Gmail is just one of the tools located inside of the G Suite, that enables an endless set of expanding capabilities that you can leverage to your advantage. Google effectively tackled the problem of spam, search, allowing you a lot of storage, yet very low cost. In this blog, we will discuss the top 10 reasons why you should switch to Gmail.<\/p>\n
One of the most common problems that you encounter is exceeding the mail quota set by the service provider. This can be due to a number of reasons, but primarily is due to the inadequate mail storage provided by many ISPs. If you are using an IMAP configuration with only 25 megabytes of storage allocated on your ISP\u2019s mail server, you will shortly run into problems. Even with POP mail being downloaded to your computer, if you check your email infrequently you may still encounter these problems. Google counters this with a generous 15 gigabytes of storage, shared between Gmail and Google Drive. If you find you are getting close to filling your quota, you can expand your limit to 100 gigabytes for just $5 per month.<\/p>\n
Additionally, if you ever choose to migrate to a new ISP you may lose your emails! You can avoid this by using Google\u2019s Mail Fetcher to download any messages from your mail server and store them in Gmail.<\/p>\n
Many mail servers will reject emails with attachments over a particular size (or cumulative size if multiple attachments). This varies between servers, but 10 megabytes is generally the limit imposed by most. Gmail allows actual attachments of up to 25 megabytes, while files uploaded to Google Drive (which can be easily attached\/linked to) may be up to a whopping 10 gigabytes!<\/p>\n
One feature that desktop clients have had over Gmail in the past is offline availability. Desktop mail clients store a local copy of your messages that are able to be read offline and replies can be composed and saved to your outbox, ready to be sent when you have internet access. Gmail\u2019s weakness in the area has now been remedied with the release of Gmail Offline \u2013 an app developed for Google\u2019s web browser, Google Chrome. Released in 2013, Gmail Offline allows \u201cmail to be read, responded to, searched and archived\u201d without an active connection to the internet. It has a stripped-down interface that will be familiar to anyone who has used Gmail\u2019s phone or tablet app. While it lacks many of the features of the web interface, it provides the basics of email availability and message composition which had heretofore been lacking.<\/p>\n
These days, even the most technophobic people have multiple communication devices \u2013 smartphones, tablets and computers are not just for those in business or technology industries anymore. However, many are not utilising these devices to their potential. What\u2019s the point of all this new technology if you\u2019re not taking advantage of it?<\/p>\n
With Google\u2019s Android operating system<\/a> approaching 80% market share, they are of course providing strong support for Gmail on those devices. Synchronising your devices makes it easy to keep track of emails you\u2019ve read and those you\u2019ve responded to, and to maintain your contact list and calendar events. With the universal support for the Google platform, setting up and synchronising your gadgets is more user friendly than ever before.<\/p>\n Google Drive is a great file storage tool as well as an online file viewer. While similar online storage facilities offer free packages, Google Drive\u2019s storage quota of 15 gigabytes dwarfs that offered by Dropbox (2GB) and Microsoft\u2019s SkyDrive (7GB). Google\u2019s powerful search engine also means that when you search Google Drive, you\u2019re not just searching file names \u2013 you\u2019re searching the contents of the files. So even if you have forty-six files named Untitled Document, Google is still able to find the draft of your essay, or the recipe you were collating, or the draft of your play, based on the content of your files!<\/p>\n Google Drive\u2019s Windows and Apple apps allow you to drag and drop into the folder for easy desktop management, while the web interface lets you access those files from anywhere. Google provides mobile access for iOS and Android platforms (as to be expected) with apps available for free from the Apple App Store and Google Play Store respectively.<\/p>\n Another aspect that mail clients have traditionally handled better than webmail interfaces, is managing multiple accounts. Gmail allows multiple account management in two different ways: POP mail checking and browser cookies.<\/p>\n This option allows you to add up to five POP mail accounts. POP is still the most common mail delivery protocol, and supported almost universally. Using Gmail\u2019s Mail Fetcher, you can download messages from your ISP mail account, your Hotmail account, your Yahoo account, your Live.com account, or any other service that supports the POP protocol. Not only that, but Gmail also allows you to continue to send from those addresses despite accessing the messages via Gmail (so even though you log into Gmail to check your messages, your emails will be sent from your @hotmail.com or @live.com email address). This feature allows you to easily manage multiple accounts by logging into a single location. Filtering and labelling also allows for simple and easily identifiable colour-coding of your incoming messages.<\/p>\n Browser cookies allow you to switch easily between multiple Google accounts, if you have them! These sessions persist as long as your cookies do (but be aware that if you clear cookies on browser close, you\u2019ll need to add the accounts during each browser session).<\/p>\n Google\u2019s labelling system may seem a little strange at first if you\u2019re used to folders, but it should be easy to see that a feature that accomplishes the task of both folders AND flags makes managing your inbox much less complicated! Not only that, you are able to attribute multiple labels to a single email.<\/p>\n For example, you may keep all your correspondence with your uncle under a label named \u201cUncle Joe\u201d. But you also like to keep all emails with family photos attached under the label \u201cFamily Photos\u201d. You receive an email from Uncle Joe, describing his holiday to Fiji, with photos of your cousin\u2019s wedding. Unlike with folders, you can add both of these labels to a single email.<\/p>\n You can choose whether to visually display these messages in your inbox, or to hide them from the inbox, only visible when you select the labels that they belong to. As mentioned above, these labels can be colour coded to make for easy identification.<\/p>\n You can contact us in case you need a technician for Email or Online Account Setup or Support<\/a>. We will help you to manage your Gmail account.<\/p>\n\n
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