Google mail? Since it’s unveiling as an invite-only service on April 1, 2004, Gmail has done nothing but grow, accelerate, and succeed when it comes to webmail. A free service to anyone who signs up for it, Gmail has become the industry leader in searchable, organizable, easy-to-use email.  Let’s take a look at Gmail’s main features.

1. Threaded emails

Remember when you used to email someone back in, say, 1999? You’d send them a message, they would reply and so on, until your inbox was chock full of individual messages. Sure, they were all quoted in each message so you could keep track, but your inbox was a mess and impossible to keep tabs on. Enter Gmail. When someone replies to your email in Gmail, it takes a nice little slot in your inbox, along with all the other messages in that conversation.

2. Google Search for Email

Remember when Google began to dominate the online search scene? You could search images, documents, and of course, the internet. But until Gmail, searchable email was sketchy and hard to use at best. Gmail allows you to search your email, using that same technology that Google used for their famous search engine. Just like the search engine, you can use all the boolean search terms as well as include/exclude terms.

3. Labels

Gmail allows users to set up labels for different messages, much like folders in Outlook or other email programs. Users can color-code the labels for different items, and apply filters to incoming messages to flag them with a particular label. Labels are particularly useful when using Gmail for more than one email account, and for people receiving massive amounts of email daily. They streamline the email organization process, and when combined with threaded conversations make for a much more organized email inbox.

4. Filters

As already mentioned, filters can be set up to automatically categorize emails. Once a filter is set up, when incoming messages apply to a given filter, the filter will then categorize according to a particular label, or mark the message as read, etc. Filters keep the inbox from becoming one big cluttered mess. They can even delete messages upon arrival if the messages meet given criteria.

Gmail is the all-in-one email solution. It can be set up to check/send email from multiple accounts, and it can also be used via POP access to an email client like Microsoft Outlook.

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