PureBasic Forums - English

Hi,

Does anyone here use a service that's probably even better than Gmail? Gigabytes do not matter, my inbox use is always lower than 10Mb. I've yet to see a free service that has no ads like Gmail. English language interface is preferred, but German is just as okay. A spam filter would be a bonus!

So, anyone know something like this?

Reasons to why I don't want to use Gmail: sure I don't use more than 10Mb for my e-mail messaging, but in that 10Mb can fit more than hundreds of messages and I *need* a way to organize them. In Gmail I can only label individual messages, but can't make a group folder where they can be thrown into. The problem with the Gmail issue is that everytime I log in, tens of messages are in the inbox to see with no way to organize and everything is messed in the hope that those labels would actually work. I need a clean inbox. I need a way to make custom folders and every message I put in a specific folder won't show up in my inbox anymore. I know Hotmail has this feature, but it's too ad-driven to be useful. Why Gmail has not implemented this, I don't know.

Also, I need a web interface as I am always on the go and want to check my e-mail wherever I am from any PC. I usually don't carry my laptopt with me so that's a reason to why I don't use any e-mail clients like Outlook, Thunderbird, etc even if they would be the ultimate solution for my needs.

Thanks in advance, hopefully I can really make my personal computer personal again like this sticker on my HP laptop says... Cheers, Irene.

It's a little old but I really like Uebimiau:

http://www.uebimiau.org

Mistrel wrote:It's a little old but I really like Uebimiau:

http://www.uebimiau.org

Hi! Thanks for the link, but isn't that a PHP webmail application? I'm looking for a webmail service like Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo! Mail etc but with the criteria I mentioned earlier.

I just found www.inbox.com and thought it would be a good alternative to Gmail, but before going on to register does anyone here have any experience with inbox.com? Negative experiences interest me the most!

I know I expect a lot of a free webmail service, but when going down to the bare essentials the only thing I really need is robust 24/7 operation. No downtime when I'm checking my mail ~.~

Cheers, Irene.

> I've yet to see a free service that has no ads like Gmail

Gmail + Firefox + AdBlock extension = no ads in Gmail.

PB wrote:> I've yet to see a free service that has no ads like Gmail

Gmail + Firefox + AdBlock extension = no ads in Gmail. ;)

Yes, but the ads are not as problematic as the organization features (limits?) that Gmail has. That's why I'm looking for something else.

Inbox.com is nice, tried it out now and my impression is positive. However, it's too bloated with too many extra features that distract overall usage. It has great organization features, but setting up the account and doing all the necessary configuration takes a lot of time, they should enhance the account configuration options by not repeating the same options in different categories. I would say a 8/10 experience. Not sure how it handles massive amounts of messages though, but it can be configured to have a slim and accessible layout, which gives a positive feeling of how it can be useful to manage thousands of messages.

Now that I reviewed Inbox.com quickly let me review Gmail in the same manner: Gmail is a very simple and easy to use webmail service. Account configuration is a breeze, handling multiple accounts is a piece of cake and the spam filter is top notch. The interface is really nice and the whole service is fast and ad-free. Does handle a lot of messages easily without slowdowns and I have had an overall positive experience with Gmail, except for one thing. Organization. Gmail does not allow the creation of virtual folders where messages can be put into. Instead, it can only label your messages. Of course, when clicking on a specific label in the left pane, you will be presented with all messages you have labelled with that specific label. This introduces a big problem though in comparison to the traditional virtual folders method: your inbox is always messy. You can't move your messages up or down in the list and so they stay in the mess. You can't hide particular messages, you have to look for the labels you put on the messages to identify each message. That's the most negative point in Gmail and it affects the whole usability and experience dramatically. A 7/10, but only because the other features make up for its lack of organizing messages. An interesting feature is the use of keyboard shortcuts, but they are fixed to specific keys and are not configurable by the user. It takes a while to remember the shortcuts and they don't really speed up your experience unless you're hogging the keyboard 24/7 and have a words per minute speed of 300.

You can hide the messages. Just check the box next to those you want to hide and click archive.

However: as soon as another message is received, the conversation is moved back into the inbox!

Trond wrote:You can hide the messages. Just check the box next to those you want to hide and click archive.

However: as soon as another message is received, the conversation is moved back into the inbox! :evil: :evil: :evil:

So is there a point to that feature? The idea with virtual folders is that all messages stay there no matter what except if the user explicitly moves a message out of the folder.

By the way, I tried GMX.com and here's my mini review:

GMX.com is a very professionally looking webmail service. Account configuration is very straightforward, managing custom folders is very easy and the service is overall very great. Certainly a good alternative to consider. Only the home page has advertisements, but once you are in the webmail application there's nothing that distracts you from managing hundreds of messages. The left pane is professionally designed and allows for quick access to other features of the service like file storage. In comparison to Inbox.com, GMX.com is not bloated at all. Very simple, easy to use and configurable. Negative points are related to the theme of the service. The default theme uses lots of small graphics. It looks very nice but it can and will introduce a flickering effect when rolling over menu options with the mouse. This is distracting to the eye and is not nice when you are in a very concentrated state. Theme cannot be changed to a black & white accessible theme like in Inbox.com and it is not possible to change the theme directly, it is still an experimental feature that needs to be enabled in the account configuration. Unfortunately, has problems with many current browsers such as Opera (my favorite) and Firefox 2. Requires IE 7, Firefox 3 or Safari 3 for full functionality. This had a great impact in my experience. The service won't work at all on Opera, but works for the major part with Firefox 2. If they fix the issue with Opera and support older browsers it would be my first pick regardless of the issue with themes. Other than that, a really great service! 8/10.

I jsut use thunderbird with Gmail as a pop server.

garretthylltun wrote:I jsut use thunderbird with Gmail as a pop server.

Brilliant.

I'm also in the hunt for a new e-mail service though in my case it doesn't have to be free and in fact I prefer a paid service over free services.

The service I'm using now is a joke, several features they advertise having don't work and even though they say they have 24/7 support, I haven't been able to get a response from them in over a year to resolve some of the problems. At this point I wouldn't recommend them to anybody even if they were free.

I looked at GMail but like Irene, I didn't like that they had no folders to file e-mail into, just their tag system.

I also looked at inbox.com which looked interesting but passed as soon as I found out they don't offer IMAP access which I would need.

I use web mail for all my e-mail activities but use IMAPSize once a week to backup my e-mail, I'd also need IMAP to put my current e-mail database on the new service.

My current service provide 2 GB of storage which seems ideal though I could also get by with 1 GB since my e-mail database is currently about 600 MB and will be shrinking significantly as I clean it out of stuff I don't need.

I've also considered just hosting my own e-mail through my web site, the only problem I have with that is that the only features I'd have available as far as spam fighting, plus addressing, personal subdomains, aliases, etc. would be just what the hosting service provides which is pretty basic.

Tipperton, do you mind telling who your current provider is? I'm thinking of switching to a paid webmail service as well, but how much am I willing to pay for it monthly (or annually)? Hard question...

How much would you be ready to pay for this kind of e-mail service?
- 100MB space
- virtual folders
- POP3/IMAP
- webmail interface
- virus protection
- advanced spam filter
- 50MB attachment size

Cheers, Irene ^o^

Irene wrote:Tipperton, do you mind telling who your current provider is?

www.mailsnare.net, $20 a year for an enhanced account with 2 GB of storage.

Irene wrote:How much would you be ready to pay for this kind of e-mail service?

None because I'd want about 1 to 2 GB of storage.

I'm looking at paying between $20 and $30 a year for an e-mail service.

I used www.ronbox.com until they upped their price to $50 a year. They also have a severe spam problem because of a weakness in the design of their system.

Status update -- Anyone seen the new GMail? They've introduced a lot of good functions (although no real private folders yet). I'll see maybe I'll stick with GMail (other providers had too many problems compared to GMail anyway).

Irene wrote:Status update -- Anyone seen the new GMail?

Yes -- and frankly I couldn't have pointed out the differences from the old one if you gave me a million dollars for it. It looks just as before!

Trond wrote:

Irene wrote:Status update -- Anyone seen the new GMail?

Yes -- and frankly I couldn't have pointed out the differences from the old one if you gave me a million dollars for it. It looks just as before! :?

The theme can be changed ^O^