GMail

GMail is an email service hosted by Google. After the company I work for switched its email provider from a local, private company to GMail, I did the same for my private mail domain (ronware.org). The following is a discussion of what GMail is, and what the advantages and disadvantages are to using it.

What is GMail?

GMail is an email service hosted by Google, the "search" people. It provides a very-high capacity mail system, which is accessible via the internet (e.g. 'web-mail') as well as the more traditional POP and IMAP methods.

GMail vs. ISP

Advantages

• GMail is massively backed-up; it is virtually impossible to lose emails
• Server uptime is 99.999%; service is 24/7/365
• Email address doesn't change just because ISP does
• Free
• 6GB mail storage (and growing); 20GB or more via paid service
• Full control over mail addresses (if you use your own domain, as I do)

Disadvantages

• IMAP access is slow
• No real "folders"
• At mercy of Google