Comments on: Email’s Best Kept Secret

By: Matt

Matt — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 03:36:16 +0000

Sorry to jump in so late on the comments…

“Gmail’s web interface is one of the best around, but for speed, efficiency and flexibility it doesn’t come close to matching Outlook, Thunderbird or any number of other desktop email clients.”

But are we talking about the same Gmail here?

Gmail’s keyboard shortcuts are light-years faster than anything in Outlook. And the distinction between Inbox and All Mail is the biggest boost to email productivity in decades. So, so easy to empty an inbox. And the search makes any past email instantly accessible.

Re: the quote above: Could one even write that with a straight face while trying to perform a search in an Outlook mailbox?

By: DH

DH — Sun, 08 Apr 2007 13:56:26 +0000

Response to James: That is the beauty of IMAP, the volumes of email that you talk about are not stored locally, which you rightly pointed out does affect Outlook performance.

With IMAP, you access the IMAP mail server rather than downloading the email locally – penny dropped yet?

By: James Moore

James Moore — Sat, 07 Apr 2007 16:22:30 +0000

I burst out laughing when you combined “speed” and “Outlook” in the same sentence. Outlook may do some things well, but speed most certainly is not one of them – the thing is slow as a dog. It’s not even close to gmail.

It may be faster when you have a trivial amount of mail, but as soon as you reach any sort of volume performance takes a nosedive.

By: DH

DH — Thu, 05 Apr 2007 05:38:01 +0000

An excellent article explaining the wonders of IMAP.

I believe most people don’t even know that they have an affordable POP3 alternative which avoids all the weaknesses of a POP3 system.

I can really recommend fastmail’s service, I have been with the for the past 4 years. I have been SPAM free throughout this period.