Why I paid for extra storage on Gmail

March 18th, 2010. 9 comments

Since the last few months, I have been running out of space on Gmail. When that happens, I delete all the unwanted mails – the notifications, newsletters and email forwards from some annoying people. After having done so yesterday, I was left with only 40mb which I knew would get exhausted in a week! Here is why I didn’t just open another Gmail account for my mails and bought extra space from Google.

Its about the connections
In my inbox I have emails dating back till 2004. I don’t like to delete my mails as they store a lot of information for me – phone numbers, postal addresses, and people’s designations among other things. My work email has always been forwarded to Gmail so that makes this data richer. If I opened another account, I would have to continually keep switching between these accounts to find what I needed.

Syncing
These are exciting times. I see data being synced across so many different platforms and applications that it makes me giddy with excitement. Take the case of my addressbook itself – I primarily use my Gmail addressbook simply because I have so many contacts there. This is what happens:

  • My Gmail addressbook is synced with my iPhone – phone numbers and email addresses are merged in one contact.
  • Facebook app on the iPhone updates their profile pictures and birthday details in my addressbook and Gmail calendar.
  • Gmail calendar is synced with the iPhone.
  • My Outlook program has the LinkedIn plugin which syncs my addressbook with company and website details of contacts to Outlook.
  • When I plug my phone in the computer, Outlook syncs with iPhone, which in-turn syncs with my Gmail addressbook.

Thanks to this configuration, I now have a PIM system that automatically updates birthdays, contact details and company details of every person I am ‘friends’ with online.

The data
There is 6 years worth of data in my inbox – all kinds of reports, presentations and stuff that friends have sent me over the years – all of this in one convenient place.

Its USD 5$
I pay that much and more for a weekend out with friends, so its not that expensive for me.

The reasons I give above are for my unique use case and I realise that they may not work for everyone. If you are still unconvinced about paying up, I recommend you read Q&A: When GMail Overflows sent to me by Mahendra Palsule.

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  • http://india.liveoncampus.com Live on Campus

    Now I see the point of upgrading and to be honest, I understand how important it is. Gmail is my homepage and its practically on throughout the day. It is the only application on my Java enabled phone but now that you have mentioned so many syncing options above I want to implement some between my Gmail, Facebook and IPod Touch where the contact e-mail addresses and Facebook birthdays + profile pictures are fetched on my iPod contacts list. Wonder how its possible and if it is, then how do I configure it. :)

    Note to self : Get nexus one and solve the confusion! :D

  • harshal

    Curious, do you sync over wi-fi for the iPhone or via OTA/Network?

    Because Google Sync on a ‘berry doesn’t throw up that option, and tends to use only the (slow) network.

    May or may not be the cause of some of my problems.

    Appreciate your response. Thanks,

  • http://www.asfaq.com Asfaq

    It works with whatever connection you are connected to.

  • http://ankitagaba.com Ankita

    Exact same reasons why I bought it too :)

  • http://digitophil.blogspot.com/ Ravi

    Have u heard of Rediffmail
    they provide free unlimited email space

  • http://www.soulcurry.org Kuldeep

    Do you really need to pay for extra space on gmail. I guess it offers more than 7 GB space.

  • http://www.sandeepbali.com/ Sandeep Bali

    Haha…. loved your configuration… even I have got some similar kinda config between Gmail, Calendar and Iphone and Facebook.. rocks.. :P

  • http://netbramha.com Aashish Solanki

    Way to go. Been paying too since 2 years for very similar reasons! :D

  • Ram

    Not for the money, but for the method: Download all but this year’s mails into Outlook. Back up as needed. This year’s mails… on Gmail. Earlier mails… in Outlook. Gmail uncluttered. :-)