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buh-bye gmail (and google apps)

Thursday Feb 7th 2008

I recently needed to retrieve an important e-mail back from 2006 only to find out it was 100% GONE from my Gmail.

Not cool.

I really needed the info that was in there. I combed thru all my 2006 e-mails and it was gone without a trace.

This is the 3rd time an e-mail has mysteriously vanished from my Gmail account.

The first two times I was able to retrieve information I was looking for in other ways, but this time what I lost really left me in a pickle.

Strike three, you’re out, Gmail.

Although I will miss Gmail’s awesome spam filtering and the huge 6GB limit, I’m going back to hosting mail myself and accessing via IMAP thru Mozilla Thunderbird.

At least then I’ll know an e-mail will never be missed or mysteriously vanish.

This saddens me because I was really liking Gmail.. but I should have known better than to trust a free e-mail service.

. . .

Things I’ll miss about Gmail:

• 6GB of storage(!)
• Very good spam filters
• Fast loading interface
• Threaded views

Things I won’t miss:

• It still is, to this day, a beta product.
• The ads
• The “new” interface that slowed it down rather than made it faster.
• No ability to sort by size.
• The clunky IMAP connectivity.
• No folders (I never truly got used to that “label” nonsense)

Some additional notes

Some people don’t trust Gmail?

There are some people out there who absolutely do not trust any e-mail ending from an account with @gmail.com. Granted, I’ve never had this issue because I used Google Apps, but it’s a bit unnerving that some distrust Gmail that much.

“Delete forever” doesn’t mean “delete forever” in Gmail

Deleting an e-mail from Gmail doesn’t mean it’s deleted. It means it’s deleted from your account. Google is well known to never delete anything. This means every single mail you’ve ever “deleted” (even including all the spams) are stored somewhere on Google’s servers.

I’ve always been aware of this but chose to ignore it. However now that I’m hosting my own mail again, I know for a fact “deleted” truly means “gone forever”.

IMAP performs far better when you host it elsewhere

The #1 request from Gmail users had from day one was to have IMAP connectivity.

Gmail finally delivered and offered the option.

It sucks.

The connection is spotty and will periodically “time out” for apparently no other reason than server overload. I mean, yeah you can just back out and reconnect, but sheesh, c’mon.

The IMAP I have on my web host works so much faster the difference is like night and day.

Gmail is not immune to losing mail

It’s easy to find instances where people have lost their Gmail; a little too easy if you asked me.

Some accounts of this are from way back in 2004 while others are fairly recent in late ‘07. The fact of the matter is that it does happen.

To date, no one has ever been able to quite figure out why Gmail would randomly lose mail for apparently no reason.

Other free webmail providers are just as bad

Try these Google searches:

• lost my yahoo mail
• lost my hotmail

Judge for yourself!

If you want reliable e-mail, either download it or pay for it

E-Mail is one of those things while wildly unsecure is in fact the most used form of communication.

I’ve tried more or less every e-mail service there is. The most reliable mail is from the use of a respectable web host, bar none. When I say “respectable” I mean one that provides good spam filters, fast servers and lots of options.

I always know that with a decent paid web host, my mail will always be there.

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