Google Mail as your primary email address

Submitted: Sunday, Jan 28, 2007 at 09:44
ThreadID: 41689 Views:2751 Replies:12 FollowUps:1
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Hi

Everytime I think about changing my ISP, I end not doing it as I can't stand the thought of having to notify everyone that I have changed my email address. I have looked at Google mail and I wonder if would be good to use that as a portable email address that belongs to me and not part of bigpond.com or whatever. It says you can look up your email on your mobile phone too which might be good for travelling particularly with all these 3G phones.

Does anyone have experience with using Google Mail or whatever other similar things that are available on the www as their primary email address. There must be benefits but I wonder what the down side is.

Andrew
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Reply By: Mike Harding - Sunday, Jan 28, 2007 at 10:01

Sunday, Jan 28, 2007 at 10:01
Take a look here:
" target="EOF" class="lbg">www.pobox.com/

I have been using Pobox as my primary e-mail for years and have, painlessly, changed ISPs many times over that period. Amongst other destinations I have Pobox redirect my mail to a Google gmail account and I find their service satisfactory.

Mike Harding
AnswerID: 218130

Reply By: Andrew from Vivid Adventures - Sunday, Jan 28, 2007 at 10:12

Sunday, Jan 28, 2007 at 10:12
Most email service providers provide webmail access as well as downloading emails so you can look at them on your phone or on your laptop connected to your phone.

I have my own domain name and email, and I have my old email address from yahoo redirected to it. I download whenever at home, and access using webmail whenever remote.

On NextG I get 230Kbps mostly which makes for pretty fast browsing in all sorts of places.

Cheers
Andrew.
AnswerID: 218132

Reply By: Bonz (Vic) - Sunday, Jan 28, 2007 at 10:17

Sunday, Jan 28, 2007 at 10:17
google mail works like Hotmail Mr Andrew but IMHP much better, I would go for it, I think u can also use a host program like Outlook to access the gmail pop server and read your email via that
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AnswerID: 218133

Reply By: amcjavelinsst - Sunday, Jan 28, 2007 at 10:34

Sunday, Jan 28, 2007 at 10:34
Google mail

Read the terms & conditions very carefully - from memory only by reading in other places, but the gist is the same, google will be able to retain all your search data info for quite a long time - I am thinking 10 years plus type of thing, and they will have more information on you by you joining the mail service.

If that type of thing does not bother you, then go for it, but if it does then think again about the future possibilities of information exchange and privacy etc

Cheers

Graeme
AnswerID: 218140

Reply By: marq - Sunday, Jan 28, 2007 at 10:58

Sunday, Jan 28, 2007 at 10:58
Another option is to purchase a domain (AU$25-28/2years):
www.whatsinaname.com.au/

Then forward the email to what ISP you are using OR use a hosting company.

If using a hosting company - expect about $10/year minimum for say 100Mb HDD space - this allows you to have blogs,forums,webpages,photos,webmail,pop email, etc.

AnswerID: 218148

Reply By: Waynepd (NSW) - Sunday, Jan 28, 2007 at 11:28

Sunday, Jan 28, 2007 at 11:28
Hi Andrew,
I use Yahoo mail as my primary mail for the very reason you state, ie portability between ISP's. I download my mail into Outlook usually but can access it on the web wherever I have the internet.

I have had a googlemail account since it started but rarely use it. The main advantage of Google mail then was its enormous storage capacity but since those days the other providers have just about caught up.

AnswerID: 218153

Reply By: Member - Lis & Paul (NZ) - Sunday, Jan 28, 2007 at 11:46

Sunday, Jan 28, 2007 at 11:46
I used yahoo.com as my email address for years. They annoyed me about 6 months ago with their latest upgrade as it made it too slow to upload. I swapped to gmail because of its large MB limit, excellent srarching and have been very happy with it. I just use a redirect from yahoo so most people dont know I've changed an address. In NZ all the local ISP's provide a web interface - but in the case of my providor its pathetically limited. Gmail has a good address book and excellent other services such as picasa (photos) . Yes you can be paranoid about them knowing your searching - but at the end of the day do you really think you are that important in the vast numbers using these tools. I recommend google
AnswerID: 218159

Reply By: Member - JohnR (Vic)&Moses - Sunday, Jan 28, 2007 at 13:09

Sunday, Jan 28, 2007 at 13:09
Hey Andrew, I have had a Fastmail addy for a long while too. It's a lot faster to access than any other I have used but doesn't use a graphical interface that may distress you. Notice that over the years Mike Harding has one too. try www.fastmail.fm for that. No cost for the first stage. Set up by Aussies but used principally by Americans I think.

Have used Gmail a little, graphical and slow for dialup users and phones. Yahoo isn't great but better than Hotmail, though that has improved in recent times.
AnswerID: 218170

Follow Up By: Mike Harding - Sunday, Jan 28, 2007 at 14:10

Sunday, Jan 28, 2007 at 14:10
True, Fastmail is excellent in most respects and certainly worth the A$27 or A$53 per year they ask for their top two accounts.
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FollowupID: 478609

Reply By: Member - Jezza (NSW) - Sunday, Jan 28, 2007 at 13:56

Sunday, Jan 28, 2007 at 13:56
Just one thing to consider, some services/forums/companies won't accept "generic" email addresses such and gmail and hotmail. I know that Outerlimits won't accept them and I don't think Paypal will (stand to be corrected). I presume it is to do with reconciling a mail account to a "real" person.

I have a gmail account and can recommend it - but be aware of the above caveat.

Cheers,
Jezza.
AnswerID: 218175

Reply By: Oz Travellers - Sunday, Jan 28, 2007 at 21:56

Sunday, Jan 28, 2007 at 21:56
Like most I have a couple of email addresses but non of them are from my ISP. I found hotmail excellent when travelling overseas as there is mostly a link to it on net cafe computers.

Someone told me about Gmail and I find it excellent as it is never full no matter how many jokes I am sent, it has huge storage for received mail as well. It also has a contact area like messenger which seems to work ok.

Carolyn™
AnswerID: 218255

Reply By: Member - MrBitchi (QLD) - Monday, Jan 29, 2007 at 09:07

Monday, Jan 29, 2007 at 09:07
Another vote for Yahoo.
AnswerID: 218306

Reply By: geocacher (djcache) - Tuesday, Jan 30, 2007 at 22:06

Tuesday, Jan 30, 2007 at 22:06
I got sick of it too and registered a domain name.

Used Smartyhost as my provider. My ISP is Iprimus at the moment but that'll be changing next month.

Even managed to get davejones.com.au which surprised me.

Give it a try. www.smartyhost.com.au

Dave
AnswerID: 218720

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