Sh-h-h SneakeD-A-PeeK of G-mail

Sh-h-h SneakeD-A-PeeK at G-mail

NEW YORK - Having tried most Web-based e-mail services, we were eager to try Google's new Gmail, which offers up to a full gigabyte of storage.

Google invited us to experiment with the early version of the service, and taking into account that it remains under construction, we have a few preliminary observations.

At first glance, it looks like pretty much every other Web-based e-mail service out there. But there are a few interesting features we haven't seen before.

First, Gmail is good for the e-mail pack rat that many people are becoming. Most people delete old e-mail messages because they have storage constraints--or think they do, or because they just don't like to see a cluttered inbox. But if you're the type who likes to refer back to old e-mail in order to remember what you or another party said, Gmail's 1-gigabyte storage is certainly a welcome change.

Another feature that makes it easy to re-trace the steps in an e-mail exchange: say you need to remember a few action items sent by e-mail from the boss. Once you find the one of the e-mail messages that is part of that exchange, Gmail displays it with related messages in the window. Gmail calls these exchanges "conversations." And clicking on one expands it so that more than one relevant message is displayed at a time. A link at the right of the screen says "expand all," and it expands all the messages that are part of a conversation.

Finding those messages is far easier and faster than with any other e-mail program or service we've ever experienced. A search field at the top of screen lets you search for practically any word that may appear in any part of the email, including the subject, the name of the sender or what may be in the body of the message. If there's one thing Google does well, it's search. We entered in words we knew we had used in messages sent and they popped up instantly. Another search using the last name of the moderator of a certain mailing list we subscribe to was equally fast and comprehensive.
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http://www.forbes.com/technology/personaltech/2004/04/12/cx_ah_0412tentech.html

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