Rebecca MacKinnon reports that she's had problems with GMail going down unexpectedly and without explanation.
A couple of people are also defending Gmail because, after all, it's just BETA and people who are taking advantage of this free service shouldn't expect it to be perfect.Fair enough. I moved anything important off Gmail last time it went down.
I just wish the Google people would provide some notification or explanation about what's going on when Gmail goes down.
I've had a gmail address for many months now (jackhodgson AT gmail DOT com), but I've never really used it.
For the past few days I've been giving it a serious tryout, and my initial reaction is quite positive. Here are a few initial thoughts.
The user interface has all the features we've come to expect in an email client. In a web-based client this often means that the performance is sluggish or requires frequent page refreshes. But those Google folks certainly know how to program for the web, 'cause this is very smooth.
The display of inline html is good. And, of course, being able to easily search all your mail is very nice. Not having "mailboxes" for storing mail takes a little getting used to, but I think it's the way to go.
The ads are very discreet. Off to the side. Not dropped into the middle of your email content, or presented as roadblocks, like other web-based email systems.
Viewing mail as "conversations" as opposed to individual incoming messages is taking a little getting used to. But I'll give it some time.
That's it for now. More later.