Google vs Microsoft email - advice please

Hungerdunger

My wife and I currently have email addresses through our ISP (Vodafone at Home), but as we may be changing to a new provider in a couple of months, I thought it might be wise to set up new email addresses either using Google Mail or Microsoft's Live Mail.

Can anyone tell me what, if any, are the disadvantages of using these compared to using my ISP's email, and if I do decide to adopt one of them, which do you prefer?

a_confused_mum

I prefer google {gmail} and i havea few accounts with them.

I havea hotmail account also btu do prefer gmail....I can;t really pinpoint exactly what I like about it but for me I feel gmail is more user friendly, I also have the chat on the gmail and have it on my phone, for some reason I have never been able to get msn working on my vista laptop.

SOrry not a very good reply giving my opinion...sorry

spud17

I use Google mail, with several different addresses, for different uses.

I can't compare with MS Live mail, but I believe the Google spam filters are probably the best around.

I use Thunderbird to read my mail, I may receive some harmless junk, but the dodgy stuff stays on the server, where it could be viewed, but you are then alerting the sender to the fact that the address is active, not recommended.

Another factor is virus scanning, for the first time today, Google notified me of 2 emails which it had saved back because it had detected a potential threat.
In fact I had received 2 emails at the same minute both referring to a UPS delivery, but 2 different order numbers.

I'm not expecting any deliveries of any description, so can only assume it was one of the threats (search this forum) doing the rounds.

This sort of service makes Google mail one of he best around IMO.

Also forgot to add, use Gmail to collect mail from other accounts.

bbuckle

Get both!

You can then use the gmail account as your 'mail centre', adding other email accounts to it as and when you need to, and then reading them all from one place.

You can do it the other way round also, but I think gmail does it better (and with 7GB of space you're unlikely to run out of space).

Lakeuk

Google Mail - their web interface is so simple to use

debitcardmayhem

Lakeuk wrote: »

Google Mail - their web interface is so simple to use

Get Google Yahoo Live and a few others(for throw away use, ie for registering to sites you don't care about the spam they send you, and just in case your address is compromised) Then use Thunderbird or equivalent in the other posters' opinion, you can leave stuff on their server and download the mail you really need on you home pc.

Marty_J

I have Google Mail, Hotmail, Yahoo, AOL, and Mobile Me accounts.

I definitely use Google Mail the most, but there's no reason you can't have more than one. It can be a good idea to have a main personal email address, and then another one for signing up for things that might cause you to get spam.

Also, signing up for an email address often brings with it access to other services. Google Mail provides access to Google Docs, Google Reader, Google Calendar, and Picasa Web Albums. Hotmail gives you access to Windows Live Photos, Windows SkyDrive, Windows Live Spaces, and Windows Live Messenger. A Yahoo address gives you a Flickr account, and a Mobile Me account gives you access to iDisk, Find My Phone, etc.