Critique of Gmail
I have a gmail account. I like it a lot. There are a lot of very innovative features within
gmails interface, not the least of which is the conversation threading.
Threading in email clients is really bad, IMHO. I’ve yet to find an email client that implements threading in a way that makes me really want to use it. Until now. Gmail’s threading is very, very good. It’s so intuitive that it makes using it seem like I’m not using it, it’s just there.
The search functionality is, of course, great. The only thing I’d like to have is better time searches, but this is a feature that probably only I would use. Now you can search before or after a given date, but I’d like to be able to search, for example, all messages in June from Bill.
This is a very minor issue, however, and I’ve yet to have to hunt around for an email.
It’s really fast too, especially for a web based solution. If I could implement gmail where I work, I’d think about it. It would definately solve the virus problem, as well as the user client standardization problem. It’s very usable, so even the most neophyte user could be taught how to use it quite easily.
The only problem I have is the the deleting email is too hard. A lot of my mail doesn’t ned to be archived. I read it output, and delete. That is not as easy as archiving in gmail. And in case this isn’t clear: no problems = gmail is nearly perfect. Go Google.
