by April J.

Created on: May 10, 2011

When it comes to user-friendly web email, you need look no further than Gmail. By the same company whose search engine is so popular that its name is now used as a verb – Google – Gmail is packed with features and advantages that set it apart from, and above, other web-based email accounts. This article will explore a few of these...

Serious storage

Currently sitting at a default of 1048MB (1G), Gmail has a pretty decent amount of storage available so that you can save a large number of emails, including large files such as pictures. If this proves to be too little for your large archive of messages, there are currently options available for purchasing more storage at pretty reasonable prices, currently with the upper limit of 1TB (terabyte) – a very substantial amount of storage that is (for the moment anyway – this changes all the time) bigger than most hard drives.

Easy organization

Email layout is well-organized and intuitive. For example, with "conversation view", emails that are part of one message thread are all organized together, making it easy to follow the flow of the discussion. It is also easy to flag emails in order to sort them, so that you can tailor your organization system according to what works best for you.

Ruthless spam filtering

Everyone knows that Google's search algorithms are good, and – well – so are their spam filtering ones. Gmail's spam filters are so good that you may be surprised by just how rarely (if ever) your Inbox is graced by the presence of an email of the "Dear Friend", "Kind Sir" or "Vi@@grrrrA" variety. On the off chance that one does make it past the goalpost, just hit the "Report Spam" button and your filters will adjust themselves to try to ensure it doesn't happen again. Filtered messages are stored in a junk folder, in case you ever do need to check it for legitimate messages (or are just curious to see what's in there)...

Sweet search function

Those good search algorithms we have come to know and love? They are put to work in Gmail as well, so that when you do decide to store an entire 1G of emails, you can find the one you are looking for when the time arises. Simply plug in some keywords into Gmail's search bar, and you are almost certain to find the email you are looking for, and fast.

Conclusion

As far as free, web-based email clients go, currently Gmail is hard to beat. It is intuitive and user-friendly. So if you are making the leap to web-based email or are just sick of the spam-filled account you are currently using and are looking to switch things up, it may be worth a try!

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