Found this today and had to share my thoughts. Considering the fact that the posting left out the inclusion of other services like Hotmail, it is rather one-sided in my opinion. Yes, it is not a shock at all that Yahoo still has a larger number of users for their email services as it has been around a lot longer. That and as one person pointed out previously, switching from one email account to another can be a real pain in the backside. Not so much the migration of the data as making sure people in that address book are adhering to the change of address.
So what do you think? Do most people understand that just because Gmail is a Google product does not mean that it will out work established alternatives like Yahoo or Hotmail. Could I be wrong? Are the graphs on the previously linked even close to producing likely predictions for Gmail’s future? I guess anything is possible.
[tags]email, webmail email clients[/tags]
Been using yahoo mail for years. It has flaws but I consider it the best web mail out there. Spam filtering is superior to any.
I use GMAIL.com because of the free IMAP administration !!!
THIS IS GREAT, YOU CAN CHECK/MANAGE YOUR MAILS ONLINE FROM DIFFERENT PC’S….Blackberry, etc….
IMAP is the way to go !
Bertrand,
Brussels
HI Matt,
I’ve got 4 different E-mails, Hotmail, myway, netzero & G-mail. They all have problems of one kind or the other. I have a personal hate for anything YaHoo from a problem 7 or 8 years ago, so I’ll never use it. I’ve never had any trouble getting G-mail. Now Hotmail’s a different story, sometimes I can’t even get to MSN’s home page to get to Hotmail?????
One thing that wasn’t mentioned, G-mail was by invitation only to start. I’m sure that slowed things down a lot. They’re all free and you get what you pay for.
Found this…
http://lifehacker.com/software/gmail-tip/import-messages-into-gmail-via-imap-332624.php
I merely added Gmail as an IMAP account to my Apple Mail client, then just dragged folder-by-folder all the messages important to me onto my Gmail account. It took a while to transfer all the messages (be sure to open the Activity window in Mail to see your progress), but once it was done, all my old messages were safely stored in Gmail and had their original dates! Perfect!
Honestly, I can’t live without GMAIL. Especially the calendar and documents integrated modules. Everything is right there at your fingertips!
It seems to me that just because something is more widely used does not mean it is a better system, whether you are talking about e-mail or anything else related to computers. Truthfully, many users of e-mail are non-technical (e-mail use is not confined to techies and computer consultants!), and even many business owners I work with don’t know the first thing about choosing proper products and systems without guidance. I think you are right that part of the reason Yahoo might be a more popular e-mail choice is because it has been around longer and many people are “used” to it at this point (and not interested in the pain of changing over to a new e-mail address). Also, when Gmail was still being developed, it was an invitation-only e-mail system (even as shortly as a couple years ago), so I don’t think it has completely caught on yet.
I do have a gmail account, though I’m not familiar with all of its features. I do agree though, with techiegals comment. I like the fact that the calendar, is a click away. I also have a yahoo account which is my more frequently used account. Only because I had it long before the gmail one. I like them both and have had no problems with either.