Desktop or web-based email?
Submitted by circa1977 on December 9, 2007 - 12:49pm.
After getting used to Gmail 3 years ago, I swore I’d stick to web-based email. With IMAP now available, I set it up last week in Apple’s Mail client on my desktop to integrate better with offline storage, emailing links, etc, and found myself changing my ways.
It wasn’t easy: The initial download took forever and I had to work at getting Apple’s Junk Filters to cooperate. (I.e., still work on the 2 POP accounts I check in Mail while leaving Gmail’s already filtered mail alone).
I’m a convert. I used to open a browser window with three tabs: Google homepage, RSS, and Gmail and check it throughout the day. Now I’m in Mail only when I need to be, and ignore RSS and news until it occurs to me to catch up.
I did really like the Gmail interface, with conversations, shortcuts, etc, but I’ve been trying to make Safari my full-time browser and it wasn’t playing nice. I’ve found a surge of productivity by sticking to the desktop.
How do others find web-based vs. desktop email to impact their productivity?
- 21327 reads
Just swiitched... to gmail
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.