May 17, 2004
 

David Pogue writes in his NY Times column that those who're paranoid of GMail's software reading their mail to place relevant advertisements should realize that the hoo-haa over this is overblown. Besides, if they still don't feel happy enough, they shouldn't sign up. Simple.

I agree with him. I've used GMail for the last month or so (thanks to signing up through Blogger) and I've gradually been sending some of my newsletters there. My aim isn't to convert from my existing (and preferred/favoured) mail service but merely to do things like test out GMail's various features as well as spam filtering etc. So far it hasn't done too badly, although I'm a bit unimpressed by the fact that there's no permanent way (as far as I know) for me to enable images in mails I receive or disable them. Currently I need to click on a link to enable images for every mail I receive. I've also got alert boxes quite a few times that my request could not be processed, obviously because the servers are overloaded. GMail's spam filtering also doesn't seem to be too effective. Several while newsletters from CNET, SearchEngineWatch.com and SiliconValley.com mostly get into my inbox, there've been a number of occasions when they were categorized as Spam. I was also surprised that GMail doesnt list the number of Spam I have currently.

In terms of storage, it beats all the competition. But I am not convinced that the USP for any web mail service should be extra storage. Ease of use, better spam filtering technology would be higher on my list. Once the spam is filtered properly (and I mean 100% success rates), space isn't an issue. In my opinion, an average user doesn't receive more than half a dozen emails every day and that means around 25k per day. By my calculations, a 4MB mailbox should last without getting filled up for 160 days, which is just less than 6 months. However, one of the most famous quotations on something of this nature is attributed to Bill Gates.

Rambled @ 10:49 AM

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I'd prefer if you posted comments with your real name to add more credibility to your opinions. Obviously comments containing offensive and unsuitable language will be deleted. The opinions in the comments are your own views. You are welcome to provide a URL to your own blog, especially if it discusses issues you find here.