The power of Gmail for me is the label / search facility (oh, and the superb spam filter) and just being able to chuck everything into one big ‘archive’ knowing that it’s easily retrievable.

The only downside is that with the web browser open, I often tend to wander off & idly browse when I shouldn’t be doing, but I can work on that :o)

I prefer desktop based clients for feel but as I also use the Google calendar, it makes sense to stay in the browser.

I’ve tried to use Outlook but I’ve only got Office 2K & it’s a bit clunky on there - don’t want to shell out for the latest Office, would rather put the money towards a Mac.

I used thunderbird with my own imap servers for many years before recently switching to gmail. The part that works so well for me in gmail is the search aspect. The way gmail works I am able to keep my inbox clean while still being able to easily find any other email.

I used to find myself spending over ten minutes in thunderbird trying to find a single email. I even installed google desktop to make it easier. After a few weeks of going a round about sort of way to find emails I switched to gmail.

I have no plans on moving back to a desktop client now. I find even the best ones are clunky in comparison to gmail. I see the point that you can easily get side tracked, but comparing that to spending time finding emails gmail is the clear winner in my book.

ever since it was unusably bad. I’m not really fond of Outlook either, although I’m forced into it on a daily basis for office email, which I try to (and usually can) keep segregated from personal email.

Gmail is sloooooooooow. When I can, I like to use Thunderbird instead. “When I can” amounts to a dwindling minority of cases, though, and Gmail’s builtin chat client often proves useful.

I used web-based email in the past (years ago, and I know the current .Mac web mail application), but with IMAP Mail.app is definitely the way to go for me as I prefer desktop-based applications. It’s simply faster and it integrates all my email accounts, business and personal. And I like the integration of RSS. Now, I have everything in one place and can use smart folders, carved after Merlin’s suggestions. The advantages outbalance the flaws, at least for me.

Ever since getting on Facebook, I rarely find myself using mail anymore. The ultimately protection against unsolicited mail is a social network filled with only people you know. That’s somewhat of a utopian image I have also, as friends fooling around with Fun Wall and Flixter did send some spam my way, until I disabled the email-notices from these apps.

I can’t stand web mail. I can see the necessity for it at times, but I don’t like the license agreement of the free services. Nothing is truly free. In their case, you are giving up your privacy.

Since my iPhone though, I have learned of the usefullness of IMAP. My work was already IMAP, I have turned my own domain email into IMAP, and of course my dotmac is IMAP. Whether I use my mac, my iPhone, or a browser, it’s all the same.

After migrating from FastMail.FM to Gmail reluctantly, given the latter’s lack of IMAP, and loudly lamenting this sad state of affairs, I cheered when Google deployed IMAP, and got ready to move from Web to Mail.app………

…….only to discover I had become addicted to the Web conversations, etc., and didn’t want to switch to the desktop.

I’m totally digging mailplaneapp.com (a kind of quasi-desktop app for Gmail users).

I have a Mac at home and WinDozeDell at work and I occasionally use my wife’s laptopXPMachine in the evenings.

There is something to be said for portability.

I’m playing with MailPlane.app also, but again, why have yet another InBox for info collecting when I could simply log in and fly through my GeeMail Inbox?

I’m even tempted to play with Pine and Mutt again (because it’s cool), but still, what would be the use? I still have to access from multiple platforms.

The webmail, though not pretty, still takes less time and less syncing across machines, platforms and timezones.

mailplaneapp.com

Seems to be the answer for part of your question. I'm using it to access a GMail account and my domain's email (via Google Apps for your domain) and I think it's quite wonderful. It's like a specialized GMail browser that can be your default mail app, has drag and drop attachments, can use your Mac's address book (though, it can't sync your GMail and Mac address books - might be a logical next step.

I then use Mail.app to run my .Mac mail, my work email, and my sidejob's work email.

But I think desktop/networked apps like Mailplane are quite possibly the future.

~b

Perhaps less of an issue with near-ubiquitous WiFi, but I find an advantage of desktop mail is that you can access key stuff while offline. This helps me as I travel by train in Europe quite a lot.

I have Mail set to download from Gmail, and archive downloaded messages, so I know it’s archived somewhere…

GMail is perhaps the best web-based mail client out there. Outlook Web Access, by the way, is the worst ("user-hostile" is how I would describe it). Though I find it relatively speedy and similar in feel to a local mail client, it still doesn't beat a local mail client. Why?

• Natural Feel Web-based applications make compromises to the interface to make them work.* Too often, webmail feels rather kludgey. To put something in a folder, for instance, I have to click a check box next to a folder, select the folder (or label in GMail), then click move (or archive). Or, I could just drag-and-drop in a local client.
• Offline Access This was a bigger deal to me ten years ago, when access was via a modem and my only phone line. However, being able to read mail offline, or draft out a new message, is still something nice to have.
• Integration with Other Applications It's nice to be able to click "Share via E-mail" in iPhoto. It's nice to drag-and-drop attachments.
• Extensions A variation of the previous point. There are tons of extensions for most mail clients to add capabilities. The one that jumps to mind is encryption (either PGP or GNUPG), though other ones (Growl for its fans, for instance) are there too.
• Browser Independence I know mail is going to work the way I want it to, regardless of IE, Firefox, or Safari.
• Multiple Accounts at Once Just what it says. For instance, I have multiple accounts with one webmail provider. I can look at it all at once with Mail.app. I'd have to log in/log out to each account otherwise.

Can I find the right work-around, process, or browser extension to make these features kinda work. I just find that a separate mail application generally works better.

IMAP is really something that levels all this out. I can have my local client do the heavy lifting, but the view on the web and on my phone track what's going on. Again, it doesn't solve for everything, but I think it means I don't have to make a choice.

*I admit Google does a better job than most.

I am totally with you on this one - I was using Gmail exclusively the past 2 years (after having been on Outlook/Exchange for many years) and was happy with it. After I got Leopard and the new Mail I use Gmail as a spamfilter and then forward the rest to my .Mac account.

It works great with iPhone and IMAP on .Mac is a lot faster in my experience. I also like the fact that I have access to all my mail offline and Quicklook of attachments is amazing. I also dropped QuickSilver (sorry Merlin) - but Spotlight just does all I need now.

Finally I have adapted Zero Inbox - thanks Merlin!

I have an Archive folder with a subfolder for each year and that is it. I am far more efficient, having far less stress. I am, however, still using Google Reader as my one and only RSS reader.

As soon as I got my first mac in 2002 (if memory serves) I dispensed with web based email. .Mail is just a slicker experience. When I use web based email it somehow feels as if there’s a fuzzy layer of something between me and my messages. If that makes any sense.

I do have a Gmail account as a form of back up grabbing all my emails from my work and personal accounts. Most days I read my mail, act on it immediately or delete it. I only keep stuff that I need for some reason or another. At the moment I have about 15 messages in my inbox. They’ll be gone soon.

If I need an email again then it’s bound to be on Gmail. I’ve never been able to make head nor tail of Gmail but it is fine to use as a searchable backup. Every now and again I do a cull of emails in Gmail and rarely get past 5 or 6% of my allocated storage. I am a happy camper.

I am a massive fan of Apple Mail and use it exclusively with IMAP email accounts. I have a few set up and love the functionality of a single inbox (using Inbox Zero) etc. but multiple address/signatures etc.

I also love the search functionality of a desktop application with the additional fun that Spotlight can bring. Being able to use the integration of a desktop application with the portability of IMAP (for my notebook and my iPhone) is just awesome. Of course, I still have web-based email (my IMAP accounts also come with web interfaces) for when I get totally stuck without a battery.

This blend of syncing, desktop application power and cloud-based services is just as perfect as Jobs, Yang and Schmidt have put forth in the past. This is one truly, awesomely powerful mix.

Is it wrong of me to love my Yahoo account because...
* it's long-standing
* it opens on a variety of different machines (I move around a lot)
* it only uses one application, which is generally something I need to have open anyway for what I'm doing.

That last one feels important, even if, hardware-wise, it probably doesn't make a lick of difference. The more things I have open at once, the more it feels like my brain has to keep track of. I think it has to do with the different locations of tabs vs. apps, whether I'm using an XP machine or an Apple.

After using Gmail for a wile I was sure I had swarn off other programs but now I use a trifecta.

Gmail for my webmail when I need webmail Mailplane for my 2 macs which is my primary mail program. Mailplane is more the gmail interface integrated into the mac And mail.app is completely setup with imap for accessing mail information from within the mac OS. Or for when an app calls for mail and MailPlane does not respond.

Works quite well.

All of my email is on my own domain hosted by google apps.

Since switching from Entourage to the Mail/Address Book/iCal/.mac thing with Leopard, I’ve been looking for a way to keep my desk Mac and my travel MacBook synced up. Three weeks ago, after hearing of the success of this system, I:

1. forwarded all 8 of my business email accounts through one GMail account.
2. I set up this GMail as an IMAP
3. Set up all my Mailbox folders to map to GMail’s online folders (which they call Labels for some reason).

I now have only one email account that I need to set up on any Mac. All 8 emails forward through the one GMail account, get scrubbed by GMail’s amazing spam filter, and everything lands in one Inbox. It’s really brilliant, and highly effective for anyone that uses the Zero Inbox idea.

The semantics of Gmail - archive, starred, labels, etc. don’t match well with traditional email protocols.

I thought I would love getting my Gmail via IMAP, but it’s been a serious let down in the various clients I have experimented with, due to performance and the conceptual mish mash. I am waiting for a client mail application that uses the structure of the Gmail web application- inline preview of content, conversations, archive folders, etc. I’m not sure what Google is waiting for, I know they could bang it out easily as part of Google Desktop.

I came from a place where I used IMAP for years, with a variety of clients. Most recently was Thunderbird, before that Outlook Express.

I have passionately disliked every version of Outlook up until 2003. I have not tried 2007, and hear there are improvements.

I shifted over to Gmail, then to Google Apps, and don’t look back. I did experiment with IMAP and Thunderbird recently, but have become too used to the archiving, threaded conversations, labelling and powerful search functions on Gmail/GApps.

Downside of Gmail/GApps is that you are in browser (my three default tabs in Firefox are iGoogle, GApps and Google Reader). Being in a browser tends to lead you to browse. I’d also like drag and drop functionality, and integration with other apps.

For me, the advantages of GMail/GApps outweight (significantly) the disadvantages.

I would like to see the offline functionality, and would love to see a desktop app that supported labels, archiving, search, and threaded conversations.

In fact, I’ve been wishing this for a while - in my 2006 Predictions (made in December 2005), I had this app being released as a Thunderbird upgrade as a prediction (no.1 actually).

http://www.desparoz.com/index.php/2005/12/22/my-predictions-for-2006/

Cheers

Coincidentally, I’m just in the process of making this switch myself. For me, it’s all about not facing the temptations of the browser. Psychologically, I find it easier to keep a clear inbox in Mail, too. My only question: does Mail have any limits to the number of messages you can store? My sense from what I can find on-line is that mailboxes have limits, but not the overall program itself. Can anyone confirm that or elaborate on it?

I have used Mail.app for sometime now (Gmail). While I have enjoyed this method, I have realized that using an app is wasteful. I downloaded the Gmail notifier and it works great for my mail and calendar (I use Google Calendar).

BTW, I received an invitation to Mailplane. What a joke. It’s a local app that is identical to Gmail’s web interface. I don’t see the draw?

Anyhow, iPhone/Mac/any computer, Gmail and it’s web interface (well Mail.app on the iPhone) works great for me.

I use gmail at Home (SwiftWeasel on Ubuntu), Work (Firefox or IE on Win2k or XP), on the go (Razr Gmail Phone App, Firefox on Asus Eee PC). I want access to all my information all the time wherever I am and that means storing my data in the cloud whenever I can.

Now, if only there was tighter integration between all my favourite Google apps. (Especially Gmail and Google Docs and Spreadsheets)

Regards, -Benjamin

To tell you the truth, I have always been baffled by those that can use GMail for their main mail. I do have a Gmail acct but I rarely use it. In general, I do not like web apps that attempt to replace desktop apps. Maybe I’m just an old geek.

JoeM

Was a huge fan of Apple Mail (particularly because of the way it handles conversation threading), but have been working for an Outlook/Exchange-driven company for a couple years, and one behind a firewall to boot. Therefore, I had to come up with a non-Apple Mail solution (particularly given my dislike of Entourage 2003).

Two things recently changed for me, however. Gmail IMAP support and being able to beta Entourage 2008. I’m still a huge fan of Apple Mail, but Entourage 2008 is enough of an improvement to keep me happy so far (still miss the way Mail threads conversations), and it seamlessly syncs back-and-forth with Address Book and iCal, making iPhone syncing a snap.

I can also now get my Exchange email in the same app, which makes me very happy. Hated having to swap apps for separate email accounts.

Gmail still rocks, but it’s now tamed within my own system and works out nicely. I still use labels (they’re folders in Entourage) and haven’t had much of a problem yet.

I have a mini and a ibook, and use only one of them at a time (the mini being my work station and the ibook whenever I am not at work).

I use the gmail in the browser whenever I am looking up something during work, emails, specs, etc.

But I schedule a time in the evening to write emails/send replies and I use my desktop thunderbird (fresh with gmail imap) for that. It enables me to focus on only emailing and not browsing etc.