8:18 PM, Nov 11, 2005 
Gmail and Bob's
I have been using Google's amazing gmail service for about a year and a half, now, and I have trouble imagining how I got along without it, beforehand. I is simply the best email service I have ever used, including outlook-based work emails. Because I work a lot from home, but mostly because I have a choice, I use gmail for work, too. It's great to know that it will always be the same, regardless what computer I happen to be using.
Praise aside, however, because I have a beef with it. Gmail is so damned great to use that it makes me want to use it for everything. I wish I could enable POP3 for other email addresses I might have, and have my gmail account manage all my messages. I love the interface, and indeed, getting an email account to harvest all your other disparate accounts is nothing new. Hotmail and Yahoo, for example, offered this functionality, when I used their services back in the nineties. So why not gmail?
I sent them an email, asking this quuestion about a year ago, and received a very concise and disappointing response: "We have no plans to offer that functionality at this time." Why? If getting people in the door is something in which Google takes even a mild interest, it would behoove them to offer this feature. People could start gmail accounts(I have more invitations than I know what to do with, by the way), fall in love with the interface, and not even have to send out the obligatory yet futile, "I have a new email address," email. It's win-win.
I just don't understand.
However, you will notice, from a look at the right side of the page, that I have resuscitated the Draught of the Week section, and published a new gurgler. Enjoy.
3 comments
chicus thinks:
I just found something cool and new with Gmail, "plus" addressing. Though the article says it is also available from "many" email providers I found no hint that either Yahoo or Hotmail supports it. This is completely new to me and the few tech people I have shared it with so it seems worth mentioning.
In a nutshell, it allows you to add a string to your google ID that you can then use to filter the messages. For example, chicus at gmail dot com (not my addy) can be appended with chicus+spam at gmail dot com. You can then set up a filter that sends all messages to chicus+spam at gmail dot com to your trash, or archive it with a spam label.
I think a less useful but more interesting effect can be that you track who is selling your info. For example, if I register ONLY at boston.com with chicus+bdc at gmail dot com (bdc = boston.com) I should be able to deduce that any message coming to that address was either from boston.com themselves or from someone to which they gave my information. I've wondered how some of the junk mailers get my information and this is a way to track it down, at least in part.
Anyhow, thought I would share. Some of his comments are a bit cheesy and many of the tips are pretty lame but it is worth a glance. I am referring to #5.
http://g04.com/misc/GmailTipsComplete.html
I just found something cool and new with Gmail, "plus" addressing. Though the article says it is also available from "many" email providers I found no hint that either Yahoo or Hotmail supports it. This is completely new to me and the few tech people I have shared it with so it seems worth mentioning.
In a nutshell, it allows you to add a string to your google ID that you can then use to filter the messages. For example, chicus at gmail dot com (not my addy) can be appended with chicus+spam at gmail dot com. You can then set up a filter that sends all messages to chicus+spam at gmail dot com to your trash, or archive it with a spam label.
I think a less useful but more interesting effect can be that you track who is selling your info. For example, if I register ONLY at boston.com with chicus+bdc at gmail dot com (bdc = boston.com) I should be able to deduce that any message coming to that address was either from boston.com themselves or from someone to which they gave my information. I've wondered how some of the junk mailers get my information and this is a way to track it down, at least in part.
Anyhow, thought I would share. Some of his comments are a bit cheesy and many of the tips are pretty lame but it is worth a glance. I am referring to #5.
http://g04.com/misc/GmailTipsComplete.html
11:25 PM, Nov 16, 2005
Tosspot took the time to say:
I use Gmail as well, however I got on one of my obsessive kicks one night and downloaded the Mozilla Thunderbird email client, and Pop3'd it through my Gmail, so this way I don't have to have a web browser window up to view my email.
I use Gmail as well, however I got on one of my obsessive kicks one night and downloaded the Mozilla Thunderbird email client, and Pop3'd it through my Gmail, so this way I don't have to have a web browser window up to view my email.
4:25 PM, Nov 18, 2005
bahua spoiled the calm with:
I like it for the exact opposite reason. I like it because no matter where I am, my experience is the same. I'm not tied to an email application, sitting on one machine in particular.
I like it for the exact opposite reason. I like it because no matter where I am, my experience is the same. I'm not tied to an email application, sitting on one machine in particular.
10:13 AM, Nov 19, 2005
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