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?
- 21407 reads
Webmail is clumsy
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.