How I use Gmail (new invitations available too!)

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Gmail just doubled its storage limit to 2GB, with the promise of more to come. I use my Gmail account for a very specific purpose. I have e-mail newsletters and summaries of daily postings from my favorite newsgroups delivered to that address. I use filters to automatically tag each entry (the equivalent of moving it to a folder) and archive it (so my inbox isn’t cluttered). The advantage is that I have an easily accessible, searchable archive of this material, which is often useful for my professional research.

For searching through Windows-related newsgroups, I prefer Microsoft’s Web-based reader. (Bookmark this site, because it’s hard to get to from Microsoft’s main site.)

For newsgroups in other areas, or for those I want to follow daily, I set up a subscription in Google Groups and have either an abridged version or a full digest sent to my Gmail account. When I’m looking for information on a specific topic in that area, I can search using my Gmail account and find exactly what I’m looking for).

By the way, I have 50 more Gmail invitations to hand out. If you want one, send an email to edbott (at) gmail.com.

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Published by Ed Bott

Tech journalist. Author of 25+ books. ZDNET Contributing Editor since 2006. Contact info: https://edbott.com/contact-me/

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4 thoughts on “How I use Gmail (new invitations available too!)”

  1. Ed:

    I agree with you about the Microsoft web-based newsreader for Windows-related newsgroup, but are there any particular reasons why you prefer Google Groups to Outlook Express (or third party newsreaders such as Forte Agent or XNews) for other newsgroups? I’ve used all of them extensively, although right now I have more or less settled on Outlook Express because its word wrap functionality is less limited and also because it does automatic spell-checking.

    Ken

  2. I used to use Agent and preferred it to OE. For newsgroups that I actively post in, either one is a good choice. But these days I do very little posting. Mostly I get information and ideas from newsgroups, and in that case I like being able to have each days posts delivered to my Gmail inbox, where they’re eacy to search. I don’t have to go out and download headers or full posts, I don’t have to worry about my news host being offline or articles being expired, I don’t have to open a separate application.

  3. Thanks for your explanation. I may need to check out the digest feature myself. I didn’t try this feature when using Google.

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