[plug] [OT] Gmail Opinions

[Trevor Phillips]

Have many other people tried out Gmail yet? I've had an account a few days so 
far, and have forwarded my gazillion E-mails thru it. I'm interested in what 
other people think of the functionality, and also any Tinfoil Hat opinions 
(http://www.gmail-is-too-creepy.com/).

Personally, I think it's great! The interface is very usable, and is fast, to 
the point where I'm using it for reading all my E-mail instead of a local 
client (kmail/thunderbird). I like the way it threads conversations, and 
displays unread msgs in a conversation at once. I like the "Labels" and 
searching over traditional "Folders".

There's a few general interface optimisations I'd like: A Trash button always 
visible for a start - I get way too many Mail List rambling and System Alerts 
that I will NOT want to "Archive". I'm also using a bit over 1Mb/day - I'll 
use my Gig in under 4 years at this rate - but that's also including Spam & 
Trash, which do get purged every 30 days. I still Trash more than I 
"Archive".

I also still mostly send E-mail with Kmail - mostly to keep my old IDs. I use 
"multiple accounts" quite extensively, even though it is just the one E-mail 
account really, and Gmail doesn't support this yet.

As to the paranoia - well, I'm a little nervous about my entire correspondence 
sitting on someone elses server, especially a huge company, but those sort of 
issues are common to any server you yourself don't manage. I guess part of 
the worry is Google are a lot more technically competent than Yahoo or 
Hotmail. (And yet I'd trust them more than Microsoft ^_^)

What I'd REALLY like is my own Gmail-style server/web interface, hosted on my 
own box so I can control the details. Getting that itch to implement my own 
solution, but I think I'll have to write that one off as over-ambitious given 
how little free time I already have...

It has got me thinking about my current mail setup tho (Cyrus IMAP on an aging 
Sun box). Gmail is snappier than IMAP opening a folder... Hmmmm.

BTW: After a day, Gmail gave me the option of inviting 3 friends. I was 
considering offering one to a PLUGger, but they were sort of gobbled up by 
Wives and desperate friends. ^_^;; Do many other PLUGgers have one yet?

-- 
. Trevor Phillips             -           http://jurai.murdoch.edu.au/ . 
: Web Technical Administrator     -          T.Phillips at murdoch.edu.au : 
| IT Services                        -              Murdoch University | 
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