HOTMAIL SUCKS SO I HAD TO CHANGE TO GMAIL, WHICH ALSO SUCKS

A few years ago, I wrote a piece for CRANK entitled EMAIL IS JUST EMAIL OK. I explained why I still had a Hotmail email address, against all the advice of my hipster friends, administration gurus, and IT professionals. It wasn’t so much that I vehemently argued for how great Hotmail was (let’s be frank, it really isn’t), but that I just couldn’t be arsed getting a Gmail account and I didn’t want to have Google RUN MY LIFE.

Last week, however, it was time to make a change.

It had been nine days since Hotmail’s POP3 servers had forwarded a single email to my iPhone. NINE. DAYS. A quick google (LOL) of the problem came up trumps, in part because Hotmail had just redesigned its Outlook platform and everything was different. I mean, why would you bother redesigning your whole platform WHEN YOU HAVE ABOUT 100 USERS LEFT IN THE WORLD? (Other than spammers). In fact it occurred to me that perhaps Hotmail did it intentionally to try and increase their advertising revenue. Because now, instead of being able to read your emails through Mac mail, you have to download their crappy app or, worse still, log on through your browser and then deal with headlines on msn.com such as 'Kaley Cuoco reveals her new look' and 'Is this the end of the McNugget?'

I can tell you now, ladies and gentlemen, it is NOT the end of the McNugget, but it is the end of Hotmail for me. What a stupid, glitchy, inoperable piece of s--t, and yes, I know I’m years behind the eight ball, but at least I saw the light eventually.

The fact I have now defected to Gmail, however, does not mean I think Gmail is great. Do you know how much tax Google paid in Australia in 2013? Less than $500,000. Let’s just let that figure sink in. And the fact that I had to google Google to get those tax stats just shows how terrible this situation really is.

Then, when I had to create a Gmail address, I laboured over what my email name should be (not least because most varieties of my very unusual name were already taken, oh the regret!). It was also because I was thinking: wait, this is the email address that will be tied to my entire Google profile, my youtube account, blog... will this be my 'forever' email name? Will I change my home address ten times, but never change email addresses again? Will I be trapped in the world of Google until I DIE? I nearly chose “f--kyougoogle@gmail.com” as my new email address. Fortunately I didn’t, because after I decided on my address I realised that you can NEVER CHANGE IT. [1]

As my techie friend told me, 'welcome to the dark side…'

CHANLET B, MELBOURNE

1. This is, however, a great thing for feminism. No taking of the husband’s surname in Gmail land!

The dark side. Our digital future, in which we bind ourselves to Mammon (aka Google), as it sucks the lifeblood from the world. For ever. [An angel leading a soul into hell. Oil painting by a follower of Hieronymus Bosch, c 1540. Wellcome Images L0030887]

EMAIL IS JUST EMAIL OK

Firstly, I would like to preface this piece of writing with some context:

• I am 29 years old.
• I work in the music industry, and successfully use Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, Soundcloud, Mailchimp, Wordpress and Pozible to run my career.
• I own a Macbook Pro and an iPhone 5.
• I am generally an organised, motivated and cool person.

Now, it’s hard for me to say this—it feels like I’m bringing a six-pack of UDLs to a wine appreciation night.

I still use Hotmail.

That’s right.

Not only that, I have TWO Hotmail accounts, one with a nickname my friend gave me in 2003.

And, my dearest Gmail-Nazi, I don’t care.

For me, it comes down to this. If someone sends me an email, I get it. If I send them an email, they get it. I use Mac mail, whose search history function is so munted it doesn’t matter where your account is from anyway. SO IT DOESN’T MATTER.

Why would I waste hours of time “setting up a Gmail account”, “importing contacts”, “changing my email account for all logins”, and “telling everybody about it”. In reality, the outcome is the same: I send an email, the person gets it. If they send an email, I get it.

Except, of course, I would be WAY COOLER because I would use Gmail. Never mind the fact that it’s the content of my emails and the accompanying pictures of dogs in hats that should establish my coolness.

Judging someone for their email host of choice is just plain snobby, in my opinion, and says more about YOU than me, really. Because you must love Google so much that they RUN YOUR LIFE and one day they will hand all your things over to the government and YOU WILL BE SORRY.

Meanwhile, I will be repeatedly unable to get my SMTP and POP servers to work. But at least I will be FREE.

@CHANLETB, MELBOURNE

The radical hippopotamus “Pepe”, a particularly violent member of Pablo Escobar’s Colombian drug cartel, was arrested after his Gmail correspondence was intercepted. Image credits: [Hippopotamus, Egypt] by T P Bennett, 1915. Lantern slide. State Library of Victoria, H83.103/122, available at http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/43413.

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