Gmail!

[MrNase]

/me sticks his face in a bowl of chocolate pudding

Does that still count? I'll see what i can do for you. Your skin looks really interesting

[Floris]

I now have [email protected] - and as soon as I can invite people, I will go through the Jelsoft staff, friends, users who suck up to me (in that order)

I will make a screenshots of each section of Gmail for those who want to drool haha. (post them soon)

[Vile]

I now have [email protected] - and as soon as I can invite people, I will go through the Jelsoft staff, friends, users who suck up to me (in that order)

I will make a screenshots of each section of Gmail for those who want to drool haha. (post them soon)

Nice

http://www.mgforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=26532

[colicab-d]

YAY got mne [email protected] much like Floris i,ll be workin thru my own sites staff first then friends etc

[Floris]

The MrFloris[at]Gmail.com Experience

Here is a fresh account experience for those who would like to know a bit more about how Gmail looks, works and is experienced.

After having entered my details I was invited to login and presented with a first page (first screenshot).

• 001_gmail_first_login.png
  • First impression: A nice clean design, like we are used from Google, very good job design team! Slick, professional and no overkill, bloated color usages or graphic usage. Just the way I like it.
  • It is very obvious that on the left the main menu for the email is located, with labels below it to make navigation and usage a lot easier. The settings per section are listed (like in this inbox folder) above the messages with additional sub options on a per email message (or all) basis. The top right of the page holds the features you probably won't use that much (and are in relation to the account, rather then the email messages).
  • I am instantly satisfied. (for a beta!)
• 002_gmail_open_email.png
  
  • As with every web mail service, a default welcome message is listed to get the end-user familiarized with the layout, design and usage of the features and their options.
  • Hey! Banners on the right side of the message. But thankfully not in the header or footer or below the left menu. I can live with that. ...
  • So that is what an Gmail looks like :P
• 003_gmail_reply_email.png
  
  • An gmail, eh .. email has a [reply] link below the email message. Clicking on it opens more options and expands the text area to instantly return a message. Nicely done!
  • Uh oh! I don't see how I can make a draft or save the message - I can only send it or discard it. (I have send feedback to gmail about this asking how to make a draft)
  • Hey it already includes a spell checker (I will so need that), but doesn't show an option to 'not' add this user as contact (or add it as contact). Probably does it automated. At least it is not clear to me.
• 004_gmail_compose_email.png
  
  • Composing a new email is easy, the link is in bold above the left menu on each page - so the most important link is always there "Good thinking!". The text area doesn't expand above 80 characters (I am guessing it is 80) and in the settings I did not find a way to set a size for this yet.
  • Another disadvantage I notice is no setting or switch to goto the wysiwyg editor. I have contacted gmail with the question if there will be one in the (near) future. Hopefully! Oh, again; no option to save/draft this message, only send & discard. Such a shame. (or maybe I am just not seeing how?)
• 005_gmail_sent_folder.png
  
  • Nothing special here, mails are archived in the sent folder unless you archive them. I didn't check, but is it possible to make categories for sent items? That would be nice
  • What gets my attention is Gmail trying to convince you not to delete your mails, archive them! .. REALLY !! ARCHIVE THEM. (Why do they want me to do that so much hehe)

Sidenote; I test-mailed to myself, but the inbox didn't show the message as unread. When I clicked on the unread link, the inbox message was highlighted, but .. it is a new message, why wasn't it showing as unread? This requires more testing!


After playing around the layout and how email would look, it is time to setup the account and go through the settings. So let's go

• 006_gmail_settings_general.png
  • I really like it that I can set up an alternative name to use for sending emails. I wanted to show up as Floris and not my full name, now I can set that!
  • What I was missing where the options for the way text / msgs / things are displayed. Their colors, size, etc. Hopefully more options become available in the future.
• 007_gmail_settings_labels.png
  
  • I also really like it that I can set stars and labels to mails. This helps me organize mails and search for them and work a lot quicker. Little things that convince me to actually use this service and test it out! Very nice job gmail
• 008_gmail_settings_filters_a.png
  
  • The first thing I noticed when going through the filters settings is the easy overview, not too many clicks. It doesn't scare you 'Oh what should I enter where!!'. A quick 'test' is provided and hey - it works too
• 009_gmail_settings_filters_b.png
  
  • What I did miss was the option to mark it as spam, like 'Report these filtered msgs as spam'. For now, I will just throw them in trash automaticly and manually process them once in a while.
• 010_gmail_settings_filters_c.png
  
  • Previous web mail services that I have used had a very poor and unclear overview of the filters, this is just simple, with direct links to take actions for what is needed. No bloat options, and I like that.
• 011_gmail_settings_account_a.png
  
  • What is that? All the account settings are loaded in a new window. Uhm.. Ok, whatever. I can change my password and second email address, but not my username. Not that it matters, just mentioning it.
  • Oh wait, this is done in another setting - see a few screenshots along the road.
• 012_gmail_settings_account_b.png
  
  • Changing your password is really simple. I was scared I had to go through 10+ steps like done on most sites these days. Wfew! They still have me wanting to use them instead of their competition. hehe.
• 013_gmail_settings_account_c.png
  
  • I don't like secret questions. They are a security issue I tell ya. People going to guess the Q/A and magicly breaking in answering a simple question. I always enter stuff there which I will never remember myself.
  • What I entered there is obviously not what I really entered haha.
• 014_gmail_settings_account_d.png
  
  • Ah, here I can change my user details, wfew! I can get rid of that stupid last name I have hehe. All these options are so simple, you'd start to think it can't do anything. But it can do everything!
  • This gmail is for novice and for experienced users I tell ya.
• 015_gmail_settings_account_e.png
  
  • The edit services just loads the inbox in a new screen; uhm, maybe this is the exception of 'page not ready yet' ? Oh well, clicks to close!

I didn't make screenshots of the last few 'delete' features, I didn't want to try out to delete the Gmail account that I finally got HAHA.

When done going through the settings I think it is time to learn how to use the gmail's features. For detailed info I go to the help section which is very detailed and easy to use. The link is in the top right navigation of the browser. One specific feature I went into in the screenshot is the shotcuts, whoo hoo are they handy!

• 016_gmail_help.png
  • Like mentioned in the introduction, very simple to use, good overview. Categories and subs give a quick view of where to look for what. It took me an average of 2 clicks to find the answers to my questions.
  • And if that doesn't do it, click on 'send feedback' which will use google-like search feature to get answers to your question, and if it can't find it, you can submit your question to gmail and they will get back at you pretty quick!
  • Besides the online manual from Jelsoft, this is the second best online help I have seen so far. (Maybe I am just a bit too excited!)
• 017_gmail_shortcuts.png
  
  • In the settings you can set to use the shortcuts. If you do so, you will get on each page in the footer the ones you will use the most (that apply to that specific page!) ending with a link to more. And as you can see, there are quite some shortcuts, but read it once, and you will see how easy it is to navigate through the pages.

Now that we know how it works, time to setup the contacts, and after that, you are on your own!

• 018_gmail_contacts_a.png
  • Unlike the account settings, which are loaded in a seperate window to my dislike, I do like it that the contacts are loaded in a seperate window. This way I don't accidently loose mails I am reading or making and I can easily update in real time. As with the rest of gmail - a clean and easy overview.
• 019_gmail_contacts_b.png
  
  • Instead of loading up a new page, it does its little trick again like with the new reply to a message page, it expands its options so you can instantly input a new contact or edit a new contact.
• 020_gmail_contacts_c.png
  
  • As you can see, edit contact edits it in the record directly (so it seems) instead of loading a new page.

I can't get rid of the feeling that this is really easy to use for people who are novice, and really quick and clean for experienced users. You won't loose time reading and processing and composing emails when you use Gmail, I can't say the same for say hotmail or yahoo mail (or other [free] web mail services for that matter)



## Impression summery

Pros/
Gmail? Yeah .. the text banners aren't in your face and the site is fast, accessable and has a very clear overview. Composing email looks like a real beta, but I am sure this will improve in the future. It works, and I can and will use it! Could this be the hotmail.com killer? Definitly!

A very good setup, they make good use of colors to give an easy to remember overview and impression of what is what. The settings are in darker colors, like yellow, and the trash / spam folders are in a grey color. Still a hotmail killer? Well, might not have the same settings and options and things to click on, but I still think this is a very good alternative to a proper web mail service. This is a beta, and it looks complete and everything works, no links that end up with '404' pages or 'not yet available' or 'only in premium accounts!'. Things that are important to me not to get.

Cons/
The help and the way they try to make you feel you are in the right place, the right service .. is done really good. They convinced me! The simple overview and the easy navigation are time savers and that makes it a winner on top of the rest. I can't get enough for now..

Let's hope there won't be a sudden change in policy - image banners, paid premium accounts and limited functions etc. That could break this up for me.

This is a beta, so I can live with no wysiwyg editor, draft emails and no obvious links to create categories for contacts or mails or sub folders in inbox/outbox. Maybe it comes to me the next time I login, or maybe it will be a feature in the future.

They got me!
Whoo hoo, two thumbs up for Gmail

[neverrain]

I have three GMail invites and will be able to invite for some time now.

I could possibly be holding a forum battle for 1 invite, probably when I get vBulletin up, and skinned.

[CeleronXT]

I have three GMail invites and will be able to invite for some time now.

I could possibly be holding a forum battle for 1 invite, probably when I get vBulletin up, and skinned.

How's about tossing one this way? :P

[jamslam]

Hey it already includes a spell checker (I will so need that), but doesn't show an option to 'not' add this user as contact (or add it as contact). Probably does it automated. At least it is not clear to me.

Yea, It does it automatically. I read it in a FAQ somewhere.

Nothing special here, mails are archived in the sent folder unless you archive them. I didn't check, but is it possible to make categories for sent items? That would be nice

Yea you can. Use the labels in combination with filters, and you can easily create different labels (folders on steroids) for anything.

What is that? All the account settings are loaded in a new window. Uhm.. Ok, whatever.

Yea I didn't like that either. Nothing should be opened in a new window. If I wanted it in a new window, I could right click the link and hit "Open in New Window". The only link that I would even consider forcing a new widnow, is the contacts link.

There is also a very clever auto complete feature. When you are typing something into the "To: " field when composing an email, a little drop down list will display all the emails who's name begins with that letter, or who's email address begins with that letter. You can select the desired address just like it was a real auto complete.

Gmail uses a lot of javascript, but they do so elegantly. It allows for much faster loading times (as many of the things you "add" are triggered javascript events- bypassing more page loads). There aren't any javascript errors either, which I have come to expect with sites that use javascript heavily.

When I use Gmail, I feel like I'm using an application- not a web GUI. Truly a job well done.

I've also found what seems to be a good place to suggest things:

http://gmails.co.uk/index.php

[Dean C]

Wow thanks for the run down of the individaul images floris

[Floris]

You're welcome

[The Realist]

Mr Floris - The man that can

Regards

[Floris]

I just noticed I have 3 invitiations
I gave 1 to Kier and one to Scott.

The one left over will be given away to a random user on my irc chat 2 hours from now.

[kippesp]

It's only possible when they give out more accounts.

Google will occasionally do this, and when you are able to invite, you'll see a link in your inbox "'Invite a friend to join Gmail!"

This seems to keep changing. Before I only saw this link at the bottom of the email I received from a person. Now, I see "Invite a friend to join Gmail!" in very bold and very red text at the top.

[The Realist]

Floris - So soon.

Glad you have invitations M8

Brian

[Floris]

Disjunto got the gmail account in the vbnl games! Enjoy my friend.