First Take on Gmail

OK, blame me for being geeky again but I really have something to say about Gmail after using it for a couple of days.

First of all, I love it. Not just because the storage is 1GB (I am still using 1% of it) but also the interface itself is quite nice. Well, it depends heavily on JavaScript (which I personally don’t like) but in Gmail’s case it make some sense to certain degree.

Gmail is made with the mailing list concept in mind, so the ‘threading’ feature is really helpful to keep track of a particular thread or ‘conversation’ (Google’s term). I really love this feature, it is simply amazing.

The ‘label’ concept as a replacement of folder is quite helpful especially to handle so-called ‘cross-posting’ because with folder sometimes it is really difficult to choose where to put the message because it was posted on a couple different mailing list that probably you also subcribe to all of them.

The search features is really good. Well, Gmail is from Google, THE search engine, so what can you expect?

All of these features are already available for public.

The bad side? Well, it’s not really fair to say something bad about “beta” version, right? Of course something is always not quite right, the address book feature compared to Yahoo! Mail is next to nothing, the attachment system is quite tiresome (can’t do multi files attachment at one time) and sometime Gmail just doesn’t work (it stuck with the word “Loading…” on the edge of the screen). Additional note: although Gmail states that Safari browser version 1.2 is supported, the truth is Safari still crash a lot if there are some JavaScript executed. So right now I am using Camino browser for my Gmail daily use.

Overall, I am quite happy with Gmail. Of course the heavy dependable on JavaScript could be a major turn off but we’ll see how this thing will goes. So far I am satisfied with the 1GB storage, nice and cool feature and good support team.