Google, A Way Of Life…?
I have a been a member of the Google, and for that matter Gmail, fan club since it’s inception five years ago. Since that time I’ve taken a peculiar notice that most tech or “Internet savvy” people also reside on Gmail ave.
It could be the generous 7 gigs of free storage, or maybe the moderately intrusive and warily (sometimes) relevant blurbs that morph themselves into clickable text. Beckoning for a bite that will most likely end in an advertisement for some erectile dysfunction solution. I digress.
Truth be told, I’ve come to find Gmail the choice of the enlightened individual. There is something so antiquated about getting an email from a Yahoo or Hotmail user. Subconsciously I instantly discredit the sender, “tech illiterate” screams between my ears, and the hope for a non-prejudicial read is lost. Really, why would you delete an email when you can just archive that bad boy into the eternal abyss of Googleland where it can instantly be resurrected?
I recently searched “ Jay receipt January” and was amazed at the results. First off, an email from a threatened lawsuit for using a trademark as a keyword in my Google Adwords account…ummmm ooops (an empty threat and well within my rights actually J) Strangely enough, I was actually looking for a vet bill from when my dog got mangled by a mutt in the park. The algorithmic genius ads on the side sadly were for credit cards, and merchant solutions?
This made me ponder how DOES that Google business model work? I can confidently say I haven’t clicked on one of those ads in 4 years. Who exactly is sidebar surfing? Are they banking on curiosity, general interest?
Regardless, Gmail is an amazing tool for busy entrepreneurs like me, and it bothers me not in the least to know that Google is screening every email I send and receive only to glean patterns and habits, which will be fed into some giant computing mechanism designed to increase ad-sale revenue.
Gmail is free to me, that’s all I really care about.
When used daily in conjunction with my Blackberry (or iPhone—depending on my mood) Gmail is an incredibly powerful and efficient tool. It might be, single handedly, the most valuable tool in my proverbial entrepreneurial tool-belt.
I use Google contacts to manage my personal and business contacts. I use Google calendar and Google Docs almost exclusively. Combined with the new Google Sync, all of my email, contacts, and calendars sync in real time wirelessly to my PDA without ever having to worry about my data overwriting itself (like with Mac MobileMe for example).
I can be using my iPhone one day, get tired of the lousy touch screen and switch back to my BlackBerry Bold in minutes. Everything is synced wirelessly and the transition is seamless. I even use Gmail as my to-do list when I am on the go. I simply email myself anything I want to get done and there it is in my inbox. I can archive it and retrieve it at any time by simply searching for it since it never deletes any emails, I simply archive them.
I’ve developed a policy that an email never is archived without whatever action item in it being completed. If it is intended for someone else (Support for example) I simply forward the email and then archive it. I also make sure to transcribe any items that call for some sort of action into one of my two trust Rhodia notebooks before archiving the email. I am incredibly anal about my inbox. Any redundant notification emails are automatically archived up receipt so I never actually see them and don’t clog up my space.
My inbox is a sacred space to me. I respect it, it’s clean (like my house) and uncluttered. Everything in its place, exactly where I expect it to be. And fancy that! Good ole Gmail is providing the comfort of knowing it’s backed up for life.
Posted: July 1, 2009
Filed under: Jays' Letters
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All I kept thinking as I read this was YES, YES, YESSS…
Although I do not have anything more than the Gmail currently, I am using outlook in a way that resounds with the Jay and Google philosophy. I can actually see myself setting up the system in this more robust environment that Jay describes. My Outlook application is alright, and I am using it in a way that keeps me more efficient than it actually is. I see where some of the features that the G… approach offers are more efficient and flexible. Better suited to my needs.
Thanks for another ahh yes moment. I am off to get the Google set-up going now.
Christopher
Jay,
That is a Very useful and insight message on Google. I am gong to have to pay more attention to them.
Many Thanks
Bill Bates
M2 Consultant
I kept putting off getting a gmail account until I retired. I found that I use gmail for a lot of real stuff. I don’t give out my gmail address to friends and family because I don’t want them to send me funny junk mail. I needed a place where I could get professional email while I was in the process of figuring out how to blog, make adsense work, search help topics, and receive training emails.
It has worked out great. I know when I open gmail, I won’t get emails with inappropriate jokes and stories and definately no spam. I have come to rely on it immensely. I appreciate the opportunity to work on Google and use it for storage when I really don’t feel comfortable leaving them on my computer. Thank you so much!
Jay,
I was actually chuckling when I read how you “subconsciously” pass judgments about those who send email from anything other then Gmail. Reason is, I DO THE SAME THING!
Great share, have a great trip to the Dominican Republic Jay!
Its the only way to go, now and in the future even more so.
My daughter (who was in the Marines at the time), turned me on to a G mail account. She is now out of the Marines and lives on the other side of the world. It is really nice to get on the chat room with her and have some long talks. It saves us alot of money. I haven’t got into all the other functions of gmail yet but it’s still early.
HI Jay
In the UK we can only seem to get Google mail ( which I now have for ccpro )and not the Gmail version…….
I would love a Gmail account it sounds much cooler than a google address….
If anyone knows how I can achive this, living in the UK please let me know
Many thanks
Jonathan
Very interesting and true Jay!
Just wondering how come you don’t credit yahoo for a ‘less cluttered’ GUI. Yahoo has lesser elements to distract after all… not as pathetic as you make it out to be
the only reason i came to this page was because my e-mail said it was a buissness deal iam tring to set up. i could careless if your inbox is clean or has cob webs in it.
Yes,yes,yes…
Well, I am definitely one of the “tech illiterate” peeps Jay refers to. I set up a gmail account, but could not use it to send simple emails from certain sites…and I’m not sure why because I am so tech illiterate. Yes, I’m stuck on Yahoo, and I waste soo much f’in time because of that. I do not hav Firefox, But MS BS all the way….Perhaps my first book should be “How to do everything wrong on the Internet”…and hopefully a subtitle “and still make big money”..but I’d rather switch to Gmail fully, completely, and correctly, not only for all the great reasons Jay hits on here, but for the simple reason “yes, I AM tech illiterate…but that doesn’t mean I have to scream it out to everyone that I am, eh? Thanks again Jay, for another great tip. May I make the time to follow through on it, since if I do, I will be giving myself the gift of lots of free extra time in the future….Rock on Bud!
Well now Jay, that letter was certainly a pronounced ole’ for Google mail, eh? Just what is a poor slob like me to do when Google loses and email account, not one but 2? Not so tremendous huh? WELL THEY DID IT TO ME! Right, tell me to go to support and I’ll tell you where the bear shits in the buckwheat. I did all that, I just kept getting a quote”email address unknown”. Well gmail is libral so why shouldn’t I be? I told them to find it them in 7 days or else and guess what? They sent back, (address uknown). Your right Jay, google mail is great, have a great night,
Rocko
Dear all
Right from Gmail inception I am member of the same and proud of it too.
I like their open approach and clarity with consistency beyond MS. I wish them all the best and it is truly helpful for next generation also. Regds A.S.Ram
Earlier today I sent a message explaining why I haven’t joined carbon copy pro and it sounds like you never read it. I am glad for you that google is working great for you and I hope for your continued success, maybe one day I will be able to enjoy the fruits of success from google also. At any rate the message I sent today was to have you get down to the bottom line about carbon copy pro, I read all of the so called success stories but you never did explain what the whole program is about. Lets stop beating around the bush and just tell me the facts. As I said earlier today about 95 % of the people who join you fail, why I don’t know maybe they were just stupid and didn’t really put out the effort. My main point is is when someone wants to charge me for information so I can make money for them as well as for myself I begin to become very skeptical. If I am going to also make money for you why are you going to charge me for the information? It sounds like your making money from the info and not necessarily from carbon copy pro. If you would just say what carbon copy pro is you could end all the skepticism and capture that percentage of people who think like me. By the way. why do you even call it carbon copy pro? Do you actually copy things with carbon? To many cute little success stories and no true explanation. Anyone can sit down and write a story. Look, I’m not trying to be condescending, your obviously a very intelligent person but I am to and all I’m asking for are the facts.
Thankyou for your time and best of luck.
Luis J. Tamayo
I have mixed feelings about Google controlling so much of the internet and computing. But I think they are pretty good people for the job- they don’t seem to be evil, just out for a profit, which is fine by me. They sure make some nice tools.
I want to extend my thanks to Google for my future transactions. More power and God Bless to all the Staff and to everybody.
Thanks for your letter of advice, re yahoo v g mail! yes you are right,i am a baby boomer learning about computers! Hope to get there eventually.
I absolutely love Gmail! I won’t use anything else. Haven’t for a very very long time! Yahoo is way too slow and clunky… Hotmail, well, it’s just way too spamy and cheesy… Gmail is definitely the way to go! I love the search mail feature! Has saved my butt many times!
As for the side bar ads. They are non-invasive. Most of the time they do match the content that you are reading at the time. And, coincidentally, that’s how I did find CCP! I like looking at them just to see what else I can look at in related subjects. I don’t look that often, but if there’s one that catches my eye, I might click.
Thanks again for a great and inspiring article!
I am currently visiting my family here in Canada/Ontario and my nephew (who is a total techno geek) had this new GOOGLE phone. We were sitting at the table and he SCANNED the code from the beverage container into the phone and it told him where he could buy this item the cheapest in this region. Apparently there are all kind of nifty applications on it. He says he likes it much better than his Blackberry. Its the first time I saw the new Google phone. As far as GMAIL is concerned, I find it quite easy to use.
Gila Beckermann
I find gmail to be a very effective tool-and it is synced with my Blackberry.
However, I keep other email accounts for stuff that is not so important.
Business info goes to gmail; the rst to yahoo. This means I do not hae to have the Blackberry ringing all day with stuff that is not A1 important.
Jay,
I appreciate your sharing this very informative article with me. Your routine is a model any successful network marketer must follow to maintain balance among their organization. After all, it’s all about leverging and equilibrium.
Anticipate Abundance,
JV
Jay,
Thanks very much for sharing one important aspect of you that makes you a pacesetter that you truly are.You’ve just underscored the importance of being mrticulously organized as a necessary tool and ingredient for sucess in this endeavour of ours.Simplly speaking, maximize the opportunity inherent in todays technocrats world. It all leads to saving ones a lot of time that ultimately result into a lot of reward:sucess! I’m getting right to working on exchanging my $45 phone to a blueberry like Jay & Obama, hum;show me your social network?….
Hi Jay,
I’m not sure what the message is here, but as you see my (business) account email, and blog is with google. I’m fairly hopeless operating computers and find that google seem to have tutorials and quick help if and when I need them.
It does make life so much easier.
So you are preaching to a convert I believe, even though I’ve still got so much to learn, I think most topics are covered by google.
Alan.
I can confirm that Jay Kubissak has cristallized what most people’s subconcious evaluation of gmai, which we – I for one – take for granted, as we enjoy the seamless navigation with all the conveniences of a large storage.
I will own-up being guilty of a mindless tendency to delete mail unnecessarily, Jay’s article has cured me of that for good, Good job Jay.
as far as im concerned i want you to first know that im in africa in a country called ivorycoast and i want first you to help me so that i reach there so that we can start.
Hi Jay, I have to agree with you on this subject of discussion. I am glad that I’ve chosen Google and Gmail because it helps me the same way. It is not like other email clients that only wants to be on the so called internet map to be visible for every one. Here in South Africa all the ISP’s charges the price of a farm to let you use their systems to make money out of other people but they do not offer other benefits as long as they can fill up their pockets.
Hey Jay,
I used to have Gmail as my special email home for my important accounts and information. I rather hate yahoo mail coz it has a lot of spam mails even without getting into them.
I like this article from you.
Thank you.
Jose
Interesting…….?
Jay,
As I read your article, I just kept thinking how I could be writing the exact same things and it would all be true. I take Gmail one step further by using the Labels for everything. My two key labels are “* To Do” in Red and “~ Review” in Green. I use these to manage not only my Inbox, but also separate Next Action To Do’s from things I simply have to review at some point.
Best Regards,
Troy
Thanks Jay for the great article.
I bagged Outlook a year ago because I’m constantly switching from my laptop to my desktop; using Gmail I always have access to my email. And, I’m not using up my hard-drive space.
MrsB
Great aticle. I agree. The archiveing concept is great.
Right on Jay, I have adopted the Gmail since joining pro over a year ago. When I get leads from hotmail I just think, oh man they have a lot to learn.
Cheers,
Kirk
Jay, that sound intresting ,but i wish i could apply it, living in a country like nigeria.if anybody knows how I can, I would be willing to learn.