The Effects of Technology

What makes Gmail great

The other day in class, a discussion cropped up regarding Gmail and why someone would bother switching to Gmail. Obviously, with the importance of email these days, it is about as easy to switch addresses as it is to switch phone numbers. You have to tell everyone, invariably, you'll forget a couple of people and hearts will be broken. Not only that, but you have to acquaint yourself with a new user interface as well as sorting out contacts lists, external clients, etc. So what makes Gmail so great? Although I brought up a few relevant points during the discussion, there are many more that have come to my attention and I would like to point these out.

First and foremost, I must point out that Gmail remains in a beta phase at this time. For this reason, it is by invitation only and is not 100% reliable yet (or anywhere near that, which will more likely be the case). However, for the sake of argument, I will suggest these points as fully implemented since for all intents and purposes, they work quite well. Notably well, actually, as I've also beta tested some other programs (office, games, browsers) and beta is typically associated with poor performance, dismal reliability, and bad implementation. Not so with Gmail. I have been using Gmail for over a year now and it very rarely is unavailable, though there have been a couple of occasions. And rather than being poorly implemented, all the features available work flawlessly and they continue to add new, innovative stuff. Ok, enough with the chatter, let's get down to facts.

Point 1: Storage.

Gmail pioneered the way with a free account yielding 1 Gb of storage for your inbox. The tagline here was "never delete a message again!" I will delve into that point later, but truly this was an unprecedented move. Assuming that Google can amass a user base (including any bots or fake names) of even a small number like 100,000 accounts, this is a huge commitment. One hundred-thousand Gb is no small task, not to mention 100,000 users is a very low estimate. Not only that, but Google has upped the ante and now allots 2.6 Gb per user account. So what's the bottom line? Massive storage means that your inbox will "never" be full. Which brings me to...

Point 2: Archiving and searchability.

With this feature, all of your mail becomes saved on Google's Gmail servers. It's not gone, it's simply archived. That means that anytime you want, you can simply go back and find that email. But what if you have hundreds, nay, thousands of old emails to sort through? Fear not, grasshopper. Google's legendary searching algorithms are built into Gmail so you can search any keyword and find whatever it is you are looking for. Example: "Hmmm I know was talking about interstellar time-travel with George, when was that? Oh I know, I'll use keyword George and time-travel!" No matter how long ago you archived it, Gmail will show you all relevant subjects, bodies and contacts free of charge, and they'll even throw in some text ads at no extra cost to you. Fabulous.

Point 3: Accessibility.

A big argument brought up by both my professor and the loyal Thunderbird user was "I like the accessibility of my current client software, and who's to say Google's business tactics won't get them shut down in ten years? Then what will I do?" I paraphrase, but let me explain. While you may love the organization of your file folders in Thunderbird, what happens when you need to find your email and you're not at your computer? Those emails are all stored on that local hard drive, making them more difficult to access. Gmail can be accessed in all it's organized, archived glory from any internet ready computer. Additionally, Gmail's Pop3 server allows you to download all your messages and export your contacts, so you will never have to worry about catastrophic failure. Given Google's track record, however, they are probably one of (if not the) safest bets out there for reliability and integrity.

Point 4: Interface.

If a clean workspace is a happy workspace, then the Gmail interface is a blue sky over fairies dancing in the meadow. Elegant, straightforward, and simple are the focus of this interface. Adding labels is a way to organize your messages under a common heading, such as labeling all of the emails sent to you from your profs under "Do not read" or from your parents as "Financial Support". However you choose to organize, Google provides you with a means. This minimalistic outlook makes Gmail much easier to use and less confusing.

All of this, not including some of Gmail's more interesting features (SMS compatibility, inline chat, email conversations), make Gmail an incredibly fresh, powerful web-mail client. So even though I can't convince everyone, you should definitely switch over to Gmail. It's just better.