Despite having long thought web mail a necessary evil, I am beginning to enjoy using Gmail, the recently introduced web mail application from Google. Although I am not interested in it for my “personal” email, I have been routing most of my email discussions lists there. It is nice to know that I can search for information that I once read via email, rather than having to use the limited search facilities provided by yahoogroups, for example.
I’ve also been interested in the way that Gmail filters Spam. If something spam-like ends up in the Inbox, I can mark it and click on a “Report spam” button. (Did Google get a special dispensation from Hormel? Or has Hormel decided to stop fighting this battle?) When I check the spam folder, I find not only those things that I have marked, but an accurate filtering of spam items I never saw in my inbox, including mail that discusses spam. Drive-by spammers are not unusual on some of the art discussion lists which I frequent, and one spam will frequently lead to five posts condemning it, which seems rather pointless.