Much ado about e-mail.

I guess I just don’t “get” the excitement about Gmail. It seems to me it’s just another webmail service with a higher storage limit than some. To me, owning a domain is the ultimate in email. I can have as many “addresses” as I want, so I rarely get spam. I just do something like “amazon@mydomain.com” – if a certain address starts getting spam, I just delete it. I never put my “main” email anywhere on the web or use it for anything commercial or for any list (I just would use thislist@mydomain.com) – so I get very little spam. My mail server is set up with SpamAssasin and I use my own filters. Really, I get about 2 or 3 spam emails a day, and have had this address for over 4 years. People find it hard to believe.
My mail server also has webmail, so I could check it from anywhere with just a browser, if I wished. So what is the attraction? Does Gmail do a good job at filtering spam?

Anonymous

…Gmail is free?

I don’t know yet, Charles; I haven’t gotten any there yet. I use my own web-goddess.org domain much the same way you do, but I seem to have a much bigger spam problem with it. In fact, lately it hasn’t been spam so much as the f**king Windows viruses. I’m getting at least a dozen a day. And there really isn’t any way around that. As soon as a single one of your friends or family get infected, you’re screwed. That’s my experience, anyway.

I also had to turn off the “wildcard” option on my e-mail server because I’ve been the victim of spam attacks in the past. (My Roald Dahl site is even worse. I had to remove my address altogether and install a web form, which is currently down because the little bastards started stuffing THAT.) I *could* set up each address as I need it (amazon@web-goddess.org, etc.), but that’s a hassle and it’s always been much easier to just use khoward1@yahoo for all that crap. Then I just log in and clear it out periodically.

To be honest, I’m not sure what I’ll use Gmail for. I like Google and they do some pretty amazing things. At present, I like it because it’s a memorable address that I’m not ashamed to put on my resume. (“web-goddess”, though fun, doesn’t always look very “corporate”. And telling people my address has always been a pain: “web hyphen goddess… no, hyphen… you know, a dash… if you don’t put it in, you get porn…”) It’s so much nicer to just say “kris.howard@gmail.com”. I also used it on the weekend to transfer a pretty big file (6+MB) to a friend that might’ve been more difficult otherwise. And besides, it’s just in beta. They might have amazing things on store!

Yeah, it’s free Anonymous. It hasn’t opened fully to the public yet, though, so if you want in you’ve got to find somebody with invitations. They give them out to users periodically. I think a launch is imminent, though, since I’ve gotten six invites in the week I’ve had my account.

Claire

I think most people are attracted to anything done by Google. I guess a google email address is becoming a cool-kid must-have, Charles 🙂

Bloody hell. I just got five more invites. Who wants ’em?

kirsty

i’d love to have a play with gmail and see what it’s like if there’s an invite going spare…. thanks!

Miss Helen

Kris, people are selling the invite codes on ebay now. The insanity!
http://search.ebay.com/gmail_W0QQfromZR7

I heard about that! Seems a bit silly, especially since they seem to be handing out the invites so freely. I’m guessing the official launch may happen soon. I won’t bother selling mine… It’s much more fun to gift them to people!

Speaking of… Kirsty and Yasmin, your invites have been sent!

Miss Helen

I’ve gifted mine already! What an amazing marketing ploy! It’s like throwing a limited amount of bread to the seagulls!

thanks kris!

Just a note re: the viruses – that’s not your address, but your email client. If your server’s not knocking those out – then . . . well, I guess it could be a lazy host and I can see where Gmail would be good. I also use a client to view mail on the server before downloading anything (Poptray), so fortunately nothing gets through to my box.

I’m not worried about infecting myself. I use a Mac, after all (she says smugly). It’s just that there are so many, and they’re all different so my normal Bayesian filter doesn’t catch them, and not only do I get the viruses themselves, but I also get the bounces from when they spoof my e-mail address, as well as concerned e-mails from friends “informing” me that I have a virus, when I don’t, and it drives me nuts, and why don’t you people all Switch already? 🙂

Actually I used to just leave everything on the server and use pine to read it, but OS X’s Mail.app is so pretty. I’m sure I could install SpamAssassin or make some more rules to cover more of the virus situations, but frankly I’m annoyed that I have to. And it hasn’t quite become unmanageable yet. I get a dozen or so viruses a day and a couple spams, all of which are quickly deleted. I just haven’t ever been bothered enough to put an ironclad solution in place.

But like I said, I’m not really using Gmail to replace my personal domain e-mail; I’m using it to replace my Yahoo e-mail, which fills with hundreds of spam a day.

Mia

Kris, if you get another – throw a girl an invite, would ya? =)

Done, Mia! (I addressed it to “Lindsey Sinclair.” Is that your real name or is it a pseudonym?)

“Lindsey”

Why, real of course! *wink* Thanks a lot for the invite – i’m all set up. NIIIIIIICE!!! Now i’m with the in-crowd. Don’t worry – if I get invites, I’ll throw ’em this way. =)

amy

omigawd, there are 97 gmail auctions, that’s nutz.

Ben

Blimey… There are sending lots out. Any more and I’d love one!

Shan

me too!

Crud. I can’t seem to access it from my browser at work. I’ll send you my last when I get home, Ben. You’re becoming a regular here, and that must be rewarded. 🙂

Sorry, Shan! I’ll post if I get anymore…

Shan

neeeevermind, got one from someone else.. hehe