Comments on: IMAP Is Awesome 5 Years Ago – Building a Better Email Protocol For Tomorrow

By: James

James — Sun, 28 Oct 2007 15:50:00 +0000

I understand why people want to take all of that extra time to ensure they can use email or a certain program the same way, I'd put myself in that camp only a few months ago.

After using google applications for a month and a half I'm sold on it. I also have the added benefit, or possible bias, of dealing with a horde of accountants who have enormous problems that cost a huge amount of work hours, and it's primarily an exchange/outlook problem whenever they call.

By: Dan

Dan — Sun, 28 Oct 2007 10:51:00 +0000

I agree that being organized doesn't mean that one is productive, but that's not to say that it doesn't help. I like the idea of Smart Folders as a shortcut for things you may need - Emails with attachments, emails received in the last 2 weeks, etc.

I do exactly what you propose, but it seems like it hasn't clicked for many people. I've seen people organize their Outlook with folders for each contact they have. It's a waste of time and it's a byproduct of how people worked with email when it first came out. They have Email 101 down, now they need to take Email 201.

By: James

James — Sun, 28 Oct 2007 04:45:00 +0000

Why not just archive all of your mail when you're done reading it and then use the search function? It would simplify all of the busy work of organization which wastes a huge amount of time.

Over the years I've noticed this work philosophy in Western culture that pushes the belief that if we just got really organized we'd somehow be more productive, and I think that's far from the truth.

The simplification of workflow is more important than hyper-organization and that's what gmail's webmail does. People are missing the point that you don't need an exchange server, outlook, another mail app on your pc or phone. Fortunately for them though Google gives you options which you will rarely find in similar free services (ahem, pop access yahoo).

So if a user is stubborn and unwilling to change to a new product out of complacency they can slog on using the most obscure outdated version of outlook or the latest iteration of whatever 3rd party program they prefer but stll reap some of the benefits like storage, but they'll be missing out on the real gem which is simply their webmail.