Gmail: revolutionizing e-mail Google-style

Google it. These two unobtrusive words have set off a revolution and changed the way people use the Internet. After setting a new standard for search engines, the Google team is beginning to transform the Internet again through Gmail.

Gmail, or Google mail, is Google's experimental e-mail service that fuses Google's search engine with a 1,000-megabyte inbox. The service is currently only available through invites distributed to account holders; users with invites can offer accounts to friends and family. According to an informal survey of 50 Blazers conducted Nov. 16, six percent of Blazers have a Gmail account.

Gmail offers users "free-form" organization and a myriad of new features, according to Magnet Computer Science teacher Dennis Heidler—the list just keeps growing. Among Gmail's recent additions are draft-saving abilities, free POP access that allows users to sync their inbox with Blackberry or Outlook and free automatic forwarding of incoming messages to other e-mail addresses.

The eye-catcher for users, though, is capacity. "[Gmail just has] so much space," sophomore William Schoenfelder says. "That's pretty much what I use it for." Gmail's one-gigabyte inbox has instigated a response from top competitors such as Yahoo and Hotmail. The two e-mail service providers have upped their respective inbox sizes to catch up with Google, Yahoo from six megabytes to 100 megabytes and Hotmail from two megabytes to 250 megabytes.

Flexible organization is a key focus of the Gmail system. According to junior Alexander Alm, organization is the most important part. "You can sort your e-mails into different categories or search for them using keywords," he says.

Gmail employs an innovative label system that allows users to classify e-mails into any and all relevant categories. Archiving e-mails moves them out of the inbox into the "All Mail" section, although e-mails can also be accessed by label. The inbox has a search box at the top for easy access to Google's search technology within the archives. Related messages and responses are automatically compiled into ordered conversations.

The Google team regularly releases updates to the preview service. The most recent release was on Oct. 5, 2004 and included the download Gmail Notifier. The Notifier is a program that sits in the Taskbar in the bottom right-hand corner of the screen and has pop-ups for when one receives e-mails. It's like AOL's "You've got mail," only without the sound effects. The pop-ups include the name of the sender, the subject line and the first line of the e-mail.

Sometimes, Gmail users experience a feature overload—the volume of services can prove to be overwhelming. "I haven't really explored [the features] all that much," says sophomore Olivia Buzek. These features include a signature at the foot of e-mails, filtering e-mails into labels, reporting spam to the Google Spam Reporter, starring e-mails of importance for easy access and importing, exporting and searching contacts, among many others.

Gmail is supported by Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.5+, Netscape 7.1+, Mozilla 1.4+, Mozilla Firefox 0.8+ and Safari 1.2.1+.

Alm suggests that Gmail should improve their conversation-compiling algorithm. "In conversations that [the Google people] organize, you can't reorganize the order of the messages," he says. "You can't put conversations in the middle, but they say they're working on that."

In addition, Gmail has yet to implement virus-scanning technology for incoming e-mails. The contact lists can also use some work, according to Heidler. "I dislike the way you cannot group contacts," he says. "I like Yahoo's contact organization more, but it's slower."

However, no one questions Google's decision to go into electronic communication—it seems like a natural next step. In the words of the Gmail team, "Search enhances the efficiency of e-mail, so we believe it's a natural area for Google to offer a service." Webster, get ready—"Gmail" may be the next new word in the dictionary.