E-Mail Service

I want a GMail account; :o) if only it were that simple. Right now Google’s new email service “gmail” is still in Beta and thus they only accept new people by invitation. Also people are encouraged to trade their invitations and accounts to others but there are only a few out there compared to the amount of people that want these accounts. Currently my default email account is at hotmail.com, I think it might be in my Bio if you are interested. However Hotmail is giving me grief now that I am archiving a lot of email and using it full-time.

Firstly, I purchased the bottom tier of premium Hotmail service (the extra storage option) because 2MB was a ridiculously small mailbox size. It currently provides 25MB of space and a few other things. Google’s new service provides 1GB for free and is designed for archiving email. They state that you should never have to delete your email again. Most other free email services are catching up; Hotmail is slated to move to 2GB for bottom tier customers some time in July. They have a little bubble about the changes on the Home tab at the bottom right.

Secondly, the interface is missing many important features that would make using it less of a chore. Simple things like changing the button layout so that there is always a delete X close by no matter what resolution you are using. They added a “Mark as Unread” recently but there is no accompanying “Mark as Read” which would be useful in mailing list situations (which I have a few of). Also there are too many problems with the contacts portion to mention. The main ones are that quick favourites are screwed up in Mozilla. It too tough to maintain contacts who have many multiple email addresses which leads to a lot of issues when receiving and sending mail when you Junk filter is maxed out.

Thirdly, and perhaps my largest current bone of contention, is the email sending section. There should be an option to enable the save to sent mail check box by default; or it should be checked by default. This has lost me countless email messages that I have wanted to go back and look at, (my memory is useless). I am certain gmail will have this feature due to the statement about email above.

Lastly, I wish they would allow you to setup a forwarding address. It could even be a forward and delete service I wouldn’t care. I have always wanted the ability to switch at any time to a different email box depending on my situation. I currently have at least one old email address sending to my Hotmail account.

Hey google give me a gmail invitation please. Thanks. :o)