Gmail vs. other webmail

B

Born_a_Longhorn

25+ Posts
Ok, so I'm about to begin a career which will be taking me all over the world, and I'll be moving at least every three years, maybe less. Also I'm graduating and losing my trusty (and now very very spam-clogged) utexas.edu account. So, I need a reliable email service that can be accessed from anywhere, has decent online storage space (preferably 10mb+), and the flexibility to allow me to download messages off of webmail and onto my computer.

Google.com says its new Gmail webmail is still in testing phase, but they promise 1000mb storage and the same lack of popups and banners that all Google pages have. Their FAQs say POP3 access may be free or for a "nominal price". Furthermore Google has to be one of the most reliable and trustworthy websites in the world which has me leaning towards this.

I don't know much about alumni.utexas.net accounts but I heard comments recently that they are getting overrun by spam now.

Hotmail and Yahoo of course only offer very limited space and extra space is relatively expensive, and a host of other drawbacks.

Ok I'm rambling at this point as I have little knowledge on this subject. Anyone have useful advice? Other webmail I'm not listing.
 
Your UT account will be active for longer than you think - my brother has been out for two years and his is still available.

You might try forwarding your UT account to a non-existent address for a week or so to see if that cuts down on the spam. Sometimes you'll get removed from lists if messages bounce.


I had a pretty significant spam problem on my alumni account, but it has dropped considerably in the last couple of months. UT went to a 3rd party provider for the forwarding (pobox.com), and they recently implemented a filtering mechanism that has cut out about 95% of spam. Unfortunately it's gotten a few false positives, but it's been nice to not have to wade through dozens of crap messages a day.

The gmail sounds like it will be pretty cool, but I wonder if they're ready for the load. Another option may be to register your own domain and get a hosting contract with someone that provides webmail/pop services. That way you keep the same address no matter who your service provider is, and you can access your mail multiple ways. I use CWI Hosting - there are cheaper routes, but I have been with them a couple of years and have been happy with the service. They also provide SSH access, which I like because I prefer PINE to webmail.
 
GMail is very, very cool and it will take a huge share of the "free email account" market. I'd offer you an invite, but I've already sold both of mine on EBay
wink.gif


Currently, this is the email setup I have (yes I'm a dork):


mail at matthayden dot net forwards to the following:

Whatever my home internet account emai is for checking via MS Outlook at home

My GMail account for storage/threading and viewing it away fro home.

My Yahoo account which then sends it through filters and if it has priority (my important stuff), it sends it to my cellular phone.
 
First one I put up there is still going on... Starting bid $5 for 7-days... It's at 2-bid, $5.50 right now but I expect it to hit ~$50+ before it closes.

The second one I wised up and just did a 1-day auction with a $75 Buy-It-Now price. It sold within 15 minutes.
 
I'm just not sure about Gmail. It scares me to think someone will be "watching".
 
why are people paying for this right now when it will be free when it goes live? are they just wanting the service now instead of waiting? how did the people selling these things get the invitations in the first place?

i don't see the email-scanning ad-content thing being that big of a problem--if you think people can't and aren't already spying on what you look at and read on the internet and you're computer, you're lying to yourself.
 
The beta test will probably go on for another 6-8 months. People are paying for them because they want to have the "good" usernames... [email protected] instead of [email protected].

Seems pointless to me considering you could just buy a domain for $12 @ joeschmoe.net and have [email protected] forward anywhere you want.... But hey, if people are paying me for them I can't complain.

If you are a beta tester you can possibly get 2 inviations after X number of weeks of using the service. Doubt they are doing that anymore since they have found people are turning a profit on them. I got my invite from someone that works at Google.

As for the privacy issues, I agree with you. The only ways that the service could be used malicously as far as scanning your emails go is the same way that a Hotmail or Yahoo could be used.

Google knows not to invade someone's privacy too much or risk lawsuits/bad-publicity the same way Hotmail and Yahoo know not to go snooping through your mail. People read "scan" and automatically get scared thinking "Oh my god, they can read my mail!?". Well guess what, so can Yahoo and Hotmail or any other ISP for that matter.
 
Just got my gmail account today.. the interface is pretty darn cool. It has keyboard shortcuts as well which is cool b/c u can press 'c' and it will bring up the compose mail window or 'r' to reply, etc.

They send you text ads on the right side of the window based on the stuff you're talkin about in your emails. I was emailing someone back and forth about the onkeypress javascript function which gmail uses for kb shortcuts and they started sendin me javascript and java tutorial ads.
 
No, you read it correctly. I incorrectly assumed you were just getting junk at the address. Don't take my advice on that one.
 
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