Why I'm Switching to Gmail

While I'm boring you with my personal IT, let me tell you why I am switching to Gmail:

• I want all my personal data accessible anywhere anytime. When getting a passport renewed, I had to get proof of travel and had to get it in 15 minutes. Kinkos two blocks away. Plopped in a credit card, logged into webmail for my earthlink account to find the recent receipt was no more. Was able to call the airline and have them email another copy, get it, print it and provide it by the deadline.
  
• Privacy concerns are overblown. The gravest concerns have to do with what Google could do because so little is explicit in their policy, especially as Orkut and Blogger are integrated. Trust and goodness is part of their brand, the world is watching and will iterate upon them if they fail us (notice I'm talking about them as though they are people, not an enterprise, their initial iterations are positive, and there is little chance of change of control). I'm more concerned with services that model me and my relationships without my permission or control.
  
• Its the best webmail app there is. Simple, usable and powerful. Not the best web app, because it bastardizes the browser, but best available.
  
• The user experience fits my usage model. With the exception of a couple filtering techniques, I have always kept my Inbox as a record of what comes in, Outbox of out and Sent as sent. Then relied on search and flagging instead of classification. If I wasn't on a Mac and occasionally mobile, Bloomba would be my ideal tool.
  
• Goodbye dialup account. I have kept a Earthlink account for dial-up while traveling and spam filtering via Brightmail. Would rather pay for 800 charges while travelling. I have confidence in Google's own anti-spam solutions over time, but we will see as I use it to filter my published addresses. The main reason for keeping this account was a persistent address so old friends can find me. Now I have an identity on the web and with social networking services I don't need address persistence.
  

There is another thing, I'm using email less than I used to. I don't consider dealing with spam using it. Most of my messaging has been offloaded into more efficient modalities:

• Workspaces for critical processes and productive groups
  
• IM, IRC and AVChat for on demand coordination and in lieu of calls (beware the interruption tax). Key to managing interruptions is a moderate buddy list, use presence at risk of being Busy when you are not, quick social gestures like "on phone" that people can understand or ignoring when absolutely needed -- otherwise, when I'm online I'M on.
  
• Public blogs for the big CCs, keeping up with the network and what used to be mailing lists (with only a couple of exceptions, and the quickest way to turn down email volume is unsubscribe from lists). Aggregator always hovers around 150 subscriptions.
  
• Social networks for introductions
  

Except IM, all of these modalities use the pull model of attention management. Even social network spam, I log in to process these more passive messages by choice. When people ask how I find time to blog, the answer is simple -- less email.

UPDATE: I disabled comments on this post because its becoming ripe with comment spam

Comments

[Edward Vielmetti]

As to interruptions, take a look here http://vielmetti.typepad.com/vacuum/2004/04/managing_interr.html for some issues with dealing with the interrupt load when things are coming at you faster than you can deal with them (and when you still need to work on tasks that demand sustained uninterrupted attention).

[Liz]

My big beef with Gmail is that I can't pick up mail from other POP accounts with it. I have a number of different mailboxes on various servers. Normally I use OS X Mail on my laptop to get the mail, and since I travel nearly everywhere with it, that works fine. But when I do use Webmail, I use Yahoo because it allows me to pick mail up from my other accounts.

If Gmail adds the ability to pull mail from remote accounts, I'll probably use it more.

[Bill Seitz]

re IM/IRC for coordination: does that mean you give people direction ("hey, you need to accomplish this deliverable before that conference next week") via those channels?

Do you archive your sessions in those media?

If not, are you then leaving it up to the other party to track their own deliverables and priorities?

[Adina Levin]

Bill, that's where IM/IRC is used alongside wiki -- the conversation happens in chat, and then the plan is posted. We've got a bot to post, for convenience.

[Shoelace]

Not to be weird, mean, or greedy, but I'd really like a GMAIL account. I think the idea is neat. I was just wondering, maybe could I get an invite?

[Kanchi]

Hi
I want Gmail signup invitation.. I receive about 100 emails daily so it would help in beta testing...
Please send me invitation at u2000070@giki.edu.pk

[Kanchi]

Hi
I want Gmail signup invitation.. Please send me invitation at kkanchi2000@yahoo.com

[Michael]

Hello, hey I would like a Gmail signup invitation please please please... you can send it to bigfernand@hotmail.com

[nghia]

can i speak with you?

[Eric]

Hello, could you please send me a Gmail invitation as well. I do a lot of emailing and have beta tested other software in the past. kram@usa.com

[Ross Mayfield]

Hey folks --

*I do not have Gmail invitations to hand out*

Sorry,

Ross

[niyaf]

Please send me invitation for gmail

[Deepak]

Hi
Can somebody give me invitation for Gmail i want to take the benefit of it

Deepak

[nasir shiwani]

can any body send gmail invitation i want an account of gmail it is not possible without your help

[are why]

i'd lik 2 know how 2 get a gmail account ?

thx

[somchain]

I would like to know hoe can I get the Gmail.

[kemerlin]

beacuse i like mail having enought size to put something

[ksevinc]

can anybody send me an invitation?
it really makes me happy....

[Pradeepan]

Hi

Please can anyone send me an invitation for gmail sign up. I get lots of mails everyday, and even i get 100MB from yahoo, i use 5 addresses, and everyday check and delete mails to have space. I am sure gmail will be ideal for me as well as for beta testing. Thanks my email address vdeepan3@yahoo.com