Several years ago, Google unveiled its web-based mail system. The mail service dubbed Gmail caused quite a stir in its early days, since one could only use it by invite. If you knew no one with access to Gmail’s service, then you were left out in the cold with Yahoo!Mail or Hotmail to keep you warm. Today Gmail opens its doors to anyone who wishes to open an account. For today’s user, the stock Gmail account provides a robust spam filter, interesting conversation categorization options, enormous storage capacity, and much more.

For instance, if you were having a conversation with a realtor, the exchange may carry over for a week, month, or even longer. Within Gmail’s webmail system, the emails with the same subject line (or ones with RE: and the subject line) would be captured underneath the same message tree, creating an easy to access conversational style catalogue system. This feature enables you to quickly see related messages, even if those messages were carried out over a couple of months. The fact that this system works flawlessly is a testament to Google’s foresight.