Miguel Gigante - Technology Reviews

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Google’s Email Service, Gmail. The Best Email Service Around.

I have been using Gmail since you could only get it via invitation. The same that is happening now with Google Wave. Since then I felt in love with Gmail.

There are various reasons to believe that Gmail is the best email service around. I will be talking about some of them here.

I now have most of my other email accounts being redirected to my Gmail account. This way, I only need to use the Gmail account to check them all, always with the Gmail great features.

What makes Gmail great?

First of all, it is a Google service and that says a lot. Having that, once you log in to Gmail you have all the Google services around to access via just a click. I’m talking about the Great Calendar, Great Google Docs, Great Reader, Great Search Engine and much more that is two clicks away. J

One of the greatest features on Gmail is the tidiness of the inbox. Once you receive a reply to an email it stays in the same conversation. You won’t end up with a big list of emails with the same subjects. You will always be relying on the same conversation. (same idea as the Waves on Google wave)

As if Gmail wasn’t already a great service they created the Gmail labs. Gmail Labs are a series of plug-ins that you can activate for your Gmail account. Activating a plug in is as easy as going to Labs and click activate next to the plug in you want. (the first time you need to go to settings and activate de labs, after that you will have a lab icon on the top right)

One of the plug-ins, for example, is a YouTube plug in. Once active, every time someone sends you a YouTube link, you will be able to see the video straight away on the email with no need to follow the link.

You can also use the yellow stars to easily mark the very important emails. After that you can click the “With Star” link and just see the emails you previously marked. If like me you have different projects and would like to have different symbols, you can just go to labs and activate the plug in that gives you more. I love it.

What else can I say? Everything in Gmail is just simple to use. You have many options to get it your way. You can even select a different template.

Let’s just say that, a Free email that offers you more than 7GB of space is a great service, if it is developed by Google it is just perfect.

Hosting My Website. The Best Web Hosting Provider Around.

Are you looking for a good web hosting provider? There is a lot of research to be done. I have done it.

It is impossible to say which one is the best hosting provider, you would have to use them all, even then what was good for you could not be for another person. There is various factors to consider when looking for a web hosting provider.

How Much WebSpace is Available to You?

How Much is the Monthly Data Transfer?

Number of Email Accounts?

Does it Provide a Free Domain Name?

How Many Website Can You Host?

Is There Any Limitations to the Kind of Website You Can Host?

Speed?

How Helpful Are They?

Some of these aspects might be important to you, others might not. If you are only going to use one website on your host and you are not expecting more than 50 users a day then you don't have to worry with the a couple of things from the list. If you already have a domain name and are happy with the provider (and price), or already have an email account and don't need more, you might cross some other things from this list.

I work with multimedia and so I build many websites and for me a good hosting service is very important. I need to host various websites, create many email accounts, using various domains and of course, loads of webspace. One of the things I was also worried is that one day I might receive a bill for extra traffic. So, I needed to find a hosting service that could fit all my requirements.

Did I find it? YES. For a couple of years already I have been using a Hosting Provider that allowed me all the things I wanted and best of all, it is one of the cheapest I found.

The Hosting Provider I use is Servage Hosting.

I'm really happy with them. They tick all the boxes for me. I'm even using different kinds of CMS and all work fine. They have an option for AutoInstall various kinds of CMS Websites, E-Commerce, Blogs, Image Galleries and many more. You just click and it will do all the work for you. This includes the great Joomla, Drupal, WordPress, OSCommerce and many others.

What about the questions I asked on top of this Article? Here are the answers: (at the time of me writing this article)

How Much WebSpace is Available to You? 750GB

How Much is the Monthly Data Transfer? 7500GB

Number of Email Accounts? UNLIMITED

Does it Provide a Free Domain Name? YES, or domain transfer if you already have one.

How Many Website Can You Host? As Many As You Want.

Is There Any Limitations to the Kind of Website You Can Host? No. At least at the time I read the Terms and Conditions. You can have your naughty sites there. :)

Speed? I can't complain. Had a few problems with speed in Joomla sites some time ago and they even took out Joomla from the AutoInstaller option. Now it is back and it is running very well.

How Helpful Are They? A Lot. Every time I open a support ticket (very easy to do it) I don't need to wait much for an answer. Very nice people and very efficient.

So, having all this how can I not recommend them?

If you find another great host please let me know. Not that I want to change but it is good to know the options around.

Another good thing is that if you recommend people you win a couple of months of free hosting. Of course I like this but believe me that it is not the only reason I recommend them. My clients are more important than a couple of free bad hosting.

If you give it a go let me know what you find of Servage. If you prefer to keep looking do not forget to check all the boxes so you don't end up stuck in a hosting provider that is not what you want.

Visit Servage Now

Introduction to Google Wave

Google Wave is the technological innovation that motivated me the most since Google Earth and the iPhone. So, what actually is Google Wave?

Google Wave is the attempt from Google to create the ultimate email system. The idea was to create email today, as if it didn’t exist before.

In my opnion Gmail is the best email available and I´m not just talking about the free ones. Gmail is a great evolution from other email accounts. Google Wave uses some of the great features from Gmail.

Gmail apart, imagine you are emailing back and forth with someone about a subject. At the end of the day you end up with your inbox list full with the same person and same subject. Every time you receive a reply there it is, a new email received. To me, one of the best features of Gmail is actually solving this problem. On a Gmail account every reply to the same subject stays under one email giving you the number of replies there are inside. Once you open that email you can just go down and see all the conversation as if it was a chat room.

Google Wave is based on this idea. Each subject is a Wave. You create a Wave about one subject and instead of sending it, you just add the person with whom you want to share that Wave (subject). That person will automatically see a new Wave on his/hers Google Wave inbox. Opening the Wave will allow that person to add to that Wave (like replying to an email). Once that person updates the Wave the update will be available on your account straight away and it will go to the top of your inbox as unread.

A Great Thing: if at some point you are both online you will see each other typing and be able to chat live. The whole chat will be stored as part of the Wave. One of you can just leave and just keep replying next time you log in.

Even Better: You can add other people to your Wave at any time of that Wave’s life. That person can see everything that was written and can even playback and see the order the Wave grew. This is useful as on Google Wave it is possible to go back and add something on something written before by you or by other people. You can split a message and reply to each part of it.

Imagine the potential of this tool for group projects, organizing events, organize your band, your theatre group, plan a trip with friends...

Of course this is just the basics of Google Wave. It is much more than this, Google Wave is also prepared to use extensions (small programs) that will allow Google Wave to grow to a place we can’t even imagine. At the moment there is extensions like Maps (once you add the map to the wave all the people on that wave can interact with the map and see what others have done), video, pictures...

At the moment Google Wave is only a Beta version that serves as a test. You can only get your hands on it via an invitation. I believe the worst time for getting invitations have passed and there is loads of people with plenty of invitations to give.

Don’t wait for the future to come to your...try Google Wave now.

miguel gigante . com

Google’s Email Service, Gmail. The Best Email Service Around.

Hosting My Website. The Best Web Hosting Provider Around.

Introduction to Google Wave