Free Gmail for Anyone Who Wants It

If you are unhappy with your present e-mail provider, I suggest that you read this article closely. If your present e-mail address is provided by your Internet provider (Verizon, Comcast, Charter, or whomever you pay for cable, DSL, or dial-up service), you will also probably want to read this article. If your present e-mail provider is deleting legitimate e-mail messages in their so-called "spam filters," you will want to read this article. If your present e-mail provider deletes old messages, this article will describe a better service that is designed to store old messages. If your in-box is full and you cannot store any more messages, this article also will be of interest to you.

Gmail is a free mail service provided by Google. Most people who have compared the various free e-mail services (Gmail, Yahoo, MSN Hotmail, AIM Mail, etc.) agree that Gmail outshines all the rest. It offers the best spam filtering service of all, much better than even most of the "for-pay" mail services. For instance, it works much, much better than AOL Mail.

Gmail now offers nearly three gigabytes of free storage, so you'll never need to delete another message. You can also keep messages for years. You can easily read your inbox messages on a desktop, laptop, or handheld computer.

It even works on many cell phones. I like the fact that I do not even have to check my in-box manually on my cell phone. Gmail automatically sends messages to my cell phone where they pop up automatically without any action on my part. I do shut the cell phone off when I go to bed. All messages that are received overnight appear in the morning a minute or two after I turn the cell phone on. All day long, new messages appear on my cell phone automatically. I can read them directly on the cell phone or in the standard method on my desktop or laptop computer. I can read e-mail messages in a web browser or in a normal e-mail program, such as Thunderbird, Eudora or Microsoft Outlook.

Finally, Gmail has a search mechanism that is unmatched on any other mail service, free or not. You can save tens of thousands of e-mail messages in Gmail. When you are looking for a message you received months ago about that genealogy research effort in East Podunk, you can find the message within seconds by using Gmail search, software that is based on Google's search engine.

In short, Gmail is one of the best mail services I have ever seen. It is better than any other free service I know of and even better than most mail services that charge money.

In the past, Gmail has been available only by invitation. That is, the only method of obtaining a Gmail account was to have a present Gmail user send you an invitation to sign up. This was implemented because Google did not want to be overwhelmed with new subscribers; the company wanted to grow the service in a controlled manner. It appears that the service is now ready for everyone. Google recently eliminated the invitation-only sign-up process. Now Gmail is available to everyone; no invitation is required. If you want to use the best free e-mail service, simply go to http://www.gmail.com and sign up.

I suggest that everyone should have two e-mail accounts. The first one should be a private address that you guard closely and only give out to trusted senders (family, friends, etc.). The second address should be a free mail account that you use for everything else. You can use the second address for online purchases, auction sites, posting to newsgroups, responding to advertisements, and other such purposes.

This will limit the amount of junk that inevitably builds up for anyone that uses the same e-mail address for a long period of time. Most of the junk will get sent to the free account instead of your primary "sacred" account.

Once the free account gets overrun with junk, you can simply discontinue using it and sign up for another free account, using a completely new address on the same system. Gmail is a great service to use for either your private or public e-mail address.

Next, you may be "locked in" today by use of an e-mail address provided by your present Internet provider. If you obtain your Internet service from Comcast, you probably have an e-mail address ending in "comcast.net." That's fine for now, but what do you do when you move or perhaps when another Internet provider offers a better service for less money? Moving your e-mail address from your Internet provider's mail servers to another service may be frustrating for you and your correspondents. You don't want to be locked in to a second-rate mail service because of difficulties in informing all your correspondents of a change in e-mail address.

I would suggest that you obtain a second e-mail address right now. This should be an address that you can access from anyplace in the world, not just from your Internet provider. It also should be independent from any Internet provider, an address that you can keep for years or else throw away at any time, regardless of where you obtain your Internet service. You can use any of the free, web-based e-mail providers for that purpose. Next, start informing your correspondents that you are switching e-mail addresses. However, keep checking both your new and old e-mail addresses for six months or even longer, if necessary. Eventually, the in-box at your old address will dry up; everyone will be using your new address. This is an easy and painless method of switching e-mail addresses.

NOTE: Gmail will even pull the messages from your old address and display them in your Gmail in-box so that you can read all your messages in one place. Optionally, you can send all your replies using your new Gmail address. You can even use Gmail's "signature file" option to add a line of text onto the end of every message you send: "Please note my new e-mail address of xyz@gmail.com" or something similar. Eventually, everyone will start using your new address.

To read messages from your old mail service in your new Gmail account:

• Log in to your Gmail account at mail.google.com.
• Click 'Settings' at the top of any Gmail page.
• Open the 'Accounts' tab, and click 'Add another email address.'
• Enter your other email address in the text box, and click 'Next Step.'
• Click 'Send Verification.' An email will be sent to your old account to verify that you entered the correct email address.
• Follow the instructions in the verification email, and start using your Gmail account to manage all of your email addresses. Gmail will even handle three, four, or more other e-mail accounts simultaneously.

Finally, Gmail has the best spam filters that I have seen. No spam filter is perfect; all of them let a few spam messages through and also will delete wanted messages occasionally. However, Gmail's filters make very few mistakes.

Every week I receive several messages from newsletter readers saying, "I didn't receive the newsletter in my in-box." More than 90% of the time, the reason turns out to be the fact that the person's mail provider deleted the newsletter message under the assumption it was spam. I find it interesting that I never receive such messages from Gmail users. It seems that Gmail always allows this newsletter through.

Gmail does place all messages that it recognizes as spam into a "spam folder." You can search this folder for wanted messages, if necessary. However, it is rare that I find a legitimate e-mail message in my spam folder on Gmail.

Gmail has a long list of other features. It automatically detects and removes viruses. It can forward all your Gmail addresses to another address. It can display messages on your cell phone. It can read RSS newsfeeds. Your friends can leave you a voicemail using Google Talk; the voice message is sent to your Gmail account as an audio file that you can download or play right from your inbox. You can read your messages in any web browser or by using a standard e-mail program, such as Eudora, Thunderbird, Outlook, Macintosh Mail, and others.

When viewed in a web browser, Gmail does display small advertising messages on the screen. These are smaller and less obtrusive than the other free web e-mail services. If you use a standard e-mail program to read e-mail, you never see ads from Gmail.

All in all, Gmail is a great service. Even better, it is available free of charge. If you want to either change your e-mail service or add a second address, Gmail is for you.

If you have had problems receiving this newsletter or other e-mail messages that you want to receive, a Gmail account will solve the problem. If all newsletter subscribers used Gmail, the number of "I didn't receive the newsletter" messages that I receive would drop to zero.

To sign up for your free Gmail account right now, go to http://www.gmail.com.

Comments

[Tim R]

Ask your friends about cell phones and get an unbiased opinion.

[RJ]

The instructions you gave add an e-mail address for you to send e-mail FROM using Gmail, but doesn't give you access to any of your e-mails sent TO that account.

That's useful for sending e-mails to people who only know one of your other e-mail addresses -- but you don't want to give away your Gmail email address to them.

The option in that same Accounts tab that you need to select for accessing e-mail from other accounts is the "Add another mail account" option. This one will require more information though, as it needs to log into your other e-mail account's POP3 server and send your username and password to their mail server. It will then download your messages into Gmail much like Eudora, Thunderbird, or Outlook does...

[RJ]

As an aside --- if you go through both the steps you mentioned as well as the steps to set up the actual downloading of messages from your external e-mail account(s), the two features of Gmail complement each other very well.

Yahoo, Hotmail, and several other "free" e-mail providers out there have the POP3 e-mail download feature, but to my knowledge none of them allow you to send e-mail "on behalf of" your external e-mail account. I must admit, that is a nice extra that Gmail provides.

[DSK]

My son turned me on to Gmail awhile back. Excellent site,service-- wish everyone could be like that. And as you suggested I have two addresses with them one for genealogy and one personal.

[Dino (All Dino, All the Time)]

And let's not forget that Google makes money by selling ads. They make no secret of the fact that their computers read your e-mail to determine which ads to insert and that they also store information about you and your e-mails on their servers.

From their Privacy Policy:
Google's computers process the information in your messages for various purposes, including formatting and displaying the information to you, delivering advertisements and related links, preventing unsolicited bulk email (spam), backing up your messages, and other purposes relating to offering you Gmail.

and:
Google records information such as account activity (including storage usage, number of log-ins), data displayed or clicked on (including UI elements, ads, links); and other log information (including browser type, IP-address, date and time of access, cookie ID, and referrer URL).

[Jason Presley]

Possibly the best feature GMail has to offer for genealogists is the way it tracks "conversations" rather than just thousands of disconnected messages. It keeps every email you send, and connects them to every response, so you can follow the conversation with someone just as if you were writing them letters and keeping carbon copies of all of your correspondance together.

Another benefit is that, since it keeps copies of all of your outgoing emails, it also stores any attachments you may send. If you delete the file from your computer and the person on the other end doesn't receive it or loses it, you can just re-send the message.

There is also an extension for Firefox called Gmail Space that allows you to use your GMail account as a file storage system.

[becca]

I have been a gmail user for about 3 years. Liked it so much that I started a new address for genealogy only. I love the way it groups all responses to an original message, together, so I don't have to search for responses. Also, I can post some gen information on the free documents & spreadsheets service and invite a "cousin" to look at it with me. I can access documents when I'm away from home and need to refer to information. And then there's the calendar function that I do use. Just wish there was a task list! And regarding the side bar ads: certainly no big deal. They are so unobtrusive that most times I forget they are there, unlike the annoying hotmail ads. They pick up phrases from notes you receive or send. Some are pretty humorous but I have actually found some of them helpful and have used them.

[Susan Daily]

Becca wrote: "I love the way it groups all responses to an original message, together, so I don't have to search for responses." This is especially helpful as you get to see all the replies to an original email/post before you send your reply. Many times someone asks a question of a list, and it gets answered, but people without gmail repeatedly send the same answer because they don't bother to read all the replies beforehand. Gmail makes this task much simpler and reduces the clutter.

I used to be bothered by Google's admission when they were first in Beta that the emails you send or receive could be saved on their servers forever. So if you send your family tree information to your account for a safe extra copy, the private data of living people could be stored there and possibly used at some much later date (in a big brother world). But now they have changed their privacy policy to state that remnants of old emails may remain on the servers for some time after you have deleted them or closed your account presumably until it is eventually overwritten by later backups. This is supposedly the same as other free email accounts.