do your email in the cloud !

This is a wonderful idea that developed a few years ago. The idea that we could receive and send email without downloading it to our computer or sending it from our computer.

This may sound bizarre, but this is what you do if you read your email from a browser like IE, Firefox, or Chrome.

Some people still use programs on their computer such as Outlook, or Outlook Express, but this note will discuss why using these programs is a bad idea, and this note will suggest that you change the way you are reading and sending your email.

Years ago, telephone lines were expensive and very slow to move data. Email programs were made to maximize your time and it might take 5 mins to get all your mail and download it to your computer on your 1200 baud modem. Computer viruses were just beginning, and were hard to catch. You may remember connecting to your email provider and going off to make a coffee, coming back and answering all the email while disconnected from your telephone line so you could receive telephone calls. Then you would call your provider back, and all your answered email would be uploaded and sent on their way.

Wakeup now, it is 2012.  Why should you continue to use a program like Outlook on your computer for email ? Don't tell me it's because you can not learn anything new, or because you finally have memorized what buttons to click. There are many good reasons to stop and learn a better way.

1. Using a mail program like Outlook or Outlook Express increases your risk of infecting your computer with a virus, as this is a common way to distribute viruses. All you need is to receive an email attachment that has a virus (a program meant to do something not so nice, like break your computer, or install another spy software etc. If this happens, it will cost you time, money, and inconvenience, not to mention the one-of-a-kind photos you may have lost... or the loss of privacy etc.
2. Because you become dependant on your computer hardware, you need to do backups and protect your data from being corrupted or lost. This becomes more of a necessity if you are running a business with it.

Anyone today who uses an email program on their computer absolutely needs to have a sophisticated virus checking program. To do this job properly, the program is complex and hard on your computer hardware. In fact it may take so much power than your computer has, so the result is that your computer may become VERY SLOW. Of course we could blame the computer, and go and buy a better one but I'd suggest a different strategy.

1. Get an email ID from Gmail or another email provider. I use Gmail because it provides a clean interface without too much advertisements to fill your screen. 
2. forward your email from your current provider to your new gmail email address. In this way, anyone who has your old one can still contact you.

The immediate benefit from this is that you can get to your email from any computer. When you are travelling for instance, you can use someone's laptop, or a computer in a hotel. Even smart phones today can use web browsers  so you can easily get to your email even on your phone. 

Here is what Gmail looks like from the Chrome browser:

There are many other excellent reasons to switch to gmail, but these reasons will have to wait. Check this video out.

Of course if you continue to download your email to your computer at home, you can't do any of this.