By Philip Bell <philip.bell@gmail.com>
Woody had better watch out.
I mean Woody of Woody's Windows Watch,
that consummate computer guru with website haunted by geeks.
Woody has really put his foot in it
this time.
Just look at the note which John Saxon sent around our PCUG Coffee and
Chat email list the other week:
"G'day All., begins John..
"After the recent discussions about Gmail - there's a good article
about the rights and wrongs (mostly wrongs) of Web-based Email in the
latest Woody's 'Email Essentials' mailing list.
See http://www.woodyswatch.com/email/archives.asp - well worth a read.
Cheers - JohnS "
Woody refers to all the usual suspects, including Hotmail and
Yahoo. And Woody gives a reasonably competent summary of the
pluses and minuses of traditional webmail as it has grown up over the
last decade.
But then he totally loses it.
He lumps Gmail in with that ugly bunch of predecessors, Hotmail etc -
and completely misses the point of the revolution being ushered in by
Gmail during its continuing beta release over the last 9 months or so.
Which is?
The newer forms of webmail are making email (yes, all of email, not
just webmail) much simpler, safer and friendly. So much so, that
I expect that in just a few years time most of us - yes, even the
diehards among our number - will be major users of webmail.
**************************************************
Unfortunately, the authors of Woody's summary have not done their
homework.
As far as I can work out, all the arguments in the Woody's article
about limitations of webmail do not apply to Gmail as I have adapted it
for my own use.
I refer to:
* limitations on space - well I have (shall I say) a number of Gmail 1
gigabyte accounts and I just can't imagine that I will run short when
my total usage for about 3 to 4 years previously was around 300 meg
* "what Google giveth, Google can take away" - That is, these free
webmail accounts can be terminated or changed without notice.
This is so irrelevant to a careful use of webmail that I wonder why
anyone with half a brain would raise it. A major point of using a
product like Gmail as one's frontline mail account is to provide backup
against the uncertainties of computing at either end : -
namely, at your computer end with failure of your hard disk, or
the inevitable Windows crash, viruses etc or -
problems with your isp and - at the webmail
end, capricious change by the webmail provider.
Gmail provides for automatic forwarding of messages to your desktop
email client. So you have belt and braces coverage at all times.
For those of you who still don't think this is safe enough, I have
worked out a method for using a pyjama cord kept in your pocket as well
as the belt and braces. See me privately about this.
* webmail dropouts so that you lose your half-written email.
Just how stupid can these objections be? The best way to use webmail
for outgoing messages if you are at your home computer, is to originate
all your message on your resident email client, BUT IN THE PERSONA of
your webmail address. Then if you use a half decent email client like
Eudora with auto saving, you are in very little danger of losing a
draft email you are writing.
And if you are using Gmail itself for drafting a message, it has an
excellent save draft facility, a touch of the button always in front of
you.
These Woody's objections are just so mindless.
But what really gets my goat about the Woody's article is that the
authors seem to be so stuck into the conventional ways of doing email,
that they fail totally to recognise a glimmer of the major changes to
email which Gmail is ushering in: - the old ways of
managing one's inbox (Gmail auto archives), - of
constructing address lists (done automatically by Gmail), -
laboriously constructing and managing folders (replaced by
Gmail's labels and amazing search facility) etc etc - all these and all
the other marvellous features of this new product are totally
disregarded by this miserable summary.
But there is no law against remaining stuck in the mud.
On the other hand, I must admit to being a little peeved when I come
across these apostles urging others to join them in their morass.
For a highly competent summary of email, webmail and the whole damn
thing, I recommend that fine website from upper New York State:
http://www.emailaddresses.com
You will find there a site where self-serving adverts do not pester you
(that's a message for you, too, Woody) and where ignorance does not
reign supreme.
The Growth Of Webmail
Most of us would be aware of how much young people have taken to
webmail. For backpackers and young travellers, it has become a
lifeline. Their CVs for temporary work are kept on it. It
follows them wherever they go. And that means everywhere. I
have heard that if you go for a walk anywhere in the world where there
are people about, within a matter of minutes you will bump into an
Australian, probably a young one and a webmail user.
But there has been a huge recent growth, I suspect, in a second major
group of webmail users - namely, working people of middle years, in
their 30s and 40s. They may have access (if they wish) to POP
email on a home computer. But they have come to prefer one of the free
webmails. They can use it just as easily at both work and home,
with all their contacts and mailboxes at their fingertips wherever they
are on the day.
For those who missed my earlier instalment on email, webmail and Gmail,
I have posted a more inclusive summary on my website:
http://www.tip.net.au/~pmbell/
(Thanks to Mike D. for getting my feet web.)
But so much is happening with Gmail that my ink doesn't dry before
interesting new features appear.
For those of us who were fascinated by Mike D's demo of Picasa a few
weeks ago, just look what has happened with Google and Gmail to make it
easy for newbies to access the Picasa photo album software.
I just noticed today (4 March 2005) the following bunch of new features
on Gmail:
http://www.google.com/gmail/help/whatsnew.html
Magic
Pudding
You can only get Gmail by invitation from an
existing user –
during its continuing beta release and development.
And what a cracking pace that is setting. That
Google organisation is on fire.
So – for those wannabe-brave souls wondering if they will
put their toe in the water and actually test Gmail, I now have plenty
of
invites to offer. The Gmail spybots
appear to have recognised my enthusiasm for the Gmail experience. I now have a
magic pudding of 50 invites. A
magic pudding, because as soon as I issue a few invites, I am
immediately
topped up back to a total of 50.
So come on, you Oliver Twists out there. Ask
me for more - Google Gmail invites, I
mean - @ philip.bell@gmail.com, which will very
soon be (he concluded
pretentiously) the new world address for modern communications.
Don’t miss out!
Remember, the sooner you get a Gmail address, the better
looking that address will be. For
example, I’ve now cornered the emerging market for <philip.bell>. That management consultant and that garbo in
Melbourne who both carry my name, they‘ve both missed out.
The paedophile in a Sydney jail and that
young statistician in Canberra, both with my name, they’ve both missed
out
too. And
that American college
professor with my name has missed out real bad.
So get in there before you miss out too.
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