Converted All Outlook Stuff to Gmail. Very Pleased.

Gmail (Google Mail)

Date of use: 

My Review 

To be honest, I don't understand some of the comments by other users. I just recently went to Gmail so I don't know about the "old" look...overall am very pleased with the tool. I was an Outlook user for years… as a corporate user, and when I went on my own 10 years ago. I've been using Outlook on my home office machine because I was comfortable with it, and didn't trust/understand the online services. Each new computer I purchased, I also upgraded Outlook.

I got tired of pulling backups once a week, having to manually sync my Blackberry (now an iPhone and iPad user) and other items. When traveling I've gone to taking a netbook… the only way I could get to my Outlook e-mail while traveling was through GoToMyPC, which while functional, is a bit clunky and slow. Began looking for something more cloud based… looked at Outlook Web Access and several other packages and providers. However, they always had a monthly charge and not much in the way of storage.

Decided to try Gmail. Converted all my Outlook stuff to Gmail two weeks ago, and am VERY pleased with the decision.

Pros:

-- No pulling backups.

-- No manual synching… everything done automatically… mail, calendar, contacts, to do lists all have the same info no matter if I'm using my office computer, netbook, iPad, iPhone, or some other machine.

-- Plenty of storage (currently using only 16% of what's allocated).

-- Able to set up all the nested mail folders I had in Outlook. Didn't have to rethink my filing system and how I organize.

-- Fabulous spam filter.

-- Does everything I need it to.

Cons:

-- Having to get used to a new user interface after using Outlook for eons.

-- Sometimes lags a bit when loading (could this also be a function of my connection?).

-- Free version has ads… although they aren't real obtrusive.

-- Text formatting in email note isn't as smooth as Outlook.

-- Took a little while to get my several e-mail addresses set up, working and looking the way I wanted them, and everything moved from Outlook files to Gmail.

Overall I am SO glad I switched over from Outlook resident on one machine to Gmail.

Would you recommend this to a friend?