WHY do people like Gmail?

webecedarian · 14 Apr 2016, 08:10 AM

I needed a quickie new email account, something reliable, something that didn't require a previous account or phone to link to. I thought I'd give Gmail another shot.

Please, could someone explain the appeal? It is laid out unlike anything I've ever seen, and I'm left wandering in circles, metaphorically, looking for things like the reply button. I gave up trying to forward something. I've tried at least ten different providers and never seen one so unclear, so unintuitive.

David · 14 Apr 2016, 10:46 AM

GMail works differently to Fastmail...... it is actually faster than Fastmail (imho) when you get used to it. I am talking about when you have a bunch of messages that need replying to.

I live in Canada but have been wandering around Europe for the last five weeks, and have been experimenting on the best way to work.

At the end of the day I decided to forward everything to GMail, my Fastmail account plus many other email accounts. I have not been disappointed.

That said, I am not suggesting that this is the best way to work.....

I would appreciate replies from folk who have walked my trail, who would be able to educate me better.

jeffpan · 14 Apr 2016, 12:31 PM

Gmail is perfect except for the privacy issue.
If you don't care too much on privacy, gmail is more excellent than others IMO.

FredOnline · 14 Apr 2016, 02:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by webecedarian

Please, could someone explain the appeal? It is laid out unlike anything I've ever seen, and I'm left wandering in circles, metaphorically, looking for things like the reply button. I gave up trying to forward something. I've tried at least ten different providers and never seen one so unclear, so unintuitive.

Can't say I've ever had problems understanding Gmail, but then I've been using it for years, and would like to think I know how to get the best out of it.

IMHO their feature set is the best out there.

Bamb0 · 14 Apr 2016, 06:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jeffpan

Gmail is perfect except for the privacy issue.

Exactly.... It is one of the worst!!

ChinaLamb · 14 Apr 2016, 09:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by webecedarian

I needed a quickie new email account, something reliable, something that didn't require a previous account or phone to link to. I thought I'd give Gmail another shot.

Please, could someone explain the appeal? It is laid out unlike anything I've ever seen, and I'm left wandering in circles, metaphorically, looking for things like the reply button. I gave up trying to forward something. I've tried at least ten different providers and never seen one so unclear, so unintuitive.

Every user interface takes time to get used to. I used to get lost in Gmail - I did everything in Outlook. BUT I eventually got used to it.

I too recommend Fastmail. I do NOT like the privacy issues with using a Gmail account.

Adrian Bell · 15 Apr 2016, 04:12 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by webecedarian

Please, could someone explain the appeal?

It's free. They have IMAP. Plus it's more or less mandatory to get the most out of an Android phone. I agree that it is not the best web interface. They seem to have fixed something which was not broken in the first place.

ChinaLamb · 15 Apr 2016, 04:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Adrian Bell

It's free. They have IMAP. Plus it's more or less mandatory to get the most out of an Android phone. I agree that it is not the best web interface. They seem to have fixed something which was not broken in the first place.

Exactly, people like it because they want stuff for free...

What they do not realize is that gmail is NOT free, and they are paying for it, by letting people advertise to them, as well as letting Google sell information about them. But because they cannot 'see' what they are forfeiting, they believe it is free.

Things that are free are either charity or its a gift. Google is too smart to give people gifts, and they are not a 501c3 charity organization. You, the user, are their business model.

communicant · 15 Apr 2016, 06:00 AM

I share the uneasiness about privacy and Gmail, though I do use it for certain things.

However, don't other large services scan emails and mine data, just like Gmail? Does Gmail do something in particular that is worse, to explain why so many people are more worried about privacy with Gmail than with other services?

No serious privacy problem concerns me when I use a Gmail account for sending, because I can choose what I use it for and whether I mind the messages that I send (or any likely replies to them) being scanned by Google's bots. My main privacy problem arises when I write a very personal or confidential email from one of my other non-Gmail accounts to someone with a Gmail account, a message that I would prefer should not be scanned or otherwise data-mined. I have no choice here, because if I want to write to a person with a Gmail account, even when I send from an address somewhere else that I reserve for private and personal matters, my message and the person's reply will be subject to the same scanning and other privacy invasions that would have been the case if I had sent from a Gmail account in the first place! And, with more and more people switching to Gmail, this problem becomes worse all the time and there is nothing I can do about it.

EricG · 15 Apr 2016, 09:43 AM

Before I got my first Android phone almost 5 years ago, I had Google account with my fastmail email as login. That gives you unreachable gmail.

When I got the phone I deleted that and got a first.last@gmail account. I didn't use it much because labels are not folders and didn't work well with IMAP clients. Eventually I read the Gmail docs and realized labels are great, the Android app was great (push, no overhead). I started moving mailing lists over (gigabytes) and used it for my business accounts.

Later I got Microsoft account with a short name@live.ca, which I accessed using Exchange AS in the Email app. Those two made my fastmail account redundant, and I moved everything off it and let it expire. Once I retired my Pentium 3 XP machine a few years ago, webmail became fast and I stopped using IMAP clients.

David · 15 Apr 2016, 11:51 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by EricG

Before I got my first Android phone almost 5 years ago, I had Google account with my fastmail email as login. That gives you unreachable gmail.

When I got the phone I deleted that and got a first.last@gmail account. I didn't use it much because labels are not folders and didn't work well with IMAP clients. Eventually I read the Gmail docs and realized labels are great, the Android app was great (push, no overhead). I started moving mailing lists over (gigabytes) and used it for my business accounts.

Later I got Microsoft account with a short name@live.ca, which I accessed using Exchange AS in the Email app. Those two made my fastmail account redundant, and I moved everything off it and let it expire. Once I retired my Pentium 3 XP machine a few years ago, webmail became fast and I stopped using IMAP clients.

A natural progression methinks. I used (and loved) Fastmail when it was free (before it went paid) but cancelled my account a few years ago, when it became obvious that the personal approach was gone.

Currently, I have since opened a Fastmail account (why I don't know) - I am disappointed with it and mostly use GMail.

That said I am not (because Canadians are ripped off for cell phone plans) prepared to buy an Android phone. I (instead) work with local SIM cards (and a dumb phone) when I travel. I also carry a Chromebook.

Zach · 15 Apr 2016, 11:56 PM

I wanted to know the answer to this so I set up an account (with no intention of using it). I think the main reason it got popular is the nice, colourful graphics & fonts and lack of visible advertisements. Plus the fact that it's made by Google, which nearly everyone uses as a search engine. People also tend to follow the crowd: if lots of people are using a product, they'll tend to prefer that one as opposed to another product that's equally good (or better) but less popular.

ChinaLamb · 16 Apr 2016, 12:46 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zach

I wanted to know the answer to this so I set up an account (with no intention of using it). I think the main reason it got popular is the nice, colourful graphics & fonts and lack of visible advertisements. Plus the fact that it's made by Google, which nearly everyone uses as a search engine. People also tend to follow the crowd: if lots of people are using a product, they'll tend to prefer that one as opposed to another product that's equally good (or better) but less popular.

My work uses Gmail because it is part of a cohesive ecosystem, online documents, online editing, collaboration, email, video conferencing, gps, etc. everything is connected. It really is an elegant system. We purchase our accounts so that Google doesn't data-mine off of our usage.

William9 · 16 Apr 2016, 12:55 AM

The appeal of Gmail: free, features, functionality, reliability, security, excellent spam control.
Scanning messages is not unique to Gmail. Nearly all email services scan messages for spam. Targeted advertising is what you must accept with Gmail.

jhollington · 16 Apr 2016, 01:49 AM

As web-based email clients go, I really do like Gmail moreso than anything else, and if I were living entirely in a web-based world, I'd probably have stayed with it — I really do like the web interface a lot, and it's fast and really intuitive once you get used to it, especially with keyboard shortcuts, labels, and search, and what Google's doing with its new Inbox service is even more interesting, with built-in snooze features, the ability to ferret out email as rich content items (orders, receipts, reservations show appropriate cards above the email, summarizing the data in a standard format). Privacy issues aside, which are largely subjective, I think it's a very nice solution if you live on the web.

I actually still have a Google Apps account (so privacy issues aren't even an issue for me), and I use it for certain things (Google Drive, where I have unlimited cloud storage, for instance), but I use FastMail for my email.

The main reason is that Gmail doesn't really have IMAP support. At least, not if you consider IMAP to be an actual "standard" rather than a casual communications protocol. Gmail's IMAP support has always ranged from weird to outright broken, but due to the popularity of Gmail companies like Apple have actually taken steps to write their email clients specifically to play nice with it.

At the end of the day, however, even when everything works, I just don't see the point in using Gmail unless I'm using the web interface. If I'm using an IMAP client (which I primarily do, as I'm a Mac, iPhone, iPad, I use Apple Mail across all of my devices), it's far better and easier to use a service like FastMail that talks pure and unadulterated IMAP, where I'm not mapping labels to folders or dealing with other weird issues. I also get much more effective offline access to my email when I'm away from an Internet connection, tighter integration with other apps, and more options for customization through plug-ins and Applescripts.

14 Apr 2016, 08:10 AM	#1
webecedarian Essential Contributor Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: NYC Posts: 483	WHY do people like Gmail? I needed a quickie new email account, something reliable, something that didn't require a previous account or phone to link to. I thought I'd give Gmail another shot. Please, could someone explain the appeal? It is laid out unlike anything I've ever seen, and I'm left wandering in circles, metaphorically, looking for things like the reply button. I gave up trying to forward something. I've tried at least ten different providers and never seen one so unclear, so unintuitive.

14 Apr 2016, 10:46 AM	#2
David Ultimate Contributor Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Canada. Posts: 10,355	GMail works differently to Fastmail...... it is actually faster than Fastmail (imho) when you get used to it. I am talking about when you have a bunch of messages that need replying to. I live in Canada but have been wandering around Europe for the last five weeks, and have been experimenting on the best way to work. At the end of the day I decided to forward everything to GMail, my Fastmail account plus many other email accounts. I have not been disappointed. That said, I am not suggesting that this is the best way to work..... I would appreciate replies from folk who have walked my trail, who would be able to educate me better.

14 Apr 2016, 12:31 PM	#3
jeffpan The "e" in e-mail Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: Macao Posts: 2,152 Representative of: tls-mail.com	Gmail is perfect except for the privacy issue. If you don't care too much on privacy, gmail is more excellent than others IMO.

15 Apr 2016, 06:00 AM	#9
communicant Cornerstone of the Community Join Date: Jul 2009 Posts: 879	I share the uneasiness about privacy and Gmail, though I do use it for certain things. However, don't other large services scan emails and mine data, just like Gmail? Does Gmail do something in particular that is worse, to explain why so many people are more worried about privacy with Gmail than with other services? No serious privacy problem concerns me when I use a Gmail account for sending, because I can choose what I use it for and whether I mind the messages that I send (or any likely replies to them) being scanned by Google's bots. My main privacy problem arises when I write a very personal or confidential email from one of my other non-Gmail accounts to someone with a Gmail account, a message that I would prefer should not be scanned or otherwise data-mined. I have no choice here, because if I want to write to a person with a Gmail account, even when I send from an address somewhere else that I reserve for private and personal matters, my message and the person's reply will be subject to the same scanning and other privacy invasions that would have been the case if I had sent from a Gmail account in the first place! And, with more and more people switching to Gmail, this problem becomes worse all the time and there is nothing I can do about it.

15 Apr 2016, 09:43 AM	#10
EricG Essential Contributor Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: Canada Posts: 296	Before I got my first Android phone almost 5 years ago, I had Google account with my fastmail email as login. That gives you unreachable gmail. When I got the phone I deleted that and got a first.last@gmail account. I didn't use it much because labels are not folders and didn't work well with IMAP clients. Eventually I read the Gmail docs and realized labels are great, the Android app was great (push, no overhead). I started moving mailing lists over (gigabytes) and used it for my business accounts. Later I got Microsoft account with a short name@live.ca, which I accessed using Exchange AS in the Email app. Those two made my fastmail account redundant, and I moved everything off it and let it expire. Once I retired my Pentium 3 XP machine a few years ago, webmail became fast and I stopped using IMAP clients.

15 Apr 2016, 11:56 PM	#12
Zach Senior Member Join Date: Mar 2016 Posts: 119	I wanted to know the answer to this so I set up an account (with no intention of using it). I think the main reason it got popular is the nice, colourful graphics & fonts and lack of visible advertisements. Plus the fact that it's made by Google, which nearly everyone uses as a search engine. People also tend to follow the crowd: if lots of people are using a product, they'll tend to prefer that one as opposed to another product that's equally good (or better) but less popular.

16 Apr 2016, 12:55 AM	#14
William9 The "e" in e-mail Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: San Francisco Posts: 2,281	The appeal of Gmail: free, features, functionality, reliability, security, excellent spam control. Scanning messages is not unique to Gmail. Nearly all email services scan messages for spam. Targeted advertising is what you must accept with Gmail.

16 Apr 2016, 01:49 AM	#15
jhollington Essential Contributor Join Date: Apr 2008 Posts: 371	As web-based email clients go, I really do like Gmail moreso than anything else, and if I were living entirely in a web-based world, I'd probably have stayed with it — I really do like the web interface a lot, and it's fast and really intuitive once you get used to it, especially with keyboard shortcuts, labels, and search, and what Google's doing with its new Inbox service is even more interesting, with built-in snooze features, the ability to ferret out email as rich content items (orders, receipts, reservations show appropriate cards above the email, summarizing the data in a standard format). Privacy issues aside, which are largely subjective, I think it's a very nice solution if you live on the web. I actually still have a Google Apps account (so privacy issues aren't even an issue for me), and I use it for certain things (Google Drive, where I have unlimited cloud storage, for instance), but I use FastMail for my email. The main reason is that Gmail doesn't really have IMAP support. At least, not if you consider IMAP to be an actual "standard" rather than a casual communications protocol. Gmail's IMAP support has always ranged from weird to outright broken, but due to the popularity of Gmail companies like Apple have actually taken steps to write their email clients specifically to play nice with it. At the end of the day, however, even when everything works, I just don't see the point in using Gmail unless I'm using the web interface. If I'm using an IMAP client (which I primarily do, as I'm a Mac, iPhone, iPad, I use Apple Mail across all of my devices), it's far better and easier to use a service like FastMail that talks pure and unadulterated IMAP, where I'm not mapping labels to folders or dealing with other weird issues. I also get much more effective offline access to my email when I'm away from an Internet connection, tighter integration with other apps, and more options for customization through plug-ins and Applescripts.