Gmail

I love Gmail because the free personal email separates emails into Inbox, Social, and Promotions categories which allows me to focus on the more important email in my inbox first without getting distracted. The paid version of Gmail for my business allows me to offer a HIPAA compliant email to my clients with security features for client privacy. In both personal and business emails I can create Folders for greater organization and the search feature allows me to find information or contacts quickly.

For the personal Gmail account, sometimes email falls into my Promotions folder instead of my Inbox so I miss time sensitive email.

Gmail is much like any other email program available. It allows free accounts, so the cost makes it a great option. If you want to spend a few bucks each month, you get email management that is tied to your own domain. This was great for me as I started my own law practice because it provided a professional email without having a website/hosting setup yet.

The one feature that would make me recommend Gmail over other programs is the automated notifications that inform me about emails I may need to respond to. Gmail is the first that I have seen to implement something like this, or at least to implement it in a way that didn't require me to set anything up. I read an email. I either don't respond or begin drafting a response that I don't send. Two days later, Gmail is asking me whether I intend to respond to that email. The best part is that this doesn't happen with the marketing/update emails that I've signed up to receive, like notification emails and such. Gmail seems to be able to distinguish, maybe based on the content/subject of the email-- I don't know? But it works great, and because it's been so helpful to avoid missing an email, I now prefer Gmail to other email providers.

I think the contact management can be improved. The only other problem I've had with Gmail has been with sorting incoming messages. I may have become too used to desktop applications that I would create "rules" in to instruct the program what to do with emails having a particular word in the subject or from a particular sender. I tried to organize my inbox a bit better in Gmail, and either I couldn't figure out how to make it do what I wanted, or it isn't possible. I'm not sure which it is. In any case, it was taking too much time, and it was easier to just "select all" and "mark as read."

I liked the personalization settings. Themes, etc.

It was difficult to find information and navigating to find a specific function was difficult.