It is pretty easy to set up.  There is a great tutorial on the Google Website which is worth ready whilst setting up the program!  For those who knew it the application is very similar to the SBS 2003 Server Setup.

So far we’ve been really impressed!

Free Space

• Live Mail/Hotmail provide at this moment in time 5GB of storage space.
• The basic Yahoo! Mail package you receive unlimited storage space!
• Gmail claim that their storage space is always increasing and at time of writing the storage space is around 6.75GB.
• The winner of the ‘Free Space’ award must be Yahoo! Mail simply because the space is unlimited!

Is there a paid for upgrade?

• Gmail provide two upgrades, one that you must pay for (Premier Edition) and the other which is free (Education Edition). The Premier Edition is aimed at Small Businesses and Enterprises. It costs £25 a year.
• Live Mail/Hotmail have no upgrades which is a huge shame.
• Yahoo! Mail have 3 upgrades, Yahoo! Mail Plus, Yahoo! Mail Personal Address and Yahoo! Business Email. Yahoo! Mail Plus is around £10 a year (under £1 per month). Yahoo! Mail Personal Address is around £17.50 per year (under £1.50 per month). Yahoo! Business Email costs just under £5 a month plus a month of set up fee of £12.50.
• I personally haven’t used any of the upgrades because the basic packages are perfectly adequate for me, however from looking at all the details of the packages I think that Gmail provides the best upgrade packages. Therefore Gmail wins the ‘Upgrade’ award!

Features-There are hundreds of features that all of the free packages provide and if I was to write about all of them you’d be here for hours, so click on the following applicable link for each provider to find out more about the features of, Yahoo! Mail, Gmail and Live Mail/Hotmail.

• My favourite feature of Yahoo! Mail is that on the main screen you have tabs for the different folders/messages etc that you have open. Also there is a home tab which has the latest news/sport/entertainment and finance news.
• My favourite feature of Gmail is the fact that you can use so many applications with just one account. It’s worth getting an account just to use the applications!
• And finally my favourite feature of Live Mail/Hotmail is how easy it is to connect with Microsoft Office Outlook.

Easy to use/Stylish interface -

• In my opinion Windows Live Mail/Hotmail has a very easy to use interface and it is quite stylish too! You can change the colour of your account to your own preference.
• Yahoo! Mail is easy to use too and since its recent face lift is far more stylish but you don’t have the option to personalize it like Live Mail/Hotmail.
• I feel that Gmail is easy to use but is in need of a redesign to keep up with the trends as some people judge things on looks and Gmail certainly would not win!
• The winner of the ‘Easy to use/Stylish Interface’ Award is Windows Live Mail/Hotmail!

Is it cluttered with Ad’s? – So often you go into an email account you get annoying.

• Gmail has no adverts at all which is very good.
• Yahoo! Mail has one large advert and two very small adverts, none of them are in the way but they’re still there!
• Live Mail/Hotmail has on very large advert going across the screen which is distracting.
• Therefore Gmail wins the ‘Ad’ Award!

Are there many addresses free? -

• Yahoo! Mail and Gmail have a limited number of addresses left compared to Live Mail/Hotmail.
• Live Mail has recently been released so there are loads of address names still free!
• Live Mail/Hotmail has to win the ‘Addresses Free’ award!

Can you access your mail from your mobile?

• With a Gmail account you can access your mail very easily. You can also access other Google applications, for example: Search, Maps, Picasa, You Tube, Calender and News. If you’re interested visit ‘Google Mobile‘.
• You can get Live Mail/Hotmail on your mobile, however it costs you to send emails on top of your mobile Internet providers charges (£1 for 8 Emails). If you’re interested visit ‘Mobile Hotmail‘. You can also get MSN Messenger on your mobile phone.
• Yahoo! Mail also is available via your mobile. It looks very similar to the web based version which you’re used to. Like Gmail and Live Mail/Hotmail you can also get many applications on the internet too. For example, Messenger, Flickr, News, Sports and Entertainment. For more info visit ‘Yahoo! Mobile‘.
• I think that it is a joint win for Gmail and Yahoo! Mail for the ‘Mobile Access’ award.

In conclusion, it all comes down to personal choice and what you really need. If your computer skills are very limited and need something simple go for Gmail. If you want something stylish and also very simple to use go for Live Mail/Hotmail. If you want an account which is easy to use and you feel in the future you may want to upgrade go for Yahoo! Mail.

If there are anymore areas that you’d like us to compare please let us know!

There are many useful features you can get with your basic Gmail account. On their site they have made a list called ’10 Reasons To use Gmail’.

1. You don’t like spam. Neither do we
2. Search your mail instantly
3. Organize replies into conversations
4. Chat is built right in
5. Labels, Filters and Stars…oh my!
6. Get your mail on the go
7. Lots of space (and counting)
8. We have ads, but only the good kind
9. Save time
10. All this is free?

To find out more on these features and to see the details of the list click here.

Gmail have made some cool new features for all their users. Some new features include:

• Group chat
• Instant messaging
• 20MB attachment limit
• Emotions
• Contact Groups
• 6.732016 GB email storage per account and the amount it always increasing!

Click to see a list/information on all 35 updates/new features.

You can also upgrade to either Premier or Education Edition. An Education Edition is free to accredited not-for-profit K-12 Schools, Colleges and Universities which are described in the terms and conditions. It provides the same features as the standard edition but also includes:

• Conference room and resource scheduling
• APIs to integrate with your existing infrastructure
• Email routing controls for dual delivery (Coming November 08!)
• Email migration tools
• 24/7 assistance, including phone support for critical issues
• Third-party applications and services
• 6.732016 GB email storage per account and the amount it always increasing!

Click to find out more about Google for Educators or to Compare Packages.

The Premier Edition is by far the packages which supplies the most but it does come at a price! It costs £25 a year. With in the Premier package there are two versions, one geared more towards Enterprises and the other Small Businesses. The package provides all previously mentioned features from the Standard and Education Editions, plus:

• 99.9% up-time guarantee for email
• Policy management and message recovery by Postini (Coming in November)
• 25 GB email storage per account

Click to compare the package with the standard package.

Gmail has everything that most people need from their web based email account and you can also use so many great applications with an account. Although in my opinion it isn’t as user friendly as other providers.

Do you use Gmail? What do you think of it?

Before you download Picasa for free you must you need to create a Google and Picasa account which will allow you to share your photos on the internet. Both Google and Picasa accounts are compltely free. If you already have a googlemail or gmail account then you don’t need to create a new Google account, just a Picasa one. Click here for a Google account. Then for a Picasa account click here. You need a Google account to use Picasa Web Album.

Once this is done you need to download Picasa for free and then install it.

Then you need to upload your pictures to Picasa by selecting where you wish for them to be uploaded from. If you have some pictures on a digital camera that you wish to upload to your computer follow the instructions on the pctoolbox.co.uk tutorial named ‘Downloading Pictures from Your Digital Camera On An XP Machine‘.

How to add Pictures to the Web:

Open Picasa by double clicking on the Picasa Icon on your Desktop.

Click either on the folder or the picture you wish to upload. (Click for bigger image)

Then click ‘Web Album’

Eventually the below window will appear. Firstly choose if you are going to create a new album or add to one you’ve previously used. Then give the album a name and if you wish to give the album a description etc. You will need to decide your upload speed. We recommend you choose the ‘Medium Size’ upload setting. Finally decide whether you want anybody to be able to view your pictures or if you only want selected people to be able to view them. Once this is done click ‘OK’.

(Click on the image to make it bigger)

Note: The pictures may take a while to upload, depending on the amount/size of the pictures being uploaded.

How to access pictures/albums on the Internet:
To access the pictures on the net login to Picasa by clicking here. Or to view one of your public albums on the net type this address adding your user name at the end : picasaweb.google.com/ For Example: picasaweb.google.com/Graham.Brandstar

Tell us what you think of Picasa by leaving a comment below!