Some students find Gmail better

Many IU students are making a move, and it has nothing to do with finding a new place to live. \nA number of students are using alternate e-mail accounts for school--related e-mails and messages, effectively bypassing their IU Webmail accounts. These students simply set up their Webmail account to automatically forward all mail to their alternate e-mail account. One of the most popular accounts is Google's Gmail service, which offers a high storage capacity and a simple interface, which many students find attractive. \nSenior Jon Roberts said he made the switch to Gmail because of the extra storage space that it offered. \n"I set up my Webmail to forward all my mail straight to my Gmail account," said Roberts. "Now I use it all the time to correspond with classmates and professors because of the extra storage space, which definitely comes in handy with a large file, like a PowerPoint file."\nGraduate student Alvin Wong also forwards all his Webmail directly to his Gmail account because he said he believes that it offers more stability and a simpler user interface.\n"In addition to the larger volume of storage space, Gmail has an interface that is easier to use, and I don't think Webmail is as stable as the Gmail system," Wong said. \nHowever, Rick Jackson, manager of messaging for UITS, said he believes that Gmail and other free e-mail services aren't quite what they seem to be. \n"There are many privacy concerns that have been and continue to be raised about Gmail and other service providers who provide 'free e-mail' services," Jackson said. \nJackson also warned against the reliability of these accounts.\n"The biggest issue is there is no guarantee that mail sent through the Internet will be received at its destination in a timely manner," Jackson said. "In fact, there is no guarantee that it will be delivered at all. Mail sent from one university system to another of our systems will be delivered and if there is a system problem between servers causing delays, we know about it," Jackson stated. \nJackson also said that the trend of forwarding Webmail to alternate accounts like Gmail is not that common.\n"At last count, there were 203,000 e-mail accounts on our systems. Of these accounts, 37,686 people have their mail forwarded outside of IU. This is a little less then 19 percent," Jackson said. \nWhile Jackson warns against some of the dangers of non-university affiliated e-mail services, some students still find the larger pastures of Gmail and other similar services to alluring to pass up. \n"Gmail just has more space for file storage and that is why I use it," Roberts said.