Before proceeding with why I like Gmail so much, I should caution that this will not be a highly technological piece. It will be rudimentary and possibly very elementary, especially to techies. What I have learned about me and life is - simplicity is good.
Gmail is very simple to use but it takes becoming familiar with the many features it offers. We can become sensitive about our email programs especially when we have been with one for a number of years.
I mentioned Gmail to my sister Janet, after joining and learning how it worked. I offered to send her an invite but she was sold on Bellsouth.net's email program. Janet teaches online courses for the University of Phoenix. About three years ago, they required all professors to convert to Gmail. I did not have to tell her, "I told you so" because she said it to me, first.
I am not taking advantage of all the features offered through Gmail but a number of them are used. They are forever adding features just as they did only this week. You can now unsend a post if you have accidently hit send. I tested it and you are given a few seconds to unsend it. It works! Of course, I knew it would but that feature is something I longed to have available in Gmail.
If you forget to attach a file, you can enable this lab feature so if you've mentioned a file is attached but the attachment isn't made, you will be alerted. Labs are the extras that come with this email program. They can be enabled or disabled as you desire.
I will admit to being uncomfortable when I first became a Gmailer. Google is a technology giant and it should be expected but it was a bit alarming to me, initially. Google's adsense will show ads which pertain to the content of your email. I would assume there are cookies that track all of this which will increase revenue for somebody. I found this to be creepy in the beginning but now I am accustomed to it. I will say, I'm not likely to send something via email that I would be embarrassed for the world to see if it were exposed. I'm not in politics.
My IT person is in The Netherlands. He doesn't use Skype so we can chat in Gmail when needed. The appearance of your email can be thematic. Many organizational tools are available and you can use it primarily over other email programs.Gmail's spam filters are the absolute best!
I like Gmail so much until I tend not to use the email that comes with my domains. As a marketer, I know this is not good but I include signatures to make up for it. You may like Gmail, too. I found a link that says it's
The Unofficial Gmail FAQ.
2009 Avis Ward of
AWC, LLC
