Why Gmail? How do I get it?

Gmail, a shortened version of the service dubbed "Google Mail" is a top notch, free email service available to anyone with an invite. Chances are, you either have it and can skip to the end of this post, or you have Hotmail/Yahoo and don't understand (or even care, for that matter,) why Gmail is so much better than the other free options out there. Well, your time in the darkness is over now. Here's why Gmail rocks the rest of the competition:

1. A Gmail account gives access to all Google services, like Blogger, Docs & Spreadsheets, Groups, Pages, custom Google homepage, and Google Talk (IM program,) just to name a few.

2. POP Forwarding- You know that funky program called Entourage on your computer, that can be setup with your iQwisconsin account? Or maybe you're familiar with Mail.app, the mac version? Well, that program uses POP Forwarding (don't ask; it's an email thing,) and while Hotmail and Yahoo don't offer POP, Gmail does, so you can forget ever using your web browser to view mail again. (And you better be thinking "Wow, I don't have to use *Firefox* to see my mail anymore!" because if you don't have firefox, you're missing out... Suppose I'd better write a "Why you should get Firefox" list too.) BTW- This feature means you can kindof ignore the next 3...

3. Streamlined features- It's got all the formatting you could want, all sorts of customization options (like tagging emails to sort them,) and an auto-save feature that makes sure you don't lose your long email just because the browser went haywire. Plus, it's all very sleek, and the adds are minimal (and even amusingly on-topic with whatever you're reading about in your email.)

4. Security/Spam protection- All possible junk messages (And I mean *all*. It catches every one of them for me,) are sent to your Spam folder, where you can delete them, unspam them, or just mark them as read. Sure, most email services have this feature, but Gmail does it better, by being smarter, and not making you load a bunch of in-between pages just to get to your junk folder and do stuff there. Additionally, Google is secure, thanks to it being Google. (You know what I mean, I hope...)

5. Integrated interface- When it has to tell you something, it does so in a very unobtrusive way. Just look at this, and try not to smile:


That's all I have for now! If you're interested, you do need an invite to use Gmail, but they're all over the place (every Gmail member gets 100ish to hand out to anyone they please.) Just drop me a note if you'd like to 'convert'.

-H²