Search and Email Finally Come Together

Google's Gmail: Search and Email Finally Come Together
By Merle http://MCPromotionsPress.com

If Google ran the world, my guess is that they'd do a pretty
good job. They seem to be everywhere, always growing and
expanding, coming up with new ways to be the dominant player
in the search arena.

Google's latest invention (or should I say re-invention?) is
email. Now, I know what you're thinking: "Big Deal. Free email
accounts are a dime a dozen." While that may be true for your
everyday email providers like Yahoo and Hotmail, it's definitely
not the case with Google's new Gmail: http://Gmail.Google.com

Gmail is web-based email on steroids. To start with, you're
given over 1,000 MB of storage, which means you can keep
messages for years without ever hitting your delete key and
still have plenty of room. In fact, Google encourages you not
to delete messages; they would rather you "archive" them, but
we'll get to that in a minute.

When you send someone an email and he replies and then you reply,
Google calls this a "conversation." Similar to a "threaded
discussion board," these conversations are grouped together for
easier searching. If you open an email, any responses to it are
"stacked" on top. Pretty cool!

The contacts from your pre-existing Yahoo, Outlook or other
email accounts can be imported into Gmail quite easily.

Now let's talk about that dirty word, "Sp.m." Gmail has its own
built-in filter and includes a button that enables you to report
any junk mail you didn't request to Google directly. Because of
possible viruses, HTML images are automatically disabled but can
be viewed by clicking on a separate button.

Also, for this reason .exe files are not allowed to be sent or
received by Gmail account users. This could pose a problem for
marketers who attach .exe ebooks to Gmail users.

Unlike other email programs that allow you to create folders
to hold emails you wish to file, Google uses what is called
"labels." One email conversation can have more then one label
attached to it, making it easy to find when searching on a
specific topic later.

When you're done with a message, clicking on the "archive"
button will take it out of your Inbox and put it into what
Google calls "All Mail." This is a holding ground for all
emails you have sent or received, so you don't have to delete
them, but it still removes them from your Inbox. When you need
to do a search for a past message, you would want to click into
"All Mail" first.

So what does all this great email search technology cost? Are
you ready? It's free -- but you will be exposed to text ads from
Google's Adsense Program in the side border of your emails. All
messages are scanned for their main theme and related text ads
are shown within the emails content. Of course, this has many
privacy advocates in an uproar. But why should it? The messages
are not read by a human; it's all an automated machine process.
The way I see it is, if it bothers you, don't use it. Gmail is
not forcing itself on anyone and last time I checked it was
still a free country.

Now, before you go rushing over to Google to sign up I have to
tell you this service is still not available to the public. Sort
of like a private club right now while they're in the testing
phase, you'll have to be "invited" by a current Gmail user or
you can buy your way in. If you do a search on Ebay you may find
an account or two for sale. There's also a website dedicated to
Gmail account sharing at http://www.GmailSwap.com

Remember, once you get an account, failure to log in for 9
months or more will cause you to lose it. Compared to Hotmail's
30 days, this is something I can live with. Google is also
working on rolling out POP3 support so you can use your account
from within your current email application and possibly add on
an antivirus scanning feature by licensing an existing virus
protection technology.

Anytime a new service or application pops onto the Net, hacks
and software add-ons are never far behind. Here are some software
additions that will enhance your life as a Gmail user:

1) POP Goes the Gmail: Enables you to read your Gmail from any
POP3 account. Go to http://www.Jaybe.org

2) Import Your Email: Tool to export your existing email from
your current email client over to Gmail.
http://www.marklyon.org/gmail

3) Gmail Drive: Uses your Gmail account for additional storage.
This software creates a virtual file system around your email
account. It literally adds another drive onto your computer.
You can drag files or folders and have them sent and saved to
your Gmail account. Only works with IE 5.0 or higher.

Get it at http://www.viksoe.dk/code/gmail.htm

4) Hide the Ads: This hack is for the Firefox Browser and
actually hides the text ads that Gmail displays within each
message. For install info, see...
http://digitalmediaminute.com/article/1063/

5) Icon Generator: Create your own Gmail Icon
http://www.nhacks.com/email/index.php

6) Gmail Notifier: Downloadable software for Windows 2000 or XP.
This icon sits in your Window tray and alerts you when a new
Gmail message arrives in your in box.

http://toolbar.google.com/gmail-helper/

7) Gmail Trax: Allows you to search your Gmail account, emails
from your desktop.

See http://www.tong-web.com/gmail

8) PS Gmail: If you already have a POP Email account, use this
service to check your Gmail account too. 15 day fully
functional trial- Cost is $7.90

Go to http://windohs.net/psgmail/

So there you have the "skinny" on Google's new Gmail. The
two biggest benefits I can see are the searching and storage
capabilities. These two factors alone outperform any other web
based email program out there today.

By combining Google's powerful search functions with email,
you'll never again have to say "Now where did I put that
message?"

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Merle of WebSiteTrafficPlan.com offers a F-r-e-e ebook and an
e-course that will teach you how to promote and market your
website. Grab your copy now at http://WebSiteTrafficPlan.com
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