06-15-2007, 10:33 AM

There seems to be a multitude of companies offering a webmail service. Some are free, some charge a monthly or annual fee, some presumably derive their revenue from advertising. I don’t understand why folks would prefer to use a webmail service rather than a traditional email client such as Apple Mail, Eudora, Gyaz mail or whatever. An email client often offers the user more control over appearance, fonts, etc, and allows the user to carry out some tasks while off-line. If an IMAP connection is used there is the additional security of excellent backup (usually).
Am I missing something? And how popular is webmail anyway?

06-15-2007, 10:37 AM

I guess I use a webmail client as my primary mail, as I'm always on the move and can check my mail more easily at different terminals. I've used pop3 clients before and used mail2web.com etc to read them, but just find it easier to use one account that I can access anywhere. Gmail is my service of choice

The last client I used was Thunderbird, almost 2 years ago or something to that extent, lovely client but I just have no need for the bells and whistles.

06-15-2007, 10:38 AM

I love my webmail (I use Gmail), because when on my Mac I am still receiving all mail through the Mail.app, and use all it's fuctionality.

Then when I'm away from home, all I need is access to ANY computer and the internet, to again see all my messages.

06-15-2007, 11:02 AM

Originally Posted by beetone

There seems to be a multitude of companies offering a webmail service. Some are free, some charge a monthly or annual fee, some presumably derive their revenue from advertising. I don’t understand why folks would prefer to use a webmail service rather than a traditional email client such as Apple Mail, Eudora, Gyaz mail or whatever. An email client often offers the user more control over appearance, fonts, etc, and allows the user to carry out some tasks while off-line. If an IMAP connection is used there is the additional security of excellent backup (usually).
Am I missing something? And how popular is webmail anyway?

It's basically that you don't need anything except a web browser to access it. You can get it any where, and from any computer.

It's also stored in the same way. If you use something like outlook, it'll remove the mail from the server (and sent items never appear on the server). You can only get it through the program you used, on the computer you used.

Like the others said, for a road warrior it's often a far better option.

06-15-2007, 01:40 PM

I use Gmail and love it for the same reasons everyone here has mentioned. I want the option to check from anywhere, but rarely need to use that option. I use Entourage client for my Gmail and school mail and hardly ever actually check it over the browser.

06-15-2007, 02:22 PM

I'm an Excite.com user (Yes, they are still around ) and it's easy and free. I don't get unlimited storage like Yahoo! (I only have 125 MB) but it's good enough for me.

Most of the services you use through a client cost money, which I don't have a lot of and of course, theres the plus of being able to access it anywhere at anytime.

06-15-2007, 02:41 PM

Originally Posted by RIDE

I love my webmail (I use Gmail), because when on my Mac I am still receiving all mail through the Mail.app, and use all it's fuctionality.

Then when I'm away from home, all I need is access to ANY computer and the internet, to again see all my messages.

Ditto here. Gmail works great and does both Web and POP very well.

06-15-2007, 02:47 PM

Originally Posted by PinkLemonade

I'm an Excite.com user (Yes, they are still around ) and it's easy and free. I don't get unlimited storage like Yahoo! (I only have 125 MB) but it's good enough for me.

Most of the services you use through a client cost money, which I don't have a lot of and of course, theres the plus of being able to access it anywhere at anytime.

You should really look into Gmail... it is entirely free, and gives you almost 3GB of space which is essentially unlimited as far as I'm concerned.

06-15-2007, 05:13 PM

Webmail is more popular than using clients like Mail.

This is because you can access it from anywhere that has an internet connection, and also it is more secure, because your emails are stored on a professionally protected server someplace, not on your computer.

06-15-2007, 05:21 PM

Originally Posted by smurfy

Webmail is more popular than using clients like Mail.

This is because you can access it from anywhere that has an internet connection, and also it is more secure, because your emails are stored on a professionally protected server someplace, not on your computer.

Hah, that's true.

Outlook or similar can be a fairly hefty backup. That of course means hardly anyone actually does.

06-15-2007, 05:22 PM

And now back to our regularly scheduled topic...

Gmail rocks! In addition to all of the features mentioned by others, there are additional features that are valuable.

For instance, if you want to search on your email, you have the power of Google behind you. I use Outlook at work, and it is connected to whatever MS type server runs it. If I want to find something in my work email, it's a chore with maybe a probablility of .75 success. That's versus Gmail with a prob of .95 of success. Ymmv [your mileage may vary], but I usually dread searching work mail whereas I almost never dread searching my Gmail. It isn't just the ability to search and filter; presentation is as important. Again, I usually find what I want through gmail; I do measureably worse with Outlook.

Also, gmail has "labels", something sorely lacking in Outlook. You can have gmail automagically filter email and put multiple labels on messages if you want. You can also manually add labels or remove them. So what? With labels, you can look at one category of email if you wish. Maybe you get a bunch of mail from a group of friends. Maybe too there are a few messages from those same friends that you want to keep in a smaller list. You can do that too.

Fwiw, I have a .mac account, complete with email service. I use my .mac email account in a very limited manner, and don't see it being all that important to me in the future. I like .mac, and the mail service is probably fine, but gmail beats it.

I use gmail strictly online, and have been using it for a few years. For all practical purposes it's the only personal email service I use.

06-15-2007, 05:36 PM

Originally Posted by fleurya

I love all this "get a life" talk. Eventually someone will have to tell me exactly what "a life" is. Isn't doing what you like and enjoying your time you have a life? Whatever makes you happy and doing it seems like a good life to me; be it sports, reading, talking to friends (in any form) gaming, working 16 hours a day, traveling, whatever, just as long as you like it.

People who have negative attitudes all the time and have to go around putting others down to make themselves feel better seem like the ones don't really have "a life". They seem to have to validate their lives and what they do by gaining approval from others or doing what others approve of instead doing what they really want. That's not living to me.

QFT.

I used to live with someone like that...she almost sucked the soul out of me. It's taken a long time to get myself back from the brink of depression. I've since found someone much happier than that...and we are tremendously happy.

I have a life. (and I'm a gamer...so i'm better off than samurai dude...who's a troll...I kill trolls once a week! )

06-15-2007, 05:49 PM

Originally Posted by mathogre

For instance, if you want to search on your email, you have the power of Google behind you. I use Outlook at work, and it is connected to whatever MS type server runs it.[...]

Also, gmail has "labels", something sorely lacking in Outlook.[...]

As a Microsoft Exchange client, Entourage fixes both of those things. It allows Spotlight to search your Exchange mail, and it allows you to apply as many user-defined "Categories" to your messages as you like.

Entourage has its own issues, though, especially as an Exchange client.

06-15-2007, 06:35 PM

Originally Posted by technologist

As a Microsoft Exchange client, Entourage fixes both of those things. It allows Spotlight to search your Exchange mail, and it allows you to apply as many user-defined "Categories" to your messages as you like.

Entourage has its own issues, though, especially as an Exchange client.

To be perfectly fair, you can add labels to Outlook mail as well . . . I'm not necessarily recommending it, but you can do it.

Outlook is a good client when it's on an Exchange network. We use it throughout the company, and can have 'public' folders where everybody (or limited groups) can have access to each others mails.

Searching can be slow - some of our folders have 40,000+ mails in them, but the results depend more on the user than anything else. If you know what you're looking for, outlook will find it. Eventually . . .

I don't use Gmail, but I have a mailserver running on my personal domain, accessed via webmail, and it works fine. Have had that for nearly 10 years now.

06-15-2007, 07:50 PM

Originally Posted by RIDE

You should really look into Gmail... it is entirely free, and gives you almost 3GB of space which is essentially unlimited as far as I'm concerned.

Nah, I've tried it. The interface and the way it organizes mail just doesn't work for me.