Monday, August 13, 2007

mail.google.com Hugely popular Gmail, launched in 2005, is STILL in beta. Does that excuse performance problems?

All right, I know the "BETA" under the Gmail logo means that I have no right to be upset when that service fails. But, as with any addiction (and Gmail is one of mine), it's hard to accept that reality.

I'm helping to set up a speakers bureau in China. Like any new business, we got a domain name and a new e-mail address. Routinely, I add my new e-mail addresses to my Gmail account. I assumed this would work smoothly. Gmail did pick up messages from my new account, so I dreamed on.

A few days ago I got a rather angry call from one of our potential speakers, who wondered why I never replied to his e-mails. I never saw his e-mails. I was just eating pizza with a second speaker and told him about the call and he confirmed my worst worries: He got never replies from me on messages he sent to my new e-mail address, so he switched to an old one.

Again: I know this can happen when a service is in beta. I have no right to be upset and banging my head against the wall certainly does not help. But should crucial services in their beta not prominently list the larger problems they are having? Gmail not picking up my e-mail seems a pretty huge one.

RELATED RESOURCES

Get E-Media Tidbits as an RSS feed: * Copy this link and add it to your feed reader Subscribe to receive E-Media Tidbits by e-mail: * Sent Monday-Friday, 5 p.m. ET

Tidbits contributor Ezra Shapiro notes: "Gmail has aggressive and sometimes inexplicable spam filtering. You can correct some of this behavior by maintaining a Gmail address book. If you check your Gmail spam folder, you might find missing messages sent in the last 30 days. You can find a lot of information about tweaking Gmail at emaildiscussions.com -- as well as pointers to other service providers.

"The best site I've found for serious information about email services is Nancy McGough'sInfinite Ink. Of particular interest is her directory of IMAP service providers. I now run my e-mail through Tuffmail, one of the services McGough recommends. I find it's worth the annual fee. After a whole bunch of self-education, I now have the spam filtering pretty well under control.

"The bad news is that you may have to do more technical reading and eventually spend more time managing e-mail than you would like. Yeah, it should be easier. But it isn't."

E-mail this item | Add/View Feedback (2) | QuickLink this item: A128390



E-Media Tidbits Archive

View items published between:		and
	(MM/DD/YYYY)		(MM/DD/YYYY)

MAIN | Back to Top