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> I use gmail and don't wish to give it up for now. Well, that's your choice, isn't it? > That's not a reasonable approach for non-techies, but I thought it m

> I use gmail and don't wish to give it up for now. Well, that's your choice, isn't it? > That's not a reasonable approach for non-techies, but I thought it might interest the HN audience. Non-techies can just go the good ol' way and pay for an ad-free, tracking-free email service, mapping service, storage service, etc.

baxtr 9y ago
I’m not a google fan, but can you name one free service that is par? I think many people would en pay if there was an alternative
- ibz 9y ago
  I am paying for FastMail for a few years now. It's a very good alternative, and it's really not expensive. Also, I know that my money goes into building an alternative with a viable business model. Plus, GMail isn't free. You pay for it with your data.
- bgrohman 9y ago
  I switched to FastMail about 6 months ago, and I like it. I actually like FastMail’s webapp more than Gmail’s. There aren’t any features from Gmail that I miss, and FastMail offers a very easy option to migrate your emails from Gmail.
- Jach 9y ago
  Two of the replies mention FastMail, which for all I know might be nice, but FastMail still seems to be in its infancy (though perhaps growing fast) when it comes to securing customers' data. See the recent https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15853477 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15853477 I've been using Gmail for over a decade. I've been getting in the habit of using a purpose@mydomain email for as many signups as I can (that for now all forward to my gmail) so that the impact of a random Google mess up that disables my access to my account is lessened, but there's still no service I trust more for my email's security and privacy apart from Google's algo-eyes (that offer me some features I appreciate anyway). Maybe that trust is misplaced and we're only a few years away from a Yahoo-level incompetence reveal, but I doubt it. If there was a way to setup a local mailserver that can peer in a hierarchy with more trusted mailservers (so that I can send email with reasonable confidence it won't end up in a spam folder), and have encrypted buffers stored at those peers for when my local machine is offline and can't accept deliveries, I'd do that. Maybe it's possible with Urbit.

baxtr 9y ago

I’m not a google fan, but can you name one free service that is par? I think many people would en pay if there was an alternative

ibz 9y ago
I am paying for FastMail for a few years now. It's a very good alternative, and it's really not expensive. Also, I know that my money goes into building an alternative with a viable business model. Plus, GMail isn't free. You pay for it with your data.
bgrohman 9y ago
I switched to FastMail about 6 months ago, and I like it. I actually like FastMail’s webapp more than Gmail’s. There aren’t any features from Gmail that I miss, and FastMail offers a very easy option to migrate your emails from Gmail.
Jach 9y ago
Two of the replies mention FastMail, which for all I know might be nice, but FastMail still seems to be in its infancy (though perhaps growing fast) when it comes to securing customers' data. See the recent https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15853477 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15853477 I've been using Gmail for over a decade. I've been getting in the habit of using a purpose@mydomain email for as many signups as I can (that for now all forward to my gmail) so that the impact of a random Google mess up that disables my access to my account is lessened, but there's still no service I trust more for my email's security and privacy apart from Google's algo-eyes (that offer me some features I appreciate anyway). Maybe that trust is misplaced and we're only a few years away from a Yahoo-level incompetence reveal, but I doubt it. If there was a way to setup a local mailserver that can peer in a hierarchy with more trusted mailservers (so that I can send email with reasonable confidence it won't end up in a spam folder), and have encrypted buffers stored at those peers for when my local machine is offline and can't accept deliveries, I'd do that. Maybe it's possible with Urbit.