Google had launched its popular mail service way back in 2007. Since then, Gmail has taken over the web by storm and has proven to be the most widely preferred email service available.
Gmail is completely free of cost. It offers free email accounts to users and services are constantly being added and features upgraded on a regular basis. This has ensured Google to stay ahead of the competition and Gmail has succeeded in being the number one email service. Gmail offers many features over and above the simple email service, including the filtering of spam messages, options for storage in the cloud, support for IMAP and much more. Many other top features include audio and video calling features, instant messaging, account protection and various options for social media integration.
Gmail also provides categorizing of messages. This means that users can effectively have different locations for their important messages, social and personal messages, promotional and update messages and spam email is effectively kept out of these categories. Gmail classifies them into different categories. The primary mail category contains all emails that are deemed important. The social mail category pertains to all mails related to social networking activities of the user. A category for promotions is also provided, which contains all promotional mail sent to users. Users also have the option of creating categories for forums that they frequent and aslo for receiving updates that interest them.
Some of the features unique to Gmail include the in-built chatting and calling application, Google Hangouts. Hangouts can be used to have a conversation with a maximum of 9 members and provides functions not too different from other calling services. Hangouts can be held with any user having a valid Gmail account. This allows for extremely easy use and communication right from within the mail service.
Gmail, while available on web browsers, also comes in the form of a standalone app for Android and iOS devices. This allows users to access their mails even when they are on the move. For desktop usage, an additional notification option can be enabled, which allows pop up notifications whenever new mail is received.
There are also a number of personalization and customization options available. Users can set the background image as per any one of the provided 35 themes or they may choose their very own picture. Folders and categories can also be customized by adding different colors and labels as per preferences. However, with the removal of Google Reader services, users may need to resort to more than Gmail to receive their RSS feeds.
While Gmail offers a more than sufficient 15 gigabytes of storage space, users can avail even more cloud storage space by using Drive, another free service from Google. This proves to be particularly useful when it comes to collaboration and professional requirements. Google Drive is integrated with Google Docs and this makes for an easy workspace to collaborate on projects.
Google has always made sure that he Gmail interface is free from clutter and is as user friendly as possible. All the messages are filtered automatically and chain of conversations appear in a single thread. With such features and Google working hard to provide more, it is not surprising to see why Gmail proves to be the best email service around.