GMail

So You Want to Kick the Google Habit? [Editorial]

A list of popular Google products and alternatives to each one. Also, a list of Google products which do not have a good replacement today.

So You Want to Kick the Google Habit? [Editorial]

GMail outage and recommended actions in such situations

I just read the GMail Blog post about the temporary outage to some Gmail accounts this afternoon.

Among other things, they suggested that we go through the user group on Google groups.

Unfortunately, I have had very bad luck getting updates on my posts on various Google-run Google Groups. Has anyone posted to the Gmail group or for example the Blogger group? Hardly any responses to the many posts/questions I have asked there.

I reasoned to myself that I cannot expect much support because after all these are free services, but these services are taking over my work and personal life slowly. For example I have converted from my Outlook-based email setup to a completely web-based GMail setup. I went through the pain of migrating all my emails over to GMail and am happy that I don’t have to worry about multiple Outlook versions on multiple computers anymore and am always just one click (a few clicks, actually 😉 ) away from all my email.

But that means such outages and lack of responses to queries about the usage of certain features annoys me.

Anyone else in the same boat?

Fascination with Gmail

What’s the fascination with Gmail? I know that when something is hard to get, it becomes more wanted. But after all the upgrades to Yahoo and hotmail, why is there such a demand still for Gmail?

As I start browsing sites about blogging, I realize a common trend is for people to announce that they have a Gmail account or they are so frustrated that they don’t have one.

Heck, even I announced that I have Gmail! What a fool I am…

No, I am not excited that I have one. I use Outlook, so disk space and email quota don’t have too much importance in my books. I would love to see their ‘threading’ feature, but that is not something I am dying for at this moment.

Come on people….there are better things in life to look forward to 🙂

I got Gmail!

Thanks to my cousin in NJ, who signed up me instead of himself, I have a Gmail account now! It is truly a no-frills interface, in line with all other google properties. And in fact now since rediffmail has offered free email account with 1GB, the whole novelty of high storage space is also gone.

But the good thing is that Gmail lets me see my emails in a thread fashion too. That really helps if I am trying to follow a conversation. I am sure it will only improve as time passes by.

Now I am waiting for an invite from Gmail, so I can sign my cousin up….