I have had several conversations with clients and most recently a very good friend of mine about why they are not using Google Mail for everything. My good friend still has an AOL account that he has had since the time it took 7 days to connect….crazy! I have explained to him and have shown him the greatness of emailing, archiving, SPAM ELIMINATING, scheduling, chatting, document and spreadsheet creating/sharing, customizing and organizing found when you have a Gmail account. He/They simply say I have had my email address for years and I tell them there are tons of ways around that after a few weeks with Gmail, you will kick yourself for not making the switch sooner.
Now this is not a “Plug” for Google or maybe it is…..however, I would love to hear more excuses of why you would use a very limited system for email when there is such an amazing product available. Please tell me what you are thinking?!
I can see if you are concerned about Google going out of business before your existing provider 
I’m not terribly familiar with gmail as I am one who does not use it, but for me an issue with any web-based email application is that it does by nature require an internet connection. What I like about using a client-side email app is that I can read and reply to a bunch of emails while on a plane, riding (not driving!) in the car, or in whatever situation where my wireless card might be patchy at best. Worst case I can’t send the emails until I find a connection, but having it all client side on my laptop I can still do 90% of the work, then just send the emails when I have a good connection. Is there a way to accomplish this w/ Gmail?
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I don’t know where the chips will land someday on privacy and gmail accounts. My understanding is that a gmail account is fully a resource for google search engine statitistics and whatever else becomes or already is legal to search.
All these google bells and whistles may come with the hefty price tag for those interested in confidentiality and privacy.
Thoughts?
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Google is utilizing all of their free services to monitor traffic and things “talked about” all over the net. Gmail is no exeption. SugarRae (http://www.sugarrae.com) talks about this all the time.
So… privacey? There is none. I think we just need to accept it and move on… we could live in China.
@Jon Google is playing with an offline mode right now for gmail from what I understand (http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/2009/01/new-in-labs-offline-gmail.html#utm_campaign=en&utm_source=en-ha-na-us-bk&utm_medium=ha&utm_term=offline%20gmail)
Check it out… I know nothing about it.
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