Welcome to The Internet Series - A step-by-step guide to getting connected. The hardest part of writing this series is where to begin! So after thinking about what angle I should take, and where I should go from, email is where Part 1 begins. Gmail, Yahoo mail, Hotmail or your personalized email gets you connected to the world and actually using it, gives you the start to your internet presence.

Im sure by now everyone that knows anything about the internet, or has friends or family overseas, has email. But you find that your inbox is full of rubbish, and you keep getting email’s about viagra, cheap software and numerous other forms of spam, and therefore dont use your email much. Also organising your email is a pain, hey? Well I have an answer for you… Try Gmail. You won’t look back.

Free email, aint it irratatingly useless?

Having a free email address is not as bad as it was, say 5 years ago. Ever since Google entered the email world with Gmail, other free email accounts like Yahoo Mail and MSN’s Hotmail have jacked up their service so as not to lose their subscriber base. Gmail is not the largest free email provider, but they do offer the best email service. A huge amount of space for your email (increases every second. Literally!), better spam filters, no advertising in your emails, POP3 access (more on this later) and since they have less subscribers - an understandable email address. None of this john_doe_445_my_unique_email_address@hotmail.com rubbish. Gmail is free, but you will need an invitation from an existing Gmail user in order to sign up. Which also prevents alot of unwanted users. Its also a pretty cool marketing gimick.

So for anyone that wants a Gmail account, post a comment here, and Ill get you hooked up.

The one thing that I really like about Gmail, is the POP3 access. I no longer have to fire up my web browser to view my emails. I can open up Microsoft Outlook and click the Send/Receive button, and all my emails get downloaded, and my emails in my outbox get sent via my Gmail account. My email is then viewable offline, which I think everybody likes.

Gmail tips

Sorting email with Gmail is pretty simple…. once you know how. Using the “+” feature you can easily setup filters and get emails sent using the “+” to be neatly stored away, and not clog up your inbox. E.g. You sign up for an Amazon account. Instead of signing up with johndoe@gmail.com as your email address, sign up using johndoe+amazon@gmail.com. Then in your Gmail account, setup a filter that filters any emails sent to johndoe+amazon@gmail.com and either archive it directly, label it, or star it. Sorting your inbox at a breeze…

There are another 3 things that I use with Gmail that make life so much easier. Firstly, you can import your contacts from your favourite mail client. Secondly, they have a desktop app, Gmail notifier that sits in your system tray and notifies you whenever you recieve new mail. Exactly like Outlook does. And lastly, drafts. This is a pretty new feature but works wonders. It automatically saves your email that you are busy typing, as a draft, so that in the event that a lightning bolt had to hit your house, you wouldn’t lose that long letter to Aunty Sue in Canada you were typing.

And thats it for part 1. If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to ask. If you need a Gmail invitation, leave a comment here, and Ill shoot you one.

In this series, Im not really going to be doing a comparision between products or software, Im more likely going to tell you which is the best (in my opinion), and get you hooked up with these products. I use all them myself, and thats why I believe in them. If you disagree, let me know! It will be great to chat about it.

References: Gmailtips