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By Marziah Karch <http://google.about.com/mbiopage.htm>, About.com Gmail is Google's free email service. You can find Gmail at mail.google.com What's So Great About Gmail? This is the first question a lot of people ask when they're offered an invite to Gmail. Turns out, there's quite a lot of great things about Gmail. For a free email service, it may even be the best one out there. How Do You Get an Account?Gmail used to be available by invitation only, but it has been opened up to everyone. When Gmail was first introduced, the growth was limited by only allowing users to invite a limited number of their friends to open accounts. This let Gmail maintain a reputation as being elite and created demand as well as limiting growth. Gmail was almost instantly one of the most popular email services available. The limited invitation system officially ended on February 14th, 2007. Does Gmail Put Advertisements on Messages?Ads on the right-hand corner of the message Screen Capture by Marziah Karch Gmail is sponsored by AdSense<http://google.about.com/od/moreaboutgoogleaps/p/adsenseprof.htm>ads. These ads appear on the side panel of mail messages when you open them from within Gmail. The ads are unobtrusive and computer matched to keywords within the mail message. Unlike some competitors, Gmail does not put ads inside messages or append anything to your outgoing mail. Google also assures everyone that ads are placed by computer, not by humans. Spam FilteringMost email services offer some sort of spam filtering these days, but Google's is one of the more effective. In fact, in two years of using Gmail, I've seen fewer spam messages in my inbox, compared to other email accounts and I've never had a legitimate email get flagged as spam. Virus Protection Google also offers virus filtering. You cannot turn this service off, and it prevents you from sending an executable file as an attachment. This limits some of what you can do with a Gmail account, but it probably prevents more mischief than it causes. Integration With Google Talk. Screen Capture by Marziah Karch Gmail shows your Google Talk<http://google.about.com/od/googleproducts/g/talkdef.htm>contacts on the left-hand side of the screen, so you can tell who is available and use Talk to instant message them rather than sending email, if you choose. You can even start a voice or video chat using this integration. You can also archive your Talk transcripts and store them within Gmail, if you use Google Talk or Gmail as your Talk client. This *doesn't* work if you use your Google Talk ID with a third party program, such as Adium<http://adiumx.com/>or Trillian. <http://www.trillian.cc/> Space, Space, and More Space. Gmail gives each user more than 2 gigs of storage space. That's a lot of space and more than most other web based email services. In fact, some third party software developers have created ways to use Gmail's storage for more than storing email and chat messages. The average user will never have to delete old messages to make room for new. Free POP and IMAP POP is the Internet protocol that most desktop mail readers use to retrieve mail messages. That means you can use programs like Outlook or Apple Mail to check your Gmail account.Similar mail services from Google competitors either charge for POP access or do not offer it. Google also provides free IMAP access. IMAP is the preferred protocol for people who use more than one computer or device to check their email. SearchScreen Capture by Marziah Karch You can search through saved email and Talk transcripts with Google as if you were searching for web pages. Google automatically skips searching through spam and trash folders, so you have results that are more likely to be relevant. Gmail Labs and To-Do Lists Gmail introduces experimental add-ons and features through Gmail Labs. This lets you decide which features you'd like to use while they're still being developed. How to Turn on Gmail Labs Features<http://google.about.com/od/experimentalgoogletools/qt/gmailLabs.htm> Part of those Gmail Labs features is a to-do list. This is a feature that was sorely needed for users who want to replace their traditional email account with Gmail. How to Create a Gmail To-Do List<http://google.about.com/od/toolsfortheoffice/qt/tasksGmail.htm> Offline Access If you download Google Gears, a browser extension, you can access your Gmail account from your browser window even when your computer is not connected. New messages will be received and sent when your computer is connected again. Lean More About Google Gears<http://google.about.com/od/googledownloads/p/google_gearspr.htm> Other FeaturesYou can check your Gmail through your mobile phone, or you can get notifications of new messages on your desktop<http://mail.google.com/mail/help/notifier/notifier_mac.html>. You can set up filters and labels to organize your mail. You can archive your mail for easier searches. You can subscribe to RSS and Atom feeds and receive feed summaries as if they were mail messages, and you can flag special messages with a gold star. What's *Not* to Love? Gmail has exploded in popularity, which means that there are occasional server slow downs and down times. Although Gmail lets you keep your mail archived on their server, don't count on it being the only backup for important data, just as you wouldn't leave important data on only one hard drive. The Bottom LineScreen Capture Gmail is one of the best, if not *the* best free email service out there. It is good enough that many users rely on their Gmail account as a primary email address. Gmail offers an amazing amount of options and features and the ads are barely noticeable compared to the intrusion of ads in some other free services. If you don't have a Gmail account, it is time to get one. - Gmail is available at mail.google.com. - Learn how to easily find directions from Gmail messa<http://google.about.com/od/gmailtipsandtricks/qt/easygmailmapqt.htm> --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "English Learner's Cafe" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/english_learners?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
