Today’s internet offers a plethora of free services. With web services and ’software as a service’ (SAS) applications becoming more and more abundant, companies are beginning to take more and more advantage of free services.

GMail, a free email solution provided by Google, is taking the email world by storm. It allows POP, IMAP, and webmail access, and again, it’s FREE! Why consider using a free, hosted email solution?

FREE!

Firstly, it’s free. You don’t have to pay anything, and it’s accessible nearly 99% of the time. You’ll only notice GMail go down every once in a while, and this is usually due to scheduled maintenance. If it’s not due to maintenance, you can always check the GMail Blog to see what’s going on. By the time you figure out the issue, GMail’s probably already back up and running.

Storage Space

Each GMail account offers a considerate amount of storage space. At the time of writing, GMail accounts allow for up to 7140 MB, which is over 7 GB of space. I doubt your current email host allows you to store this much space on your server.

Instead of paying your hosting provider to increase your total storage space, simply let GMail take care of it.

Google is a name to trust

We all know that Google is one of the biggest players when it comes to the internet, so why not trust them with your email? Being such a large, progressive, and solid company, you can expect over time greater enhancements, increases in storage space, and cool features to come.

Accessible

GMail provides its own portal for webmail, and it’s pretty nice. Taking advantage of today’s technologies, such as AJAX, javascript interface enhancements, and a slick user-friendly design, you’re sure to get comfortable using the interface quickly and easily.

In addition to a webmail portal (gmail.com), you can also POP or IMAP your email to your client software, such as Mac Mail, Vista Mail, or MS Outlook. This makes it much easier to keep your email account synched, so it’s always the same from wherever you may be, whether on your laptop on the road, at the library, on your phone, or in your office on your daily machine.

Searchable and Taggable

GMail allows you to tag or label each message, so it’s easy to keep your messages organized. Unlike normal email client software, GMail arranges folders based on tags. So instead of your email folders being arranged in a hierarchy, each folder contains a collection of emails having a given tag. In this way, an email that may pertain to two tags is allowed to be displayed in two folders, without the need to duplicate the message and store it in two separate folders.

Plus, all your emails are searchable. Instead of being forced to store your messages in some hierarchical folder structure, you simply ‘move’ them to an Archive folder. Your tags and labels are enough for you to find the messages you need to, quickly and easily.

SPAM Control

Google’s pretty good with algorithms (hence the best search engine on the web). So when it comes to SPAM, I’d be a fool not to trust Google’s algorithms. Google’s technology gives you more power over controlling SPAM and keeping your mailboxes clean.

More info

For more info, take a look at GMail’s notes on how GMail makes email easy and efficient. Signup today! GMail Home