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I've been a mutt user for years and I was skeptical when I came to know about gmail. After I started using it though, I started to see all the good stuff, mostly the ability to access my email with just a simple browser, the end of email backups and the spam filter.

I then tried to go back to a dedicated email client (even using my gmail account via IMAP), but fell back to web based gmail usage every time.

So I was wondering, what are there reasons NOT to use it, if any?

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13  
I don't see how there can really be a single, correct answer. This is really just soliciting opinions. As such, it should probably be Community Wiki. – Al Everett Sep 3 '10 at 15:17

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5 Answers

up vote 7 down vote

Some info here;

http://www.google-watch.org/gmail.html and here;

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gmail#Criticisms.

Although a lot of the negative press regarding Gmail is often based on a single persons experience, it appears that the majority of Gmail users have a satisfying experience.

The only thing I would suggest is to make your own back-up of your emails;

http://www.gmail-backup.com

http://www.dataliberation.org/google/gmail

Hope this helps.

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up vote 2 down vote

I suppose the only downside is that like all web-based clients, if you're offline you can't access any saved email you want to read.

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I access email offline all the time, although the status of Google Gears (the feature that enables this behavior) is problematic at best. – neilfein Sep 3 '10 at 15:56
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I download my GMail emails to my PDA for offline reading all the time. Therein I can generate replies, send them (or not) later on, etc. – Hardryv Sep 3 '10 at 18:59
Google will continue to have offline gmail, even though they are moving away from gears. Now that HTML5 offline support is supported by most of the major browsers, they will eventually be transitioning to an HTML5-based solution for offline mail rather than the gears solution they use now. – nhinkle Sep 5 '10 at 20:39
up vote 2 down vote

The only reason I can think of not to use Gmail was if you were overly concerned about privacy and didn't want every single email you have ever sent or received a subpoena away from being available to any government agency.

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8  
Most other email providers will have the same problem. – Doug Harris Sep 3 '10 at 18:15
up vote 1 down vote

One GMail user reported that his account was deleted. Furthermore

The Gmail team investigated the issue, but couldn't find a solution.

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up vote 1 down vote

I do use GMail, but if I did not, privacy would be the primary reason.

Few years worth of e-mail reveal practically everything about a person. Turning it over to a free service requires a high degree of trust. Even if you trust Google, if you're involved in litigation, the data could be subpoenaed and used against you.

E-mail is generally public, but there's a large difference between trusting a provider to store a few e-mails (or even a month's worth) vs. anything ever written.

If you have an Android phone, all your contacts are also stored in GMail. Privacy implications are enormous.

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Please explain how your privacy is more compromised compared to any other email provider -- free or paid. If the bits are moving through another provider, they can be subpoenaed. If the bits are on a server that you own, they can be subpoenaed. – Doug Harris Sep 6 '10 at 2:48
Honestly, if anyone is concerned about privacy when talking about email, the only option is using encryption. Storing it on your gmail account or on your provider POP3 server isn't really any different. – Matteo Riva Sep 7 '10 at 14:13
@Doug and @kemp With a typical POP server, your e-mail remains on the server until you download it (usually not for long). With webmail, it remains there forever. It's about 1% vs 100% of your mail being off your local machine. In theory, it is all vulnerable (unless you encrypt it), but in practice data mining is much more of a danger with webmail. – dbkk Sep 16 '10 at 9:10
if we're discussing what nefarious activities might happen, then why wouldn't a POP provider save all of the email even when you think that it has been deleted? The main point here is that you have to trust the companies or people that handle your mail. – Doug Harris Sep 25 '10 at 1:44

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