Sunday, July 11

Gmail is Really for File Management

Gmail is already a great deal. free email service with a whole gigabyte of free storage for your messages. But it doesn't hold messages only. It also holds attachments, so all you have to do is email yourself any files you want to backup, up to 1GB worth! I have a Gmail account but I haven't played with the sorting and metadata tagging features yet, which are what make it, well, a sort of online file browser. You use Google to search the web--now you'll use Gmail to search your stuff:

Although it's clumsy, it can be used not just to send messages but to store files. I already use it to send photographs with a cc to myself; then I can resend (i.e. forward the copies) the photos to other people without uploading them again. I also use it to back up large files by e-mailing them to myself.

[Release 4.0: Esther Dyson's Weblog]