Matt Haughey
April 11, 2004
http://a.wholelottanothing.org/archives.blah/007795
"I think Google's really got something amazing here. It's a useful app that feels almost like desktop software, the storage means you never have to delete anything, and the simple flags and searching in a threaded inbox is both a power user['s] and new user['s] dream setup."

Rafe Colburn
April 12, 2004
http://rc3.org/cgi-bin/less.pl?arg=6144
"I'm really getting a feel for how different [Gmail] is from every other email client I've used, especially with regard to how it organizes threads into 'conversations.' Basically it treats all messages in a thread as a single message, and condenses the emails you've already read if there are too many to display on one page when you click on a conversation. Really, it's quite similar to how Google Groups organizes Usenet posts, and makes a lot of sense for handling email in a Web interface. It also hides quoted text so you don't have to bother with it if you don't need to. Very slick. Most impressive though is that this is the first email client that I've used (maybe ever) that does something completely different with email than the dominant paradigm. I'm glad to see innovation of some kind happening on the email front."

Denise Howell
Gee! Mail - April 9, 2004
http://bgbg.blogspot.com/2004_04_04_bgbg_archive.html
"The efficiency of storing and Google searching all of one's email has got to be beyond compare."

Dan Hersam
Gmail at Last – May 4, 2004
http://dan.hersam.com/archive/001693.html
My impression so far: it's great. … A few of the highlights:

1. No more images and flash movies on the page.
2. No more advertisements added to each outgoing message.
3. Keeps track of conversations (similar to threading)
4. Automatically populates the address book with outgoing mail.
5. Keyboard shortcuts. (That's just cool).

James Adams
Gmail Beta: My First Thoughts - April 10, 2004
http://www.junketsgym.com/2004_04_01_junketsgym_archive.html#108123542329593
"E-mails can be placed into the archive. i.e., out of sight, out of mind, and most importantly, out of your inbox. If you are anything like me at work ... then you'll appreciate the ease at which you can remove the clutter. Of course, removing the clutter and 'disappearing' your mail (sorry, conversations) means that you will need a really good way of retrieving those conversations later on. The best way to do this on such a filing system is to search for them, and for that you need a good, extremely fast search engine. It is a happy co-incidence that Google are providing this service!"

Mike Hostetler
Gmail – First Glance - May 11, 2004
http://users.binary.net/thehaas/cgi-haas/blosxom.cgi/2004/05/11
“My idea is to use GMail as a knowledge base of sorts — the idea of being able to google my mail seems extremely appealing, especially when it comes to mailing lists that I don’t read often but has info I may need later. … You really don’t make new boxes to put the messages into — instead you make “labels”. So I have a label for each mailing list and, if I just want to see the Omaha-PM messages, I just click on that label. Easily done.

Creating filters is dead-easy. Basically, it’s a wizard and, before you commit it, it gives you a preview of the messages in your inbox that would be affected. However, the messages you have aren’t affected (like it should be). I now have filters to auto-label all my mailing list messages.

Ken Conley
Gmail Initial Thoughts - April 13, 2004
http://kwc.org/blog/archives/001407.html
"The UI is extremely fast. ... The spell checker on GMail is also friggin' awesome. …You click on 'check spelling,' and it instantly underlines the words that are mis[s]pelled. You can then click on those words and pop-down menu appears with spelling alternatives. I am amazed they were able to accomplish this so well. ... There are a lot of little tidbits that GMail throws in that make you wonder why other services haven't done them. They are so simple, and show that Google put a bit of thought into the e-mail problem. Here are some examples: Google includes the first several lines of each message next to its title in the Inbox, which is useful for identifying spam or poorly labeled messages; the login page is encrypted by default; no annoying redirects on URLs."

Sarah Hatter
Bling Mail - April 13, 2004
http://www.sarahhatter.com/2004_04_01_sarahhatter_archive.html#108188005899186863

"Gmail is still outstanding because it's engineered by people who do their best every day to make the web more simple. (For instance, Gmail processes mail through 'conversations', meaning all the correspondence I have on one subject is stored together for easy reference rather than as independent messages.) Incorporate Google search capability for your personal email and absolutely THE BEST spell check I've ever seen and it's the makings of one great email client."

Ross Mayfield
Why I'm Switching to Gmail – May 12, 2004
http://ross.typepad.com/blog/2004/05/why_im_switchin.html

• "I want all my personal data accessible anywhere anytime. Privacy concerns are overblown... I'm more concerned with services that model me and my relationships without my permission or control.
• It's the best webmail app there is. Simple, usable and powerful."