What’s So Special About Gmail?
Online, Rants and Raves - 11 Comments » - Posted on January, 26 at 5:15 am
Seriously, someone tell me, what is so special about this service that had everyone rushing to get an invite so that they could have an account when the service first came out?
Is it because of the “unlimited” space? Hotmail and Yahoo give you so much damn space for your email accounts that you might as well have unlimited space, so it can’t be that. In fact, didn’t Hotmail just change it so that you have “unlimited” storage space now too?
Gmail is the only service where I can log in, wait forever and a day for it to load, get that annoying “this seems to be taking longer than normal” message, which for the record is the norm for me, before it finally loads. Gmail is the only email service where I can delete messages from my inbox, have them be deleted, then try to sign out only to get a “oops” message, an annoying popup asking if I want to continue, and be thrown back to my inbox where, lo and behold, the deleted messages have returned. I just sat here trying to sign out and getting redirected back for seven minutes.
Gmail is also the only account I have where I try to print out my email and the pages are cut off funny because of how their layout is set up. Then there is the so called “superior spam protection” that gmail offers. Sure, spam rare reaches my inbox, but gmail is the only account that I have ever had that literally gets hundreds of spam in a day and thousands of spam message in a week. What. The. Fuck? Since I first created that account it’s had a major influx of spam, and the reality is, for forms on the site and sign ups elsewhere I use my hotmail and domain accounts primarily, not gmail.
So I have to ask again, just what is so special about Gmail? It’s not faster loading by any means, Yahoo! has them beat there. It’s not that it has a superior interface and navigation, nor is it because they have better spam-killing features either. I think the only reason gmail is anything is because it’s a google service.
Too bad for Google, attaching a popular company’s name to a product or service isn’t all that it takes to make said product or service worth while. Thus far when it comes to the “luxury real estate” in regards to email providers Yahoo! and Hotmail have Gmail beat.
Tagged: email-provider, gmail, google, hotmail, yahooPosted in Online, Rants and Raves | 11 Comments »
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I have been using gmail for a while now, at least a year. I haven’t had those problems, in fact I find it much better than Yahoo mail. I get so much spam on Yahoo Mail and Google filters it so much better. Just my opinion on the matter.
BTW- have you received the prize from the Mad Gringo Contest? Please let me know I haven’t heard of any of the winners getting their prizes yet.
I also haven’t experienced what you have. I have found Gmail to load much much faster than Hotmail or Yahoo. Yahoo sits there with that loading animation for a long time. When I open Gmail, it’s that instant.
As far as spam, I get more in Yahoo and I never see any of the spam in Gmail (goes right to the spam folder) and it’s very little when there is any.
It’s too bad your experience with Gmail hasn’t been that great, but I have loved Gmail from day one because of it’s speed over the others. And now with IMAP it tops the others.
Haven’t had any of those problems either. I love the search features. I actually have my business email forwarded there (a copy of it) and when I reply I bcc my gmail account. It’s GREAT. Better than searching my own archive for stuff.
Drew,
I’m on a slower connection than you probably are so I suspect that is what lets me see all of their problems. Nothing like dial-up to let you see where all the faults are. For me, Yahoo! is much faster loading than Hotmail or Gmail by far. As far as spam goes, all three will let the occasional spam get through but I’ve noticed that the gmail account gets the most spam sent to it as a whole and considering it’s not published widely about…yeah.
I’ll keep the account since I do have it registered at some places but I hardly feel like it’s all it’s cracked up to be.
And nope, I haven’t received my prize from Mad Gringo yet. I’ll let you know as soon as I do though.
Alisha,
I’ve never even experianced a load time with Yahoo! Hotmail has a bit of a lag, not to mention the couple of times you visit and the “server is too busy to handle your request” but that’s it.
As for the spam, I agree that their filter picks up most of it. The point though is that I don’t have that email on mailing lists, signups, and what not so it’s a hell of a lot harder for the spammers to get a hold of it and yet it gets the most spam in the junk mail than any other email service. To me it’s a good thing their filter catches it, but it doesn’t make sense how much goes to it. And since some people’s stuff gets sent to the junk folder…that means I actually have to sift through the mess occasionally. x_X
I don’t have a need for the IMAP so I can’t say which one I’ve had the better experiance with on that.
Thanks for sharing!
GASP don’t be mean to my gmail. I never have problems with it loading, that’s odd. I just like how easy it is, plenty of space and it works everywhere. Yahoo and Hotmail get too much spam and I don’t even use those often enough to warrant all the spam. Gmail is good at filtering it out for me, other emails I have tried never seemed to get it. Gmail lets you organize your mail with labels and groups conversations like a board thread, I love that. So instead of 500 different email messages with all the replies and all, it’s in one thread. That’s the best part of gmail, for me.
I love the spam filters. Getting data mined isn’t so much fun, but that’s the price of free, I suppose.
I’m on broadband and I have problems loading Gmail most of the time. I use my Gmail account but not as much as I used to. My domain email and my Yahoo! accounts are so much better to me.
That sucks to hear you have so many problems with Gmail. It may be due to your slow connection I assume. It does take a while to load and since you’re not on a fast connection, it might take a while to register your changes, etc.
As for the SPAM. Sometimes, you just need to be caught by the wrong bot and then you’re screwed.
I actually didn’t hop on the Gmail bandwagon until much, much later and I found myself really enjoying its service so far. I actually moved my Boscardin mail to Gmail in the event that my server ever goes down again, I can still access the email.
Yahoo and Hotmail are okay, but there are a few things that I don’t like about their services too. I still use them, but not too excited about them as much as I am about Gmail.
I’ve never seen the appeal of free email services. I have email through my website with up to 2,000 accounts. I have complete control and unlimited space. I now have an email account for my son which I can strictly administer.
The slow loading is definitely due to your slow connection. There are different views that might make it load faster. I’ve only rarely experienced that “taking longer than usual” message, and I’ve had my account since 2005.
Sad to hear you’re not enjoying the experience! Just use what you feel most comfortable with even if it’s a less respected email provider. (I really hate Yahoo! Mail)