Gmail vs Outlook?

[Wade Munday]

Has anyone switched from using Outlook as their email client to Gmail? How's it working out for you?

Couple of issues I'm trying to solve:
Syncing email between desktop and laptop PCs
Access to email anywhere

Thanks,

wade

[Jon Holdman]

Try Thunderbird for an e-mail client. I've been using it for years now and find its a much better client than Outlook, unless you're connected to a corporate Exchange server.

If you can, switch your services from POP to IMAP. POP pulls down the mail where IMAP gives you access to the mail on the server. I have my personal accounts with Godaddy. Its not free, but its only $33.50 a year and that gives me 10 addresses and unlimited storage. And no screwy "we'll read your e-mails and send you ads" terms of service. Godaddy also has a web based interface so you can get to your mail even if you don't have your computer with your client handy.

Most clients, including both Thunderbird and Outlook have controls that let you control the timing of when mail is checked. If you don't like those 20 minute delays, just set the interval to a shorter time.

I used to try to organize email into folders. I still do this, to some extent, though mostly with server side rules. At my day job, for example, we use a lot of mailing lists. I can set up a rule on the server (same on Godaddy) that will dump all emails for the mailing list into a folder. This avoids cluttering up my inbox. For most e-mail, though, I just let it stay in the inbox. I find searching is much more effective than trying to categorize emails and stuff them into folders. I've convinced several other folks of this approach, too, and had them say it was indeed easier to deal with.

Godaddy does let you set up an address to forward to another address.

Not really a recommendation for godaddy, nor do I have any affiliation with them. But I've been happy with the service. I really like that the e-mails stay on their server rather than being pulled down to one specific client like was happening with POP.