4 ms·

You're missing out on a ton of great Gmail features if you are using a desktop mail client. Integrated hangout/voice /text chat, phone, conversation view, the

by ditojim 14y ago

You're missing out on a ton of great Gmail features if you are using a desktop mail client. Integrated hangout/voice /text chat, phone, conversation view, the social pane with contextual information..the list goes on.

nopassrecover 14y ago
This isn't a rebuttal, but Outlook 2010 has most (if not all) of those things.
- Karunamon 14y ago
  The only thing I'm aware of Outlook 2010 having from that list is the social networking pane.
  - nopassrecover 14y ago
    Outlook has conversation view as well, and Microsoft Lync (formerly Office Communicator) integrates the rest of the feature set (yes you're vendor-locked, but you are with GMail too). In my opinion GMail executes better on most of these features, but they're not the only ones to offer them.
    - darklajid 14y ago
      Not a fan, but Lync even allows XMPP access (if so configured), so all your GTalk buddies can message you from GMail (at least that should work - didn't try).
      - Karunamon 14y ago
        I wasn't aware of that.. will have to check it out! Thanks!
tjoff 14y ago
Why would I want that in my mail application? Those features also only promote you to stay logged in on your gmail account at all times, and there have been numerous security issues with that approach. I can't for the life of me understand why anyone would chose gmail over any native application for mail. Every time I see someone use gmail I cringe at how primitive and slow the workflow is.
- andrewfelix 14y ago
  >I can't for the life of me understand why anyone would chose gmail over any native application for mail I can't speak for the 350M other people using Gmail. But here's why I use Gmail(some of these aren't exclusively Gmail): - Conversation View - Calendar Integration - Very good Labelling/Grouping system - Online Storage - Browser access - Very Powerful and effecient Search - Great filter system - Autosaves unfinished emails - Integration with multiple third party tools including Attachments.me, dropbox, google docs, taskforce I used to use Thunderbird, and it was great. But I had big 3 problems with it: 1) I never got comfortable with searching emails. 2)I couldn't access my email from other devices/computers etc 3)My emails starting chewing up a lot of HDD space.
  - tjoff 14y ago
    I'm not arguing that gmail isn't good at what it does. But it is at an inherent (huge) disadvantage of being executed in the browser. Just some comments. Thunderbird became dramatically better at searching a couple of years(?) ago. I frequently feel limited by search in gmail, I've assumed that there are advanced features lurking around somwhere but the UX is so bad I just don't. I don't see how storage can be a problem. With gmail you hit the limit at <8 GB, that can hardly be a problem on a workstation. If anything it's an argument against gmail. But, perhaps the most important one, I don't get why everyone seems to believe it's native or web, never both. Of course you have both... The question is why you'd want such a blunt tool for something as important as mail on your workstation. Yes, browser access is still awesome - that's why you have both. And when you consider security it's borderline to irresponsible being logged in constantly in the browser and since I value instant notification that alone is a dealbreaker on my WS. And if you're on a laptop with a bad connection relying on gmail or something similar is a sure way to get a heart attack.

by ditojim 14y ago

nopassrecover 14y ago

This isn't a rebuttal, but Outlook 2010 has most (if not all) of those things.

Karunamon 14y ago
The only thing I'm aware of Outlook 2010 having from that list is the social networking pane.
- nopassrecover 14y ago
  Outlook has conversation view as well, and Microsoft Lync (formerly Office Communicator) integrates the rest of the feature set (yes you're vendor-locked, but you are with GMail too). In my opinion GMail executes better on most of these features, but they're not the only ones to offer them.
  - darklajid 14y ago
    Not a fan, but Lync even allows XMPP access (if so configured), so all your GTalk buddies can message you from GMail (at least that should work - didn't try).
    - Karunamon 14y ago
      I wasn't aware of that.. will have to check it out! Thanks!

tjoff 14y ago

Why would I want that in my mail application? Those features also only promote you to stay logged in on your gmail account at all times, and there have been numerous security issues with that approach. I can't for the life of me understand why anyone would chose gmail over any native application for mail. Every time I see someone use gmail I cringe at how primitive and slow the workflow is.

andrewfelix 14y ago
>I can't for the life of me understand why anyone would chose gmail over any native application for mail I can't speak for the 350M other people using Gmail. But here's why I use Gmail(some of these aren't exclusively Gmail): - Conversation View - Calendar Integration - Very good Labelling/Grouping system - Online Storage - Browser access - Very Powerful and effecient Search - Great filter system - Autosaves unfinished emails - Integration with multiple third party tools including Attachments.me, dropbox, google docs, taskforce I used to use Thunderbird, and it was great. But I had big 3 problems with it: 1) I never got comfortable with searching emails. 2)I couldn't access my email from other devices/computers etc 3)My emails starting chewing up a lot of HDD space.
- tjoff 14y ago
  I'm not arguing that gmail isn't good at what it does. But it is at an inherent (huge) disadvantage of being executed in the browser. Just some comments. Thunderbird became dramatically better at searching a couple of years(?) ago. I frequently feel limited by search in gmail, I've assumed that there are advanced features lurking around somwhere but the UX is so bad I just don't. I don't see how storage can be a problem. With gmail you hit the limit at <8 GB, that can hardly be a problem on a workstation. If anything it's an argument against gmail. But, perhaps the most important one, I don't get why everyone seems to believe it's native or web, never both. Of course you have both... The question is why you'd want such a blunt tool for something as important as mail on your workstation. Yes, browser access is still awesome - that's why you have both. And when you consider security it's borderline to irresponsible being logged in constantly in the browser and since I value instant notification that alone is a dealbreaker on my WS. And if you're on a laptop with a bad connection relying on gmail or something similar is a sure way to get a heart attack.