So remember how I said gmail was fake and then realized it was real? Well a kind friend has invited me (and I accepted) to try gmail. So far, I like it. GMail aims to and succeeds in feeling like an application, not a webpage. Its e-mail related innovations are also noteworthy: I've always disliked the "each message in its own window" paradigm. It seemed outdated to me to represent every mail message as a separate entity, as if reenacting the paper version of mail. I could not do without outlook's "preview pane." Rather, I think that's how I think of e-mail, not as separate entities but one big "flow" of conversation from which I can separate out relevant strands. If that's your thang, GMail will excite you. Not only does it keep track of strands for you in the form of "conversations" instead of single e-mails, it also does a nice job of keeping the flow of that conversation model persistent throughout its interface. Most notable is the expandable "reply area" which is part of every e-mail you look at. This makes much more sense to me than having to hit the "reply" button, see a new window, and then write and send it from that window. The label feature is also a good replacement for the folder system. All in all, I like gmail so far. Let's see how long 1,000 megs last me.