Take Your Life Online: Part 1

If your computer suddenly exploded today, what would be the most detrimental data to lose on your computer?

• Email
• Bookmarks (favorites)
• Documents
• Photos

While we all have our special needs on the computer, the 4 items above represent the most likely items on your computer to be inseparably important to your lifestyle. Up until recent years, you've only had one choice: buy a back up hard drive or burn your data to CDs.

The problem with backing up is that it duplicates your data. Unless you very frequently update it, if something goes wrong you will still be missing data or your data will be outdated.

Although backup solutions are getting better (such as Apple's Time Machine), the easiest way to protect yourself is to store your files AND access them, online.

The great thing about storing and working on files online is that every computer with an Internet connection can now be used as a workstation with full access to your email, bookmarks, documents, and photos. It doesn't matter what operating system or make the computer is, as long as you have a web browser.

Oh yeah, it's all free too.



So let's get started! We've talked about Gmail in the past. Well, I'm bringing it up again! Nearly everyone who is close enough to me to be influenced now has a Gmail account. And it's with good reason too! Gmail provides you with the following features and benefits:

• Full featured email program (like Outlook Express, Mail, or Kontact) right in your browser! Not only is it great software, but it's fast!
• Almost 3gb of storage space... and it's constantly growing. (for most users, that's enough space for 5,000-10,000 emails!)
• No picture ads. Only clean, non-disruptive text ads that do not detract from Gmail's clean look'n feel
• Spam Free - Gmail has the best spam filter I've seen. I didn't receive a single junk mail for many months, and when I did Gmail filtered it safely into my junk mail box.
• Search your email - I can't even tell you how important it is to easily sort through your mail. You can search subject, user, or favorites in your mail box and quickly find what you are looking for.
• If any of your friends are also looking at their email when you are, you can send text messages back and forth (chat) right inside of Gmail!

And that's just some of the features of this stellar email client. Again, you can access it from any computer with an Internet connection.

To make this a little more interesting... suppose you have an email you've been using for years and everybody knows they can reach you there. No sweat! Gmail can receive mail from any normal email account! That's right... ALL your email in one place, and safely online at that, (in case your computer suddenly combusted) that can be accessed from any computer with an Internet connection (even your mobile phone!).

If you really want to bring your email down to your hard drive anyways, Gmail can do that too. But it keeps the emails backed up online so that they will always be safe.

So free your email from your hard drive today and take your first step towards hardware freedom. Get your gmail on!