Google (in their plan to take over the world) has one of the best email systems you can find: Gmail. Their spam filter cannot be beat, and the integration with all of their other apps (online documents, calendars, etc.) is amazing. Plus - you can store MASSIVE amounts of data on there. My accounts have around 7GB of storage - and it keeps growing! I know people who use it as a backup hard drive - just email important docs to themselves.
Lots of folks have an @gmail.com email address to take advantage of the above features, but did you know that you can funnel all of your business email through Gmail - for free? That's exactly what we do here at FPM and what I recommend to all of our clients.
To get started, just go to the Google Apps Standard Edition page and sign up. They have pretty good instructions, but you might need to get with your IT folks to get it going right.
So - happy emailing, and good luck!
5 Comments
Hey Steve,
When I friend of mine heard I used Gmail, she said something to the effect of “if you want your personal emails and information available to everyone, then by all means, keep using Google.” She seemed to think that no one’s account was secure with Google. She seemed to be pretty confident that anyone could hack into your account and steal your identity. She said she read about it somewhere (of course, she couldn’t remember where), but it got that tiny seed of doubt growing in my brain…how secure is Google with your information?
Using Google for your mail is probably one of the safest places you could possibly have it. I’ve heard people say kinda the same thing, but have NO idea where it came from. There are probably more people trying to hack in to Google’s servers than even the CIA (wouldn’t be surprised, anyway), so they’re definitely up on things.
In a nutshell – fugggedabowdit!!
I was scanning something else about this on another blog. Interesting. Your position on it is diametrically opposed to what I read in the first place. I am still pondering over the various points of view, but I’m tipped to a great extent toward yours. And irrespective, that’s what is so superb about modern-day democracy and the marketplace of ideas online.
Hi Steve and Brianna,
Your friend was probably referring to this: http://www.davidairey.com/google-gmail-security-hijack/
It’s an older article but it did the same thing to me that it did with you, Brianna – created doubt. Just as Steve said, “There are probably more people trying to hack into Google’s servers than even the CIA”, I wondered what kind of scam like the one above will come up next. Granted, any email system of your choosing is susceptible to intrusion, and if Brianna’s friend thinks that her email system is secure, she’s naïve, but I would venture to guess that anybody “hacking” or “cracking” would target a company like Google before they tried to get into mytinygraphicdesignbusiness.com.
So, I guess my question would be: Do I trust that Google has an elite team that can combat the “millions” of hackers trying to hack the planet or “stay under the radar” on my own Exchange system and trust that Microsoft fills in any holes on their end?
http://www.wishlist.nu/wp-content/uploads/2006/12/spam.jpg