Gmail, here I come

Until we moved in 2002, I had a cable modem through RoadRunner and my e-mail was accessible through Outlook 2000 (a program that I had paid $ for). When we moved, I decided to go DSL which meant MSN and which also meant that I could no longer use the handy-dandy Outlook 2000. Instead, for the past 2 1/2 years, I have had access to my non-work e-mail account through MSN-Hotmail and the free, but relatively pathetic, Outlook Express.

As of last week, MSN-Hotmail has made even Outlook Express unuseable for me. Every time I want to send an e-mail to anyone with a @msn.com or @hotmail.com extension, my Outlook Express e-mails disappear. I then have to re-sign into to Hotmail.com, and decipher an inkblot that looks like this.




In general, this is annoying, but when you are engaged in a back-and-forth conversation with another MSN/Hotmail user, it is absolutely maddening.

I have been watching the development of "Gmail" for a while and I think that it represents the future of e-mail. The bottom line is that it saves every e-mail that you have every received or sent, and you can find any of them in an instant through a Google search of your archives.

Given my recent frustrations, I have decided that now is time to move on. So I figured out how to get an invitation to the "invitation-only" Gmail (it was not too hard).

My new e-mail address is toddcpearson@gmail.com. Please use this e-mail address for future correspondence.

P.S. When I opened my "invitation-only" account, I was given some invitations to give to others. If you want one, send me an e-mail and I will "invite" you too. (It is free.)