Jeremy Zawodny has an interesting little writeup about GMail vs. Thunderbird. For those of you who like to geek out about email clients, the end result is that he found GMail to be surprisingly strong. And since this is coming from someone employed by Yahoo, that’s a pretty bold statement.
I do have to admit that I agree with his assessment that one of the greatest featuers of GMail is that it’s fast. Incredibly fast. I’m not just talking about the search feature either (which is blazingly fast). I would much rather work within GMail than Entourage. Outlook is pretty slick, but it almost has too many features. GMail is clean, simple, and really really fast. You wouldn’t really expect that from a web based email client either.
He compares it to Flickr, saying “it’s on a very short list of Internet applications that are at least as good as their desktop counterparts.” I never really thought about it that way, but there’s no question that he’s dead on. I have essentially replaced iPhoto with Flickr and once I leave the school I’m at, GMail is the only email client I intend to use. Having it be web based also provides it a huge advantage in my mind. I regularly switch back and forth between several computers, so not having to worry about syncing up servers, or having multiple email databases is huge. Yes, I know I could be using IMAP, but this way I always have the same interface as well.
It may still be in beta, but with every person having 50 invites available, I think everyone who wants a GMail account probably has one by now. If you don’t have one though and are looking to give it a try and see what all the fuss is about, drop me a line and I’ll send you an invite.
I was skeptical of Gmail in the beginning…my first few experiences with it were a bit confusing. As soon as I relaxed and “unlearned” what my brain has been trained about email clients, I quickly discovered that Gmail is a killer app…and a web app at that. I switch between many machines and operating systems and find that it’s just plain solid.
Here’s the “extending” question. Why do we (as school districts) continue to insist on doing it ourselves? Here’s a free, web-based, completely managed application that does email better than we every can/will as a school district. It has a simple web interface for beginners and extends into pop clients for those who are looking for a little more of a challenge. No backup worries, no configuration worries, you could essentially “outsource” your email system to your users. (Ok, a bit of a stretch.)
The day that gets really interesting is when Goolgle launches a calendaring app.
It’s an interesting point. I know there are issues with security, but I think mostly it’s about control. For better or for worse, schools tend to want to be in control of tools that they endorse. However, you do bring up a very valid question. It would certainly take some of the pressure off of technology coordinators and would definitely decrease costs by a pretty decent amount.
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