What is GMail?

[Coldicote]

I browse with Internet Explorer and my opening page is normally Google. At the top of the Google page there are various tabs including an invitation to 'Sign in' for GMail. I see one has to have a Username and a Password, so presumably it's an alternative to Outlook Express - or is it? Can someone please explain what benefit there is, if any, by signing in for GMail? I would appreciate a better understanding rather than risk upsetting my present system trying it out.

[ummmm]

Just like hotmail I think...

[Barmaid]

Like ummm says, gmail is just another email provider. Outlook Express isn't actually an email provider it is software that downloads email from your email account, whether it be hotmail, aol, gmail etc.

[jno]

it's like Hotmail: an email service that you can access from anywhere that's got a computer. Outlook Express, as far as I know, you can only get on your home computer. It's run by Google, which is why they promote it. The advantage over Hotmail is that Hotmail deletes your account if you haven't used it for a month (at least I think this is still the case); Gmail doesn't.

It won't upset your system; it's just another website. I use it.

[deggers316]

its just the same as yahoo mail only this is gmail (google mail)
i:e: fred @gmail.co.uk (or .com)

[Coldicote]

Thank you. My ISP is Orange and I have email addresses with Orange and also with Freeola. Am I now to understand that GMail is just another email service (like Freeola is) and that I can have it in addition, without upsetting existing services and delete it if I wish?

[mike11111]

Yes.

[ummmm]

handy for registering new names on AB :-)

[Old_Geezer]

Outlook Express is an older e-mail client that runs on your PC. Not to be confused with an e-mail server which provides the actual e-mail service and runs on someone else's bit of kit, out there on the Internet.

As I understand it GMail is simply the e-mail service offered by Google, muach the same a yahoo or hotmail or any of the other providers. Be aware Google software scans your e-mail in order to offer you appropriate ads.

[Old_Geezer]

You may open up and subsequently abandon as many free e-mail accounts as you wish. But too many are a pain to keep track of. And it may be a pain to get them all to download to your PC. If you have an account you like, stick with it. Open others to check sites/offers where you may wish to avoid them sending spam to your usual address.

[Coldicote]

Thank you all very much for these helpful comments. I'll probably give GMail a try but if I am to be offered 'appropriate ads' I don't think it's going to last very long!

[hc4361]

I LOVE gmail. I have it set up to 'collect' all my email - from my ISP provider, hotmail and other gmail accounts.

I have gmail on my phone so can easily access my emails, and can access them from any pc in the world with only one password to remember.

[VHG]

>>>And it may be a pain to get them all to download to your PC.

Gmail does not download mail to your PC, it keeps it all on a server and is viewed via a browser.

[jno]

the ads, appropriate or otherwise, are pretty much the same as you get on an AB page - no big deal. The only one that drives me mad is when I go to my spam folder and it keeps offering me a link to a recipe for spam fritters.

[hc4361]

I honestly don't notice the ads. I do have Adblock plus, maybe that's why.

[Old_Geezer]

Wot ! No POP3 ? :-(

[hc4361]

Gmail will check 5 pop3 accounts.

[wildwood]

VHG //Gmail does not download mail to your PC, it keeps it all on a server and is viewed via a browser.//

Don't know if I have a special account but mine does, along with the pop3 service of my server.

[hc4361]

There is a utility (Gmail Backup) that downloads your email but I've never used it.

[ChuckFickens]

VHG...

http://mail.google.co...nswer.py?answer=13273

[frendyfiree]

It is the email service provided by google.