• Increased storage capacity – from your current level to 100MB
• Increase in individual message send/receive size from 3MB to 10MB
• An improved layout that’s even easier to use

100MB is a nice thing but I dont know when I will ever need it, but its nice to know its there.  Send/Receive size of 3MB to 10MB?  If anyone ever sends me a 10MB file over any sort of email account I would give them a swift kick in the ass.  The new UI seems a bit buggy too.  Im getting a few errors here an there, ho hum... Their motives for this increase in their free offering is obvious, GMail.

The layout.  Looks allot like GMail now.  I guess thats a good thing, Google knows UI's dont then?  KISS all the way. Speaking of GMail...

A buddy sent me an invite to GMail.  I'm a GMail slut now.  First thing I noticed is how “light” the UI actually is.  Take it as a good and a bad thing.  Second thing to notice is that it is JUST email.  No calendar, no robust address book (they have a pathetic contacts manager), no tasks, no notes.  I dont even see a way to create folders and organize emails with rules and such (filtering based on subject or sender etc..)  They do have the “Report as Spam“, thats nice but nothing new or exciting.  I dont see POP or SMTP access at all anywhere, nor Import/Export capabilities.

Basically useless for me.  Maybe I wont be that much of a GMail slut after all, probably will never use it.  Hmm..Maybe I should sell it on Ebay?  Yeah right, I will keep it and check back every six months see how much they steal from the other free service providers.

An organization which I have consulted with recently had the Merak Email Server in place.  Now thats what I'm talking about.  Check out the “IceWarp Web Mail“ screen shots.  So far the only thing I see that its missing right now is the whole mobility features.  I want to either surf to the mail admin on my phone/PDA/WML/WAP device and manage it like Yahoo, or to be able to Sync it up with the sync capabilities in my phone via SyncML (check out http://www.mobical.net/ its a free service based on this, if it works).

More about the Merak product.  It does support Outlook synchronization via a GroupWare plugin.  I have my Home and Work outlook all synched up. Contacts, Calendar, Tasks, Notes, etc.. I'm kept up to date between my life at work, at home and on the road via the Web.  Oh yeah, I have it set to send my reminders, events and such via SMS to my cell.  Thats nice.  No more missing that appointment because I'm not in at the office.

It also allows you to add more than just one email account via POP/SMTP or IMAP.  I have my Web based account checking like 4 different accounts and bringing them into the single interface.  So many features well worth the price tag IMHO.

Life is getting better...

1 Comment

• tranqy at gmail dot com (Aaron Junod) said Tuesday, June 15, 2004 2:12:00 PM

  Just an fyi gmail does have "labels" which I am using like folders. I tunnel all of my mail into gmail now, and then apply the label based on a filter. The filters are tough to find, but they are there.
  
  I have worked with Merak before, though, with fantastic success. Merak's mail system is really nice, and handles ALOT of mail really well. I have always thought of it as a very viable alternative to exchange.