Why am I staying with Gmail?

Gmail is great. I have used many email clients in the past, including Outlook 365, which is the paid version that comes with an MS Office subscription and paying for a premium version email client has got to make it the best, right?

It's strange, I have access to the same software used by most of the biggest companies around. So why do I stick with Gmail?

Let me go back a while, a long while!  

My first encounter with computers was around 1980 while serving an electrical apprenticeship and being introduced to a CNC panel that controlled a huge milling machine. It was our remit to maintain this beast under the watchful gaze of the man sent from Germany to show us how it all worked.

Some 18 years later I was still a bit unsure of what a computer in the home could be used for! However, given all the hype surrounding home computing and my 12-year-old daughter producing a floppy disk from school to save her computer work, I thought it was about time to start looking into owning one.

I bought my first “proper” home computer around 1996/7 when the internet was still in its infancy. At the time my connection to the wonders of the world was provided by Encarta encyclopaedia Loaded from a CD and being amazed to see an eight-centimetre square time-lapse video of an Iris flower opening.

Within a few months of PC ownership, I managed to convince myself that the internet would be a good thing to have. Armed with my AOL CD that was freely available at every supermarket checkout, I signed up and was online in no time! 

That's a lie, It took about a week to buy and install a modem and run a phone extension point to where my computer was positioned.

Anyway I digress, email was a new and exciting way to communicate with people all over the world. At that time, AOL was one of the most popular email services available. AOL’s email service was easy to use and had a simple interface. 

Users had to log in to AOL on their home PC to send and receive email. Internet access via dial-up modem was roughly a penny a minute. Internet users, myself included, would take advantage of the many internet providers who offered a fixed number of hours or even unlimited access for a fixed monthly fee.

Providers other than AOL would allow you to access email via an email client such as Outlook Express, enabling you to type mail offline and only go online when you wish to send and receive mail.

The big downside of switching Internet service providers is that you lose your email account and any stored email. In the early days, I would receive regular “Hello Michael please note my new email address…”

In 1996, Hotmail was introduced, and it quickly became a popular email service. It was the first web-based email service, which meant that users could access their email from anywhere with an internet connection, being web-based meant that your email address was no longer tied to your internet provider. Hotmail was bought by Microsoft two years later, and at the time of writing, is now called outlook.live.com.

Again, I can't remember the exact date or even the year, but I became aware of something called domain names which meant you could have your personalised email address for a small annual fee. 

Gmail was introduced in 2004 and was only available by invitation (great marketing!), again Gmail was web-based and yours forever provided you follow the rules. I can't recall how or when, but I did manage to get an account that came with ten invites, boy was I popular?

Fast forward to today, and Gmail has become one of the most popular email services available. So, what do I like so much about Gmail? 

Gmail is free, offering users a lot of storage space at the outset. We have already established one of the best things about Gmail is that it is web-based, meaning you can access your email from any device with an internet connection. No need to download software to multiple devices, simply set up Gmail once in one place and it is the same everywhere, with full access to all the Gmail tools and features on your mobile phone, tablet, laptop, or desktop. Irrespective of the operating system.

But for me, the greatest thing about Gmail is that it can be used as a powerful email client. Domain email addresses can be added to receive and send email using your domain settings while inheriting everything Gmail has to offer, outstanding and teachable spam protection, generous storage, archiving, multiple colour-coded labels, snooze mail, schedule send, filters and rules confidential mode and templates, and it can be used offline! Phew.

The one downside is that Gmail does not collect your mail instantly; rather, it collects email periodically. The time between collections depends on how busy your email account is. Roughly 15 minutes to an hour.

You can get around this by setting up a forward for the email account on your hosting server. Gmail is smart enough not to load the mail twice into your inbox. There is also a “check mail now” feature within the “All settings”

OK, some will say that Google is nosey and that they read your email. Well, all I can say on that topic is to read the privacy policy and make up your own mind.

I have a general rule in my communication life and always offer this advice to others: If you do not want someone to read what you have written, don't write it! 

The weak link and biggest security flaw in any communication is the trust you place in the recipient, not the app or carrier.