Favorite Tools – Gmail

Gmail

I recently switched to Gmail from Yahoo Mail Plus. It took me a while, but I finally got it. If you are a Gmail user, you will know what “it” is. Using labels instead of folders, handling spam, using conversations instead of managing several relevant emails. Gmail is superior to anything out there. Here is a simple tutorial.

Gmail groups all replies with their original message, creating a single conversation or thread. In other email systems, responses appear as separate messages in your inbox, forcing you to wade through all your mail to follow the conversation. In Gmail, replies to replies (and replies to those replies) are displayed in one place, in order, making it easier to understand the context of a message — or to follow the conversation.

When you open one message in a conversation, all of your related messages will be stacked neatly on top of each other, like a deck of cards. We call this Conversation View. In Conversation View, each new message is stacked on top of the ones that arrived before it, so that the newest message is always the one you see first.

One of the coolest things is that Gmail allows for multiple email addresses (this is how I manage my drewgriffin.com email accounts) and is providing free IMAP. What is IMAP? Most people use POP mail which downloads mail to your email client and removes that mail from the server. The drawback is that once the email is downloaded – you will not have access to it. Some people will leave their mail on the server unless they are on their main terminal. There is a drawback – if I reply to a message, it will not show up as a “sent” item on both machines.

Unlike POP, IMAP offers two-way communication between your web Gmail and your email client(s). This means when you log in to Gmail using a web browser, actions you perform on email clients and mobile devices (ex: putting mail in a ‘work’ folder) will instantly and automatically appear in Gmail (ex: it will already have a ‘work’ label on that email).

In addition, IMAP provides a better method to access your mail from multiple devices. If you check your email at work, on your mobile phone, and again at home, IMAP ensures that new mail is accessible from any device at any given time.

Finally, IMAP offers a more stable experience overall. Whereas POP is prone to losing messages or downloading the same messages multiple times, IMAP avoids this through its two-way syncing capabilities between your mail clients and your web Gmail.

Yes, you can even use Outlook 2000/2003 with Gmail. I recommend using Mozilla Thunderbird.

Furthermore, I use Gmail Notifier for Windows. This is a simple application that alerts you when you have a new Gmail message. It is not a resource hog and does not require you to install a bunch of crap you don’t need.