What I Think About Gmail

Review by GmailUsers.com editor Kathie Fry on September 2, 2004, after using Gmail for about two months.

Someone posted in a forum recently that they just got their first Gmail account and had not really started using it, but "so far it does not look too exciting". Here is how I responded to that comment:

I am quickly becoming addicted to Gmail, and the "not too exciting" part is one of the things I like most. Gmail is fast and simple and clean with no graphics ads and it's not bloated with too many bells and whistles.

But Gmail did take some getting use to. What people seem to miss most at first is the ability to file messages into folders. You really don't need to do that in Gmail because you use the Google search technology to sift through your thousands of old messages (that feature alone is what sold me on Gmail). But if you miss folders too much you can apply labels to your messages, which is basically the same thing as moving them into folders.

Some people might want a more sophisticated email program, and some may object to Gmail's context-specific text-based Google ads, but for me Gmail is the best email solution I have come across, because of the Google search technology, because I can access it from anywhere in the world, because it is fast and simple, and because it does not have any flashing and popping graphic ads.