Diff webmails - Gmail harder to use?

Forums › Desktop computing › Diff webmails - Gmail harder to use?

rayonline

1734 posts

Uber Geek

#124602 13-Jul-2013 18:17

I have/am using ISP POP mail, sounds a bit more professional at least thru formal communications. I have a Gmail for my cellphone and for the many Google products. Then I still have a personal ISP email. Should I leave that I think, Outlook.com and Yahoo are easier to use? What do you guys think of this. I am computer literate, have some certifcations, can build a PC. I am not a power email user but Yahoo and Outlook seems to be tidier with a cleaner interface. I don't need more of the features that Google may provide.

The other thing is if one archives emails. Is it hard to do that with webmail and is it at all possible to import it into a new webmail account? I've pretty much kept Ms Outlook Office suite - that's one reason.

gazbo

89 posts

Master Geek

#855021 13-Jul-2013 18:26

I use them all but find gmail is my preferred account. Archives, imports, exports, delegates, filters, manages other addresses so auto replies from whatever managed address it was sent to. Very easy to change sending address via drop downs in chrome so will look like it was sent from your outlook or company email if you want it to.

I find it the easiest to use by far.

billgates

4705 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#855023 13-Jul-2013 18:32

I use outlook.com and I like the way it functions and offers the feature sets.

User Interface & User Experience are both something that is a personal thing. Try them all and see what you like best and easy to use?

Do whatever you want to do man.

jevvv

some call me @jevvv
658 posts

Ultimate Geek

Retired Mod

ID Verified

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#855025 13-Jul-2013 18:39

I can't stand gmail - not intuitive at all for me (warped thinking maybe?)

Outlook online (was hotmail) usually works, but since I usually have older systems can be a pig when you have lots of emails to deal with... takes forever to load next screen etc. Need to copy contact details, go to addy book, click new then paste to add a new contact

Yahoo mail works more often for me than hotmail/outlook. Occasionally they fluff around with something so it resists opera, but usually it's only a week or two till it comes right (a week or two using firefox instead) Yahoo seems more straight forward and intuitive for a lot of things.

But I'm not a techie so I just want stuff to work, I'm not impressed by flash, bells, whistles, dancing glitter stuff that wants to sing to you and asks for your contract (or personal life) signed in blood somewhere ;)

Totally biased opinion, but then everyone's personal opinion is :)

<- don't ask me where I am - I haven't a clue: its a tech thing ;)
Housewife computerer: not particularly great at either.
And don't take me too seriously.

rayonline

1734 posts

Uber Geek

#855027 13-Jul-2013 18:43

I am like a few IT pple I know, a bit techie but we like consistency, one fella installs Office 2003 and then Office 2010 for their children, haha. I just want something that works and is efficient and easy.

RE: webmail in terms of archiving. Is that just archiving in the webmail itself. Is it possible to archive yrs of webmail into a DVD disc or hard drive and then take this and import it back into a new webmail email address? So they are in order. One reason I've used Outlook b/c they export and import using PST.

Rather than high end creative computing, I am the type of - that Dell machine in the corner of that office or that hotel business center - it just works. I just need to read and write an email. Look up emails from a few yrs back....

freitasm

BDFL - Memuneh
79266 posts

Uber Geek

Administrator

ID Verified

Trusted

Geekzone

Lifetime subscriber

#855049 13-Jul-2013 19:35

POP is just a protocol to get emails from your server. The other end of the communications have no idea if you are using POP, IMAP, ActiveSync or webmail to read your email and has no influence in how professional you are.

Also POP is not great as you have the only copy of your emails - and I am sure you have backups, right?

If you want a professional look you should be running your own domain name instead of an ISP email address. Get your own domain and use a service like Office 365 or Windows Live Domains and you can keep using Outlook. Or even Google Apps and use Outlook IMAP to get the emails if you don't like the webmail interface.

I guess because POP by default delete emails from the server you have problem getting it on your mobile. Having your own domain in one of those services means you can have your email on Outlook AND on your mobile phone at the same time. Which is great because if you see an email on your mobile and it's not important you can delete it and then not have to worry later on your desktop/laptop.

rayonline

1734 posts

Uber Geek

#855080 13-Jul-2013 21:17

Sorry dumb question - does ActiveSync work with a personal computer running Office Outlook 2010 or newer versions or does it require a server?

Yes, I have backups, 2 internal copy of each and 1 external. Might get into a Cloud drive or two to backup PSTs. I was meaning that at least a paid for ISP email looks a bit more professional (for personal uses) than just @yahoo or @hotmail. I don't own a business or such to need my own domain.

IMAP ticks me off a bit because it's slower than POP. I don't really need my emails on the go. With POP one option is just leave emails on server for the last xx days. I have tried using Gmail IMAP with Outlook 2010, so I haven't switched my personal email account to IMAP/webmail.

billgates

4705 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#855083 13-Jul-2013 21:21

Only Outlook 2013 supports ActiveSync. I use Outlook 2013 with Outlook.com on my machine. With Outlook 2010, you will have to use Hotmail/Outlook.com connector in order to configure it with Outlook 2010. The connector is free to download.

Do whatever you want to do man.

Sharesies

Trade NZ and US shares and funds with Sharesies (affiliate link).

rayonline

1734 posts

Uber Geek

#855100 13-Jul-2013 22:54

Just found out there is "Hotmail Connector Tool" that works with prior to Office 2013. It can send/receive using a POP email account which means with Outlook.com's missing IMAP it could link Outlook.com to Outlook Desktop and the phone .... One option maybe to consider. But I don't need email on the go and these online services prob makes it a bit slower than POP.

I had to disable sync in my Google Calendar and Outlook app b/c combined with my USB sych of Outlook Desktop I started having like 3x the same entries eg .. .Public Holiday. I of course don't use all 3 calendars.

jarledb

Webhead
3257 posts

Uber Geek

Moderator

ID Verified

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#855134 14-Jul-2013 01:52

If you have your own domain name, you can switch services. You can use Google Apps (Gmail for companies), Outlook.com or your ISP as your email provider - and you can switch services whenever you feel like it without having to start updating people on your email addresses. Historically this is the only sure way you have of keeping your email address for any extended period (services close down and then you have to get a new email address somewhere else).

For my day to day email I use several Google accounts and I access them via web, its a much better experience than Outlook or any other email program ever was. Just the search function in Gmail is worth a lot, and labels (so you can add mulitple "folders" to one email is great for keeping track of everything).

You really owe it to yourself to try out the web interfaces of services like Gmail. IMAP to an Outlook program is so last millenium ;)

Jarle Dahl Bergersen | Referral Links: Want $50 off when you join Octopus Energy? Use this referral code
Are you happy with what you get from Geekzone? Please consider supporting us by making a donation or subscribing.

cyril7

9058 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

Trusted

Subscriber

#855176 14-Jul-2013 10:43

Hi, as jarle says, get your own domain and use either gmail or outlook.com.

I use gmail and configure it to send as my domain. I also support a number of Google apps accounts for some very large organisations, this have users world wide using web interface or outlook via active sync with seemless syncing of email, contacts and calendars.

Also if you have all your other email accounts feed into the one gmail account leaving you with a single messaging centre.

As for archiving, there is no need to do this, a free gmail accounts has 15GBytes of storage, a Google Apps account 30GByte, and both can be upgraded for a fee. When you hit the archive button in gmail all it does is remove the inbox label, any other applied label remains. If there were no other labels then it will be found when you click (ie search) on All Mail.

With gmail there are no folders, just label metadata, when a new email arrives its labeled "inbox", you can then add other labels or remove them as you want. when you go to your inbox, all the gmail web app does is search the google behemoth for your gmail account with label "inbox" and presents the results etc etc for all searched labels.

One thing that many folk find confusing about gmail is the conversation mode, if your used to forums and subject threadign then its fine, most older folk find this confusing, so you can turn this on or off at will. The conversation threading is only applied as email is searched and displayed, the actual stored email in the goole behemoth remains unique. If you using both gmail active sync and occasionally the web interface then turning conversation mode off in the web interface is advised, otherwise it can be confusing to the user, but the email itself remains unaffected.

Cyril

rayonline

1734 posts

Uber Geek

#855215 14-Jul-2013 12:51

Esp in this weather I am not spending that much time with the big PC so on the laptop I don't use Outlook and over time I think when it expires, I may just use a phone or a 10" tablet. So that means moving towards a webmail service with Dekstop Outlook on the PC, webmail could be Outlook.com. I was able to secure a username with my full name but Gmail was taken. Yes a domain allows me to keep the email address, that's an option. But with even that I am still relying on the webmail company to save my sent box right ... and other bits too right like calendar.

Even if one gets a webmail account at least with a email client they can download the contents in the original order and then when they get a new email address they can still combine the contents back into the same structure on the local computer.

My emails are mainly text. It's the issue of access. What happens if a webmail becomes like AOL 10yrs down the road. A email client allows the person to download keep a copy of all the content and the original folders as they many yrs after by just installing a copy of say Outlook. Outlook may have a longer future than say Thunderbird. Would Thunderbird still be here 10 or 20yrs later ..... Also it allows one to access emails on the road without a internet connection say while overseas or in transit. Or when countries have unreliable internet or say in the rural villages.

jarledb

Webhead
3257 posts

Uber Geek

Moderator

ID Verified

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#855558 14-Jul-2013 23:00

For Gmail there are several ways to do backup. There are web services that will take care of that for you if you are nervous about Google staying around (I would not be).

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/download-gmail-google-data/

If you have your own domain name, you can switch away from Googles email services (or any other you might choose to use) when and if something better comes along. And you will probably be able to migrate from one solution to another - for example via IMAP.

For smartphone and tablet you should check out Googles Gmail app, it supports multiple accounts and is one of the best mail applications I have used on mobile.

timmmay

20579 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#856255 16-Jul-2013 09:17

I have my own domain, email hosted at a standard ISP host, which isn't great for spam. I looked at gmail, outlook, etc, I think I've decided to host my domains email with FastMail.fm. Details on this thread