Chapter 19: Staying in Touch with Gmail

In This Chapter

• Get your computer ready for Gmail

• Learn about Gmail features

• Sign up for a Gmail account

• Change from your old e-mail account to Gmail

• Setup your Gmail contact list

• Sending and receiving e-mail

• Set up POP, forwarding, and filters for more custom access to Gmail

• Chatting with Gmail

• Gmail on your mobile phone

Never throw anything away! That is the goal of Gmail, Google’s Web-based e-mail program. Imagine never having to erase another e-mail and later being able to simply search through all your old e-mail. There are many Web-based e-mail providers out there, but Google is adding something new to one of the most important applications to run over the Internet.

Internet communications have become more like conversations than the older idea of postal mail. Gmail organizes your e-mail as it would appear in a real-time conversation - it’s more like chat than mail.

The important feature of Gmail is storage. The reason it is not necessary to delete any of your old e-mail is that it is difficult to ever fill up all the free storage space given to Gmail users. You can store files, pictures, and nearly an unlimited number of e-mail messages on the Google servers. At the time of writing of this book, users are offered 2.5 gigabytes (GB) of free storage.