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| Think beyond Yahoo! and Hotmail |
| www.spymac.com: Claims to be the only other provider to offer 1 GB free storage. Tech enthusiasts aren’t too excited about the quality of its service though www.fastmail.fm: Creating ripples, if not waves. This newcomer offers 10 MB storage space, great speed and ease of use www.mail.com: The attraction here is certainly the variety of email IDs on offer. Ranges from @cheerful.com, @seductive.com to @lawyer.com and even @paris.com. This also provides10 MB storage space And closer home... www.rediffmail.com: Has 5 MB space on offer. A recent redesign has improved the look and overall service as well |
Gmail is what the world — the virtual one, at least — has been talking about. It’s from the house of Google, the cult search engine that has become as much a cultural phenomenon as a byword for accurate information to Netizens and casual Internet users alike.
For those who came in late, Gmail is the email solution from Google (“a Google approach to email” goes the tagline) that is set to change the way we send and receive electronic mail, much like the way Google’s search engine changed how we search for information on the Net.
Gmail is all about space, speed and better organisation, with lots of nifty features thrown in.
Store more
Storage is clearly the USP. Compared to Hotmail’s measly 2 MB, Yahoo!’s 4 MB and rising-star Fastmail’s 10 MB, Gmail offers a mammoth one gigabyte (1,000 MB) of space. With so much, Google feels, typical users can go on for years without deleting a single mail. It’s also no-strings-attached, 100 per cent free.
Hang on
The bad news is that it’s not yet open to the public. “Gmail is still in a preview release and test phase,” replies Debbie Frost, International PR Manager for Google, to queries sent by Metro on Sunday. “In some cases we launch products as a beta, as early experiments in Google Labs, or in the case of Gmail, as private tests,” she explains.
And a release date isn’t close in sight. “We do not have any details at this time of our plans for the service, but we will keep products in beta or as tests until we feel we have fully satisfied the demands of our users,” Frost asserts.
The good news, however, is that we were invited to open a Gmail account, and here’s a sneak peek.
Simple start
First things first. Registering for an account is simple and without some of the hassles of say Yahoo! or Hotmail. No lengthy forms with endless items to be filled in. It doesn’t even ask for your residential address or areas of interest. Key in essentials only — first and last name, desired login, password, a secret question and answer to help you if you forget the password — and click ‘yes’ to the usual agreement policy.
The Google touch starts from here. There is a Check Availability button, which instantly tells you if the ID you want has already been taken. Yahoo! users would testify to what a nightmare that can be.
Your Gmail journey starts straightaway. A welcome message from the Gmail team suggests you read the FAQs and the Getting Started section, both very useful and answer most of the first-time-use questions.
Cool tool
The mail system is loaded with handy features and Google’s innovations. And just like the search engine, it’s very fast, even over dial-up. Features include useful keyboard shortcuts (hit ‘c’ for composing new mail, ‘n’ for next message and so on), auto address-complete, and discreet text-only ads placed similar to the way they are in Google search results. Also, the first few words of the mail body (termed ‘snippets’) are viewable with the message subject in the inbox. When the mailbox gets too bulky, click ‘Archive’ and it trims back to shape — just like that.
Gmail also introduces the concept of ‘conversations’. Each time someone responds to one of your emails, instead of the response appearing as a new message in the inbox, all replies are grouped together with the original message, creating a single ‘conversation’. When you open a message in a ‘conversation’, all the messages are stacked on top of each other like a deck of cards. Google calls it Conversation View. It’s perhaps one of the niftiest features, which ensures you don’t have to search for replies to your mails.
Search light
Google’s search technology has been put to great use in Gmail. Messages can be looked up using key words, the date-range, sender-names and other options with results returned in true Google accuracy.
Gmail is also more sympathetic towards casual users or those unable to log in for long periods of time. Instead of the standard 30 or 60 days of ‘dormant time’ that Yahoo! or Hotmail offers, Gmail lets you forget about it for as long as nine months. After which the account becomes invalid and the ID is recycled for another user.
Gmail intends to offer language options soon. Future rollouts would be in various languages, including Indian languages. The search engine already allows Hindi, Bengali and other regional languages.
Beta testers are strongly encouraged to send feedback and suggestions for improvement (there’s even a Report a Bug button). As Google receives and incorporates more of them, the service is bound to get even better. But the real challenge for Gmail would be once it faces a user load like that of Yahoo! or Hotmail.
