I imagine just about everyone has heard of Gmail, the free email service from Google. However, if you never checked it out before, take a look at all Gmail has to offer. Especially take a look at the new feature they just launched, the ability to make free phone calls from Gmail to any phone in the US and Canada.

When Gmail launched, it offered 1 GB of email storage space, which was revolutionary given that the other top free email account providers at the time only gave users a few MB of storage space. The free storage space that each email address has available continues to grow, and currently it is up to around 7500 MB (7.5 GB) of free storage space.

Another great feature GMail offered since the beginning was fast, easy and complete search capabilities. Since you actually have space to store many thousands of emails, the ability to search the messages is very useful. Many users like me have tens of thousands of messages going back many years, so the search feature is a necessity if you ever want to find an old message.

Another really nice feature of Google's mail service is that it supports POP3 and IMAP protocols. You don't need to know what those are or any details about how they work, but they make it possible to read and send email using mail clients such as Outlook Express rather than having to use a web browser to access Gmail.com. These days it isn't just about email client software on your computer either, as you can use email clients on mobile phone and other portable computing devices. For example, Gmail works great with the iPhone and iPad.

Most free email services do not offer POP3 or IMAP service, so you can only access your email by going to the provider's web page. This isn't always convenient, but they want you to go to their website, otherwise you are not being exposed to their advertisements.

GMail has many other features tham make it a great email service, with the ability to filter, sort, and organize your messages with ease. It also has good junk mail filtering capabilities, although it sometimes puts good messages (such as newsletters you have subscribed to) into the Spam mail folder. To avoid this you will want to check the Spam folder carefully when you start using it, and make sure to setup filters for email that gets blocked.