Time to abandon Gmail?
zdnet.com
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FWIW, I've used Gmail for 6 or 7 years and Fastmail for 1 year.
Edit: clarification
What I don't like about GMail is the complete disregard for digital signing and encryption with S/MIME and/or OpenPGP.
Therefore, on my Android right now I'm using K-9 and on the desktop I use Thunderbird. Thunderbird is actually pretty cool once you customize it a little (it even works with Google's Calendar and Tasks). There's even a cool Chrome/Firefox extension called Mailvelope, for making PGP work in webmail interfaces [1] and so it works straight in GMail, though in Firefox, due to a current limitation that probably won't get fixed until 27, it's very slow and also the extension currently doesn't support PGP/Mime and can't sync with key servers, although the author told me these features are planed for the next versions. And since I'm a Firefox user, I'll just have to wait for now.
Note - I'm a Google Apps user, which means I have my own domain. I can always switch without losing my email address. If you're using a @gmail.com email address, then you should really stop doing that.
I'm thinking of switching to an Apps account but I'm worried about the complexity of the transition for all my data.. Do you have any advice for that? Also do you miss anything with an Apps account compared with a regular one?
I exported some email filters and all of my calendar events. It's also possible to export/import your email as well. For your google drive you can just share everything or save it on your pc and put it in the new Google drive folder.
The things I miss are really small. You might have a bit later or no access to beta's and new features are not turned on automatically (recently this was the case for webhistory, you had to push a switch in your Apps control panel).
Furthermore you should probably try using a catchall. I like it a lot, you can filter on specific sent to emails from different services. And you always know who sells your data. I use the format company-type@domain.com. This way you con filter on sent to emails that contain shop for all your online orders.
(1) you can import your email from any account (that supports POP3) in a new GMail account. Just go to Settings -> Accounts in your new GMail account and configure it (note that the old GMail account also has to have POP3 activated). Actually from a new GMail account you can also send email using an older email account by SMTP. So basically, with a new GMail account, you can keep using an old email account from within the same interface, if that's what you want (heck, you could use a Fastmail.fm account from within a GMail interface, if you don't mind the slight latency).
Make sure that you label these emails with a special label, such that you can filter them later more easily.
(2) on your old email account, you can set a "Vacation Responder" that informs people of your new email address automatically.
So yeah, if you like GMail, then don't wait and do migrate to your own Google Apps domain. You won't get ads anymore in GMail, you'll have the option to migrate without losing your email address and you'll be treated like a customer (in my experience that doesn't necessarily match other people, their support has been very responsive).
And $5/month is not very cheap, but on the other hand it's the price for 1-2 coffees and I value my email. I do prefer the "Flexible" plan and not the "Annual" plan, because the later imposes a termination tax. So do it, don't wait.
It's the same as when changing the phone number, people will just keep calling you on your old number that doesn't exist anymore and that complain to you that you didn't call back.
As a side note, the lack of support for legacy emails in Gmail and Contacts is really bothering me. I would like to be able to mark someone's mail as inactive, so that i can see these mails when I look for old conversations with the person, but not to show up in autocomplete when I try to actually write an email.
I used Thunderbird for many years, but switched to Evolution this year. I remember trying Evolution a few years ago and being unimpressed. It has come a long way since then.
Evolution also supports Googles calendar/tasks and also supports PGP. These things are built in to the main app though, rather than being included as addons. Evolutions LDAP support includes write support too (unlike Thunderbird) if that's useful to you. I've also found the UI to be faster and more responsive than Thunderbirds.
Also Thunderbird development has been pretty much abandoned by Mozilla, yet Evolution is under heavy development. Just take a look at their git log:
https://git.gnome.org/browse/evolution/log/
So yeah. Give Evolution a try if you haven't for a while. It's a great IMAP client.
I would leave Gmail due to the UI changes, although I must confess I hadn't at the moment because it's too much bother to tell people about a new address, set up redirection, find out how to save all the old messages and have them at hand, etc.
Extension that brings back the old compose and everything from their previous UI. Gmail's time machine. Awesome.
I find the web interface routinely bloats up the browsers mem usage (A freaking gigabyte to display a UI??!). The spam filter is average - on both false positives and false negatives. My inbox is only ~5GB and many searches are really slow.
Why? Is it just trendy to dislike Google? What are the alternatives to Google services? I am curious, I am not ready to dump Google, but I have been diversifying the services I use. Started using Outlook and Skydrive.
And if one doesn't trust Gmail then why would one trust Outlook or Yahoo Mail?
The one thing I complain the most about GDrive is only one account is allowed to log in and use google drive. I just don't understand why Google engineers haven't fix this issue.
I haven't had an issue with it, and I've been using Outlook.com pretty much since it came out. Before then I was using the Windows Live Mail desktop client and before then I was using Gmail.
A bug I encounter is when I click on an unread email, and if I then refresh the page the email is still mark unread, unless I read that email and hover to another email. Th
Also, I will have to disagree on the design part. I find outlook.com refreshing. For me, that's just about right. Minimal, if any, bells and whistles.
disclaimer I have not used outlook and my opinion is based on this one thing and some other quick looks over the shoulder.
Google can justify the move as being good for users, but I strongly suspect that, in most cases, this agenda is not supportive of the value proposition that the individual properties offer its users. I suspect that Google knows this, but their goals are not consistent with that of most of these users.
In other words, Google is willing to take a hit from angry users in exchange for building a unified user network.
Right now you can search for a video with Google search, watch it on Google YouTube, watch some Google ads preroll, all on your Google Nexus, powered by Google Android, connected to Google Fiber.
Google is AOL's wet dream.
Now, Google isn't that bad yet, but they're slowly on their path. Recent "YouTube comments requires G+", "Hangouts in GMail requires G+" are examples of those. And as with the past against Microsoft, the same sentiments are now being replayed.
Over time several things have happened. We got used to some of the good things about Google and made them our baseline expectation. They got used to all that income and growth. To keep up growth they had to "optimize" and in many cases put profit before aesthetics/ethics. The "unintrusive text links" for high value searches got bigger and more intrusive. 'Contextual links' in Gmail became contextual to your digital life (eg scanning your emails and analyzing your browsing).
You need a lot of goodwill believe 'Don't be evil.' From an average company it sounds phony. A lot if stuff has a tipping point. So when a free service gets shut down or rolled into another service its seen as putting profit first, herding users into profitable products or just generally sucking. Before it might have been seen as failing fast. When they ask users for a phone number now, they react with cynicism.
Google started with a lot of goodwill. Perhaps too high. People react emotionally when you don't live up to perceived promises.
Maybe there is a lesson here about over promising.
In a way, I feel that Google has lost what they "were about". If Google overpromised anything, it was that they were the "open internet company". In many ways, that and "don't be evil" was what defined them.
Which is funny because these things were a smoke screen from day 1. Google is a past master at doing things for themselves, but throwing in a token benefit for everybody else so they look like the good guys.
Summer of Code was primarily a recruiting tool for Google, not a contribution to open source. They spent 0.06% of profit on Summer of Code, and in exchange got access to some great developers and got a mostly-unpaid trial period to evaluate them. That's a HR recruiting gold mine.
Despite their entire operation running on Linux, most years they contributed so little back to the kernel that they didn't even show up on most rankings -- and adjusted for corp size they were barely a footnote. It's only recently that they have started to contribute anything substantial to Linux. One of their largest contribution to Linux is cloning all the GPL code into BSD code so it can be sold for profit.
Sure Google has done a few good things for Open Source, but far far less than one should expect.
I hear this from so many people BUT explain to me a different scenario on how the largest Internet company can run things? I see the push back against the NSA, Open Sourced Android (Closed Google Apps), almost everything that came out better for the customers (Gmail 1GB storage, G+ (you decided in detail who can read your post) APIs that are extremely usable) Google Voice was/is amazing. My beloved Open Source products get millions of investment from Google.
The BAD in my eyes: Killing off of many products (I don't use new Google products normally)
Google has done a lot to shoot itself in the foot regarding goodwill in the developer community, even though they still contribute a lot to open source.
They killed off Reader and a lot of other products, has closed down many open APIs, so instead of enthusiasm when they launch a new product, now they get "oh yeah, how long is this product going to live?"
They are now forcing every service and pushing their users into Google+ whether they want to or not. It seems like Social is something Google is obsessed with winning, and they are happy to alienate some users in order to do that.
= Move down 3 items, open email, move to "Follow up" folder
When you have lots of folders drag n drop is totally useless compared to this.
Here's a list for the lazy: https://support.google.com/mail/answer/6594?hl=en
-Outlook.com
-Ymail.com
-Hushmail.com
-Fastmail.fm
---
Of the above - the only one I've heard great things about is fastmail.
Can anyone else add to this list? (I'll try to update it).
So I'll just wait a little longer, until something like Mailpile or some other usable e-mail service using DarkMail protocol or something better comes along, before I switch.
Do I think Gmail's UI could use a major overhaul? Sure. But I'm not going to switch because of that, after using it for years. But as I said, I would switch for something more secure.
Outlook would be the last e-mail service I'd ever switch to. They even gave NSA pre-encryption Outlook data [1], according to Snowden's leaks. That's beyond unacceptable, especially when they promise their users "security and privacy". Security and privacy are obviously just a joke to Microsoft, that's only useful to them in TV ads.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jul/11/microsoft-nsa-c...
Here are the more important bits about Outlook:
> Outlook.com encryption unlocked even before official launch
> Microsoft helped the NSA to circumvent its encryption to address concerns that the agency would be unable to intercept web chats on the new Outlook.com portal
> The agency already had pre-encryption stage access to email on Outlook.com, including Hotmail;
> Microsoft also worked with the FBI's Data Intercept Unit to "understand" potential issues with a feature in Outlook.com that allows users to create email aliases
> Within five months, the documents explain, Microsoft and the FBI had come up with a solution that allowed the NSA to circumvent encryption on Outlook.com chats
You want end to end security, use GPG. Otherwise accept that your email just isn't that interesting in the first place (or that you expect rule of law to prevent it's disclosure).
Just like everyone else - the only reason we know about Microsoft is because that information was leaked. The only way to break from that is to run your own SMTP server and have all your friends run their own SMTP server.
Thinking that those argument can be used as a deciding point between different webmail/email providers is either insane or ignorant (unless said provider resides somewhere like Russia, on an oil rig or in space). Snowden already leaked documents indicating the NSA completely compromised the Google network[1].
The only way to securely communicate over the internet is with something such as IM with a technology like OTR Messaging[2]. You are lying to yourself if you think anyone else has the remote semblance of secure.
[1]: http://rt.com/usa/nsa-secretly-access-yahoo-google-982/ [2]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Off-the-Record_Messaging
Compared to Google's rather cryptic UI (which has gotten even more cryptic over the years), Outlook UI is refreshingly simple and clear.
Shiny new SSDs allowing us to serve the entire last week's email of every user from SSD so that first page view is always lightning fast cost money.
We think that's worth 11 cents per day (Enhanced account).
One question - how is customer support?
Some people realise that free services have disadvantages - ads, lack of customer support, restrictions on use, etc.
GMail has some great features, but I fully understand some people wanting to move away to other solutions.
That is what I do. For me, gmail is only an easy way to aggregate email from separate accounts and chat with friends on gmail.
At home I use my trusty Thunderbird.
Yes you are right about your remark, but as I said, I am lazy and rather have Google servers do spam filtering and email aggregation than doing it myself with SpamAssassin.
I got to a point where I rather spend evenings with family and friends than coding.
99% of those emails stay on my other email accounts when I disable pulling services.
I have not made the jump yet, but it does seem promising.
Documentation is very sparse and in some cases out of date. Even sign-up was problematic for me, since it looks like you are forced to have a PayPal account (you don't, and can use PayPal as the payment processor only).
I had to contact support to ask for help signing up, and the steps they gave me were not possible to follow. Options for a bank transfer payment simply did not appear until many hours later. Imagine you added an item to your cart in Amazon and when you went to check out it was empty. Delete & re-add, still empty. Wait 8 hours, come back, still empty and no way to complete the purchase. Randomly, the item finally shows up the next day.
I got through it finally and switched MX records. I logged in to the webmail interface 2 hours later and had errors 'Server Error: SELECT: Mailbox does not exist' then later 'An error occured(sic). An error occurred while saving'. Another support ticket, emails inbound bouncing, and no reply for three hours and I was all done with MyKolab.
I still want a service like this and am actively looking but a big part of it is the product has to look totally professional and the company must have their shit together. Let's face it, if your goal is privacy and the adversaries are Google and random three-letter agencies you have got to inspire confidence and this company is a long, long way off.
Where does ZDNET find these bozos?
As far as I can tell, this is ZDNET hastily attempting to get some clicks by pandering to the youtube rage-quitting brigade.
Business as usual for them I suppose, but why do people post this crap to HN?
Disclaimer: I don't have a beard
Because it's a stupid reason. You would get the same response if you suggested that the reason was that HNers love to hate google because they hate logos with color in them.
It often gets couched in different language, but a great deal of HNers have a large dislike of HN because of either groupthink or mainstream-aversion.
That's probably your problem right there. You're attempting to apply a negative label ('hipster') to a group of people with whom you disagree.
If your only counter-point to someone is to 'suggest' that they only hold a particular view because it's trendy, then you're going to run into issues.
The UX redesign from a couple months back was definitely one of the triggers pushing me to look for alternate services.
Years ago, I joined gmail specifically to get away from the awful hotmail UI.
Pretty strange that one of the panelists chose not to include the "beta" years of GMail.
The spam filtering isn't as good though. I've had a few false positives and false negatives. I don't get much spam, so it's not hard to have a quick look in the spam folder. Wish I didn't have to do this though.
I like paying for the product. It's nice to know my emails aren't being scanned to build up a profile on me. It's nice to know that I am a customer (of the traditional kind). I haven't had to use support yet, but it's there. Unlike Gmail.
I originally moved because I grew uneasy with the amount of information I had with Google. Now, I have none. A small win for me, but Google doesn't care. Ultimately, make the decision on the whole "best tool for the job" argument.
I have tested many alternatives but I still mostly use Gmail. The reasons are mostly the feature set, the pricing, the security and the storage capacity.
There are only two major annoyances in my daily use: More and more Google+ integration, lacking IMAP support. The latter lead me to use Google's own apps or Google-specific browsers like Mailplane.
For heavy mail (and groupware) users, they only other alternatives is Exchange. Outlook.com/Office 365 is OK but very 'Microsofty', Hosted Exchange is a complete disaster.
After that torture, I'm reluctant to trust MS web email. I'm sure a different mob did the email application from the GFWL mess, but I won't rush over. I'd use Yahoo above Outlook. Yahoo email seems reliable enough, not too painful.
Is there room for a 3rd-party Gmail web client, in the same way that Mailbox is a 3rd-party Gmail iOS client?
I don't touch the web client at all except to set filtering rules.