the allure of gmail

While I was over at my father's place on my laptop I was once again annoyed at the fact that Thunderbird doesn't have any built-in synchronization capability. Is it possible to sync t-bird from one computer to another? Yes, but it's a severe pain in the ass so I don't do it.

For a brief moment I considered switching back to Gmail (I completely switched off of it a few months ago.) So I logged into my Gmail account. I was immediately disgusted with it and was quickly reminded why I hated it so much, such as..

Bold and underlined Spam "folder." There is absolutely no reason this has to be so THERE if you get my meaning. You're compelled to click on it because it sticks out like a sore thumb. Who cares? It's spam!
Hover-over crapola. Gmail now has more crap that happens when you hover over a specific mail. A pop-up menu appears whether you want it to or not when your mouse is over any specific mail. And if you try to use the menu, *poof* it disappears. You have to play a boxing match with your computer just to find out what the stupid menu does. And when you finally do you see it's worthless. Gee, thanks Gmail.
Still no way to sort by size.
Still no way to sort by priority.
Still no folders.
Almost as bloated as Yahoo Mail and Hotmail (Don't be fooled by the clean interface, there's a lot of crap that loads in the background.)

The only advantage is that the interface FINALLY has colors for labels.

So why did I consider switching back?

Three reasons:

Looks the same no matter what computer you use.
Space.
Contact list is accessible anywhere.

Reason #1 is both a pro and a con. It's a pro because it's the same everywhere and a con because the interface sucks.

Reason #2 is (pun not intended) big. At present you get 6.75GB of e-mail storage. That's a crapload and definitely more than what I have now with my hosted mail.

Reason #3 is also both a pro and con. You can access your contact list via Gmail anywhere which is cool. But let's say you want to export your list. You only have the options of the "Google format" CSV for import to another Gmail account, Outlook CSV or vCard. That's it. There are no standardized export methods (and I'm sorry but Outlook is not standard, it's Microsoft.)

The crux of the biscuit is that if you stay wholly within the Gmail interface, you're just fine. But try to use outside of it and you lose all the Gmail functionality.

I mean, yeah, sure, you've got almost 7GB's of space, but are forced to endure a bunch of catches that will drive you up a frickin' wall.

Needless to say I decided to stick with Thunderbird. It's the only client that does what I want it to do without any b.s. involved.

To note: I would use the Windows Live Mail client but you cannot add filters to incoming IMAP mail and that blows big donkey nuts. So I use t-bird.

It is imperfect but it works and beats the ever-lovin' crap out of the "Google way" of doing e-mail.