Get Yourself A GMAIL Account

Exchanging email ids with some teachers and professors recently made me write this post. Most had not migrated to a gmail account and preferred an ageold rediffmail or yahoo/msn mail account. Almost all students I exchanged with, have 2-3 mail ids of which the most preferred is a gmail account. Also the most used ! Now, I personally have accounts in yahoo, hotmail & of course, the one I most use is gmail.
Why do I consider the mail most useful ?
Signing up for a gmail account entitles you to sign into other FREE Google tools with the same username and password. For example, once you log in to your account,@ the top left, you will see the other google sites that you can view without having to sign in. These include blogger, youtube, book search, bookmarks, adsense, calender,orkut,docs, reader,photos, sites, groups,images, maps, scholar,blogs,web search,translate,transliterate,and of course, you can log in to GTalk,for a video /audio chat as well. Students can use the collaborative and communication tools such as docs to create presentations and work on projects, even when @ home.
If you still desire to keep your hotmail / msn or any other email accounts, you can choose to view all your mails in your gmail inbox by going to Settings on the right hand corner of your gmail account. Click on Accounts & Import and add email ids from which you wish to import. You also have the choice to send out emails from any of the email ids you have imported in addition to the gmail, by choosing the relevant one @ Send Mail As.
If you are an educator or a student, you will certainly find having a gmail account useful. Signing in automatically shows your google calender, tasks, contacts, friends available online to chat , docs, quick links,etc. Buzz is the new addition very much like facebook,but it can be useful within a group of students or teachers if used correctly.You have the option of customizing your Google page with igoogle where you can add gadgets that you regularly use and choose the theme to suit your mood.You can also archive and save all your mails without deleting any because of the large inbox you get. Adding labels in different colours makes your email managing easier. On the whole, student and teachers and parents will find their time and task better organised.