Why Desktop Email Still Makes Sense

Does nobody use encrypted email? As far as I know this is only capable via desktop email applications. Outlook, Thunderbird, etc. They are a must if you want your email to be secure.

wolfkabal

@krom:

You can select "All" which will select the 20 conversations on that page, but then there is a link that says "Select all conversations that match this search".

Hope this helps!

Jim McNelis

i can enter twenty email addresses into the TO field and send them individually with the program "send personally" on microsoft outlook. i need a similar feature for that to switch to google. BCC is not good enough for me.

Got a smartphone and now I barely even use the GMail web UI. The ONLY benefit desktop email clients have ever had for me is offlne access. This is why I always used Apple Mail on my laptop. I was never guaranteed to have a network connection. Just don't like the wonkiness of Google Gears (It's probably good, but I have yet to have it work flawlessly for me).

I mostly use the web interface. I use POP to download emails and back them up in case anything every goes terribly wrong, and IMAP to access it on my iPhone. But for day-to-day emailing nothing beats the web interface and being able to access it anywhere. I don't really see a point in having yet another application run on my mac at all times when I can simply open up a new tab in firefox when I need to email.

@krom: there are ways around this. i.e. if you're selecting all 20, it will ask if you want to delete 'all messages like this'. Not 100% perfect, but great for deleting mass 'facebook' emails or getting all of your bank emails into a specific label.

Sheesh, a little outage and everybody goes nuts! Hilarious, really, when I remember all the times Outlook Express or Thunderbird would not connect to my POP3 or IMAP servers correctly.

Putting up with a short outage is no big deal and is not unique to Gmail, or even to webmail in general. My work exchange server goes down every once in a while and no one goes all alarmist and says we should switch to webmail.

Webmail is the winner, period. And what's this about "better filtering and rules"? My Gmail filtering system is pretty complex.

jkrell

No ads. :)

TomeOne

No space limit, doesn't require a good internet connection for fast response, offline (i know Gmail have this feature, but not the others), drag-and-drop attachments, better organization, can't think of any other.

@paqman: I was trying to email my son's teacher when Gmail died, and time was an issue. Not really bike riding time.

We also run our business email through Google apps. Fortunately, POP and IMAP worked, because we had customers sending orders to us.

Life threatening? No. But let's not underestimate the importance of a communication tool as basic as email.

krewemaynard

My biggest beef with GMail usability is when I want to delete more than 20 emails resulting from a search. You can only select 20 emails at once, then page next and select another 20, etc. In TBird I can delete more than 20 emails at once without having to repeatedly do page loads.

Most important, TBird also allows me to access more than one email account and keep the organized separately in the same interface.

I also like TBird's plugin capability and adaptive junk mail filtering.

krom

I dropped my desktop client for gmail a while ago, but I sure do miss being able to paste a graphic directly into the email.

SciotoSurfer

What is this "Desktop email?" Is it something old people use like the phone book?

For all those who were part of the "outcry", get a life. Hop on a bike and go for a ride or something. Can we look at lack of email as a blessing for once? Geeze was it life threatening? Gmail is down for a couple hours and we start rearranging our life's priorities like a loved one just died or something.

paqman

I love Gmail's archiving and tags, but sometimes I like having the folders right in the sidebar, so I can put things in order exactly how I want them.

@jeffk: I use that myself, but I've found that it does nothing for right click: send to mail recipient, which would be convenient.

@eagledrc: Wha? I use Tbird on my computers, and have my mail on my S60 phone but I can still just login to my gmail or my work webmail just fine without either one of those.

There is no inability there at all.

I'll never give up my desktop email. It's fast & I can use it offline. The offline access was critical when I travelled for a living, but now it's just for performance.

I haven't had an email client at home since...1998 or so. That's just so last century.

I like the threaded email messages that allow me to keep track of a conversation, and the ability to get my emails from my cell phone with no difficult setups required.

gerrrg

i have the best of both worlds in my opinion.

i use a pop account, and check it with gmail. i set it up to leave the messages on the server as well when gmail pulls them in. I use gmail exclusively as my front end, but in the event that gmail is down, or for archival purposes, i can read my email with outlook, or pull it all for archival purposes. I just need to remember, assuming i have any emails i care about archiving, to pull all my mail every month or so, because it only stays out on the server for 60 days or so until it's auto-deleted by the mail server.

TheWraithL98

So I don't have to deal with Gmail's ridiculous "conversation" view....ugh.

akashhhhh

Using Thunderbird on a Mac, though, makes no sense at all.

Miguel de Oliveira

@wolfkabal: I may be wrong here but that security is an illusion. Sure, you may send your mails via some encrypted line but how does your mail provider actually send your mails to the respective recipients? Better to encrypt the message itself instead of relying on secure lines.

One reason desktop email doesn't rule? Inability to access it on the road! If your computer dies or you don't have a laptop for the road, then you can't access your email!

For business, there really is nothing like MS Exchange and Blackberry Exchange Server.

JRoscoe

@krewemaynard: If it is so important, putting all your money on one horse doesn't make sense at all.

@Jim McNelis: Also you can probably set your mails per page to a higher number. I have mine to 100.

dajmeister

I mostly left Gmail a year ago. Still use it as my "spam-filtering mother in the cloud" but no longer archive anything there. Best spam filtering around, so great for public email addys. But desktop client is, IMHO, more reliable, safer security-wise, more offline friendly, and easier to backup. Will keep my Gmail accounts for public emailing, but haven't looked back nor miss using Gmail for archiving or primary reliance.

Of course desktop email still makes sense - and it will for much longer than the folks who think gmail, or facebook, or twitter will eventually rule all do. This will particularly be the case in corporate environments, where persistence and availability is key.

When people say that desktop this or that will be replaced by XYZ's Lattest Fad, I take it with a grain of salt, like when you watch a design show where rooms are made over by moving/hiding TVs, and covering furniture in cheap cloth - sure, it looks and sounds good and goes towards making a point for someone, but when it's all said and done, the covers come off, and the TV goes right back to its prominent place in the room - because real people use it.

TadGhostal

On the mac, Fluid + Google Gears really makes Gmail like a desktop app for three big reasons:

1: "Mailto:" links work if the gmaill app created by fluid is set as the system-wide default maill app

2: Dock notifications

3: Of course, off-line access

dabigd

Does anyone know a resource comparing webmail outages/uptime for the various providers? Comparisons with industry standards like Exchange/Domino would be useful as well.

cheyrou23

GMail Notifier makes GMail your mailto: handler.

jeffk

I recently switched to using Mutt with Offlineimap to access my Gmail.

Having said that I'm still VERY impressed by Gmail's web interface, it's every bit as efficient as Mutt and far more efficient than any other desktop client I've seen, and user friendlier to boot (displaying image attachments, HTML email, etc., and doesn't take hours to set up). Bit slower as it's AJAX rather than a curses program, but still pretty fast considering.

However the advantages of offline access, having a backup, not being dependent on the webmail being available, keyboard shortcuts working all the time rather than most of the time, and being able to write mail in Vim(!) make Mutt worth it. The minimal interface with no ads is a bonus too.

Thanks to IMAP you get the best of both worlds: Desktop client with everything saved on your own machine, and access to a very decent web interface from everywhere else.

gazb

@SQLGuru: gAttach or Google Talk both let you point your mailto: links at Google Apps accounts.

Offline Google lets you read/search/compose messages when you don't have an internet connection.

cheyrou23

Most of the benefits of desktop email have already been mentioned: offline access, the ability to deal with lots of messages at one time rather than by 50 message pagefuls, etc. The other nice thing is working in a UI that is specific to email. It's not an interface within an interface (your browser).

jallison

My personal mail is hosted through the free Google Apps (my own domain). I also have a Gmail address. All of these are set up via IMAP in Outlook. I don't keep Outlook running, but I like having a full featured mail program for various reasons including:

** mailto: links work (also use mailto: in my command line to start an e-mail)
** Better sorting / filtering than Gmail (hello, sort by author, please)
** Better attachment management
** Offline reading / composition. There are times when I don't have a good connection and don't want to compose an e-mail on my phone. With Outlook, I can compose that e-mail and it will sit in my outbox until I get a connection.

I still use the web interface when I just want to compose a quick e-mail. It fires up faster than Outlook. Or if I'm not at my "primary" machine.

I also have the Gmail app on my WinMo phone, so I can check it there if I'm looking for something specific (I don't sync my mail to my phone).

All in all, I think I have the best of all worlds with archiving and "everywhere-ness" but still having a full client. Those of you who are web only are missing out on certain features that I have.

@paintbox: Completely agree. I run my own webmail server that POP3:s all my E-mail from my different accounts - and sure, webmail is OK for those times I'm not at home or is behind some nasty firewall... But desktop clients are just more... UI-neat and controllable. Plus, this way, I can access my E-mails even when my shaky internet decides it doesn't need me for a few hours.

krank23

Outage means you can still access messages from the previous day, compose, etc.

Of course, you can always use an email client with Gmail and get the same advantages.

penguiniator

drag and drop attachments (or "send to email recipient" integration in the windows shell for that matter) is THE thing I miss from desktop emailing

jlarroulet

-control.

-(relative) independence from the email mothership

-ease... composing a new email, deciding on attachments, what font/size to use when composing, selecting recipients... it's all just better with a client

-less bloat... no bulky browser to load if I just want to send an email

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

paintbox

@SciotoSurfer: can do that in gmail too just one of lab features i think

@jkrell: very true!!! this post is just post panic period or something

@jallison: look for the 50 messages you can change that tro watever you want on one page and offline access does work just not as well and so the only real reason here might be the UI

@SQLGuru: I complete agree with the statement about offline mail. Offline mail using Google Gears only works if you plan ahead and sync up. Thunderbird just keeps all of my mail up to date all of the time.

David Ron

@feuerbach: Nice setup.

That post was so full of juicy nuggets that this person needs their account approved. It wouldn't hurt to follow up with the post, and write it up as one of those useful things to do with that spare box you've got puttering around running linux.

soggy_cheerio

@earlycj5: Agreed. Arguing that it's either or is a false dichotomy. Both is an acceptable and functional answer.

I use Google Apps with my own domain. I use Thunderbird at home and at work, but can access it at any other computer, too.

dagwud

Desktop access is more like a backup than a necessity. Besides, most of the GMail advantage isn't necessarily had through a desktop client anyway.

crichton007

Gmail did have drag and drop attachments via a FFox addon. But their update broke it. WTF google; i must be missing something or else Mr. Brin needs some more caffeine in his coffee.

I use Eudora to collect all my email and I had no "Gmail outage" at all. 'nuff said.

Just use both and get the best out of both worlds -- web interface for keyboard shortcuts, conversation view, search... Outlook for offline access, sort by column, attachments... It doesn't cost anything to have a backup of Gmail in your Outlook. You never know, what if internet goes down, gmail goes down, or Google goes out of business?

yt8019

seamless (mostly) integration with calendar, tasks, and contact manager. That's what keeps me on outlook (through gmail, of course, so I can always have access wherever I'm at and to find those hard to find emails)

draketrumpet

@David Ron: I gave up on Thunderbird years ago because I couldn't move my email archive from one PC to another.

Have they improved that?

@bloknayrb: Yep, sadly it doesn't work outside the browser.
@ Enginerd : Thanks, that's good news, I can uninstall Notifier! I like minimal installs.

If the Internet is down, I still have access to all my previously sent and received emails to refer to in my business. (I use Thunderbird connected to a Gmail account - the best of both worlds!)

In my mind, 0-setup/backup almost always wins when features are comparable.

Downtime? How often has gmail been down since youve used it? For me, about the same as the office outlook/exchange setup which has hiccups from time to time as well. No system is perfect.

Feature-wise, I agree that filtering in web only mail systems is still not up to snuff, but it will get there. And besides, with exchange being hosted now, web versions of outlook, etc. The features will become on par with desktop mail.

I say it again: 0-setup/backup on your workstation=priceless. Computer breaks down? New one, url, done. Here it takes a week getting all the passwords and security clearances to get everything working again after you've been on vacation for a month (it is a bad system though).

My point is all systems have problems, no matter what. But 0 config/bak on workstations is a MAJOR leap forward and trumps many other things.

holyspidoo

100%

robogobo

...not to mention it does not look professional to be using free mail.

Axel_BZ