# Gmail is really goddamn cool **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [October 15, 2005, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gmail-is-really-goddamn-cool/326308 "2005-10-15T01:38:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2005, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gmail-is-really-goddamn-cool/326308/1 "2005-10-15T01:38:21Z")
I just learned how to set filters. 🆒 ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2005, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gmail-is-really-goddamn-cool/326308/2 "2005-10-15T02:07:58Z")
Good for you. gmail is so fun, in fact, it minimally works with my browser! Woo-hoo! A seriously crippled webmail system! I sure wish I could even access the “settings” page. I guess “do no evil” doesn’t mean making things compliant. (I guess “fun” is in the eye of the beholder.) ---
**Author:** ![Caffeine.addict](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f475e1/32.png) [@Caffeine.addict](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Caffeine.addict)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2005, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gmail-is-really-goddamn-cool/326308/3 "2005-10-15T03:29:29Z")
What browser are you using? I use Firefox and it works really well with that. ---
**Author:** ![Dunderman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecb155/32.png) [@Dunderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dunderman)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2005, 8:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gmail-is-really-goddamn-cool/326308/4 "2005-10-15T08:42:31Z")
Gmail is great, but the noncompliance is annoying. I want to be able to right click - “Open In New Window”, dammit! ---
**Author:** ![Agent\_Foxtrot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc29f/32.png) [@Agent\_Foxtrot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Agent_Foxtrot)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2005, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gmail-is-really-goddamn-cool/326308/5 "2005-10-15T15:17:22Z")
Spam is starting to leak into my Gmail inbox. Any suggestions? Adam ---
**Author:** ![Kythereia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e8c25b/32.png) [@Kythereia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kythereia)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2005, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gmail-is-really-goddamn-cool/326308/6 "2005-10-15T17:18:25Z")
I love being able to sort through previous emails and have a conversation. Gmail does, indeed, much of the rock. ---
**Author:** ![scr4](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/59ef9b/32.png) [@scr4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scr4)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2005, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gmail-is-really-goddamn-cool/326308/7 "2005-10-15T17:45:53Z")
> [@Priceguy](#): > > Gmail is great, but the noncompliance is annoying. I want to be able to right click - “Open In New Window”, dammit! Don’t think of it as a web site, think of it as an e-mail client that happens to be accessible from anywhere. I finally got around to trying the filters and it’s very nice. Now I can direct all my mailing-list traffic to my Gmail account without clogging up the inbox. (Filters for the mailing lists are set to “skip inbox”, so the messages get archived immediately and don’t activate the Notifier.) The only thing I can’t figure out is, how do I get it to use special characters as part of a search string? I set the keyword to “[members]” and it’s ignoring the brackets. ---
**Author:** ![Eonwe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eonwe/32/240_2.png) [@Eonwe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eonwe)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2005, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gmail-is-really-goddamn-cool/326308/8 "2005-10-15T18:45:49Z")
Yeah. Gmail was the key that let me turn the giant mess that was my inbox into a managable, sorted, organized storage facility for my e-mails. I love it. ---
**Author:** ![Dunderman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecb155/32.png) [@Dunderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dunderman)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2005, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gmail-is-really-goddamn-cool/326308/9 "2005-10-15T19:23:52Z")
> [@scr4](#): > > Don’t think of it as a web site, think of it as an e-mail client that happens to be accessible from anywhere. Naah, I prefer to bitch. ---
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2005, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gmail-is-really-goddamn-cool/326308/10 "2005-10-15T20:24:39Z")
There is a link at the bottom of every gmail page to access it through basic html. That may be a solution to some problems. ---
**Author:** ![SkipMagic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skipmagic/32/20706_2.png) [@SkipMagic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SkipMagic)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2005, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gmail-is-really-goddamn-cool/326308/11 "2005-10-15T20:55:35Z")
I don’t see much value in it until they give us folders. Well, I see the value in checking it through POP3, but I don’t care for the web interface. ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2005, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gmail-is-really-goddamn-cool/326308/12 "2005-10-15T20:59:53Z")
> [@SkipMagic](#): > > I don’t see much value in it until they give us folders. Well, I see the value in checking it through POP3, but I don’t care for the web interface. Wat can you do with folders that you can’t do with filters? The filters seems to be able to do everything folders can, with the addition of allowing a mail item be in two or more different categories. ---
**Author:** ![TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tellmei_mnotcrazy/32/3419_2.png) [@TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TellMeI_mNotCrazy)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2005, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gmail-is-really-goddamn-cool/326308/13 "2005-10-15T21:08:12Z")
I love GMail. What I wish I could do is sort by name of sender, or whatever else I decide I want to sort by, but haven’t figured out how to do it yet (admittedly I haven’t tried extremely hard to find out, either). But it works quite well for me. ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2005, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gmail-is-really-goddamn-cool/326308/14 "2005-10-15T21:10:10Z")
> [@SkipMagic](#): > > I don’t see much value in it until they give us folders. Well, I see the value in checking it through POP3, but I don’t care for the web interface. There are labels. The labels work for me like folders. Exactly like that, as a matter of fact…not for you? And I was doing these even before I bothered to try the filters. ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2005, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gmail-is-really-goddamn-cool/326308/15 "2005-10-15T21:15:29Z")
Ah, I meant labels, not filters, in post #12. ---
**Author:** ![Noone\_Special](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/noone_special/32/2863_2.png) [@Noone\_Special](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Noone_Special)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2005, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gmail-is-really-goddamn-cool/326308/16 "2005-10-15T21:41:40Z")
> [@SkipMagic](#): > > I don’t see much value in it until they give us folders. Well, I see the value in checking it through POP3, but I don’t care for the web interface. Third or fourth one here to say – **labels**. It’s like having the ability to file a single mail in several folders. And Conversations are really nice, too – it’s like having a folder for all mail, incoming and outgoing, regarding a single topic. In fact, I have a lable I call “misc”, which I apply to anything that doesn’t fit under any of the other labels and doesn’t merit a new one of it’s own. This is exactly like having a folder called “misc” – except filing stuff there is a lot easier using GMail. All told, I like the GMail User Interface _concept_ better than the standard email clients – that alone is enough to make me more than happy with it. ---
**Author:** ![SkipMagic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skipmagic/32/20706_2.png) [@SkipMagic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SkipMagic)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2005, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gmail-is-really-goddamn-cool/326308/17 "2005-10-16T13:31:09Z")
Labels _don’t_ work like folders. The e-mails still overcrowd the inbox, you can’t get labels to file e-mails away like sub-folders (or sub-sub-folders), you can’t sort by anything other than date, and the threaded conversation feature–while useful to some–I find incredibly annoying. I’d rather stick with my venerable Eudora. Getting past that, though, the one reason I would never rely on Gmail for anything other than a spam-trap is that they don’t truly delete your e-mails. I don’t want a gigantic organization retaining e-mail about which I felt serious enough to delete. (Otherwise, I keep everything.) This certainly isn’t a slam on people who _do_ like Gmail, it’s just not a good fit for me. ---
**Author:** ![Rodgers01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b19c9b/32.png) [@Rodgers01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rodgers01)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2005, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gmail-is-really-goddamn-cool/326308/18 "2005-10-16T13:38:26Z")
Another big fan of gmail. One thing I can’t figure out though: when replying to e-mails, is it possible to change the title of the e-mail?? I know it doesn’t really matter if you’re replying to other people who also have gmail, but I like to mix it up a bit when replying to friends who use different systems. Very annoying. ---
**Author:** ![Noone\_Special](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/noone_special/32/2863_2.png) [@Noone\_Special](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Noone_Special)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2005, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gmail-is-really-goddamn-cool/326308/19 "2005-10-16T13:47:40Z")
> [@Rodgers01](#): > > Another big fan of gmail. One thing I can’t figure out though: when replying to e-mails, is it possible to change the title of the e-mail?? I know it doesn’t really matter if you’re replying to other people who also have gmail, but I like to mix it up a bit when replying to friends who use different systems. Very annoying. When you reply to a message, look just below the "To:’ text box – between that and the toolbar (if you’re using HTML, otherwise just above the reply text box itself). You’ll see several links that give you some options… “Add CC”, “Add Bcc”, and then “Edit Subject” That’s the one you’re looking for **SkipMagic** – once you’ve labeled a conversation, you can archive it. You have all your labels available on the sidebar (at the left), and clicking the relevant label will show all converstions with that label, whether they are in the Inbox or not. Not to saying that what works for me has to work for you… but I find this (Archiving labeled conversations) just as useful (if not more so) then folders. Combined with filters (which can pre-label conversations based on various rules, and even put the conversation directly in the Archive if you prefer), I find the paradigm quite powerful. YM obviously V ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2005, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gmail-is-really-goddamn-cool/326308/20 "2005-10-16T13:54:06Z")
> [@SkipMagic](#): > > Labels _don’t_ work like folders. The e-mails still overcrowd the inbox, you can’t get labels to file e-mails away like sub-folders (or sub-sub-folders), you can’t sort by anything other than date, and the threaded conversation feature–while useful to some–I find incredibly annoying. I’d rather stick with my venerable Eudora. Getting past that, though, the one reason I would never rely on Gmail for anything other than a spam-trap is that they don’t truly delete your e-mails. I don’t want a gigantic organization retaining e-mail about which I felt serious enough to delete. (Otherwise, I keep everything.) > > This certainly isn’t a slam on people who _do_ like Gmail, it’s just not a good fit for me. When you archive the mail, it leaves the inbox. Also, they no more “never delete” emails any more than any other web-based email that does backups. > [@](#): > > Some news stories have suggested that Google intends to keep copies of users’ email messages even after they’ve deleted them, or closed their accounts. This is simply not true. Google keeps multiple backup copies of users’ emails so that we can recover messages and restore accounts in case of errors or system failure. Even if a message has been deleted or an account is no longer active, messages may remain on our backup systems for some period of time. This is standard practice in the email industry, which Gmail and other major webmail services follow in order to provide a reliable service for users. We will make reasonable efforts to remove deleted information from our systems as quickly as is practical. [http://gmail.google.com/gmail/help/more.html#data](http://gmail.google.com/gmail/help/more.html#data) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gmail-is-really-goddamn-cool/326308.md?page=2)