Though I am a man with strong prejudices and the 1 GB thing might have blinded me but still here is my 2 paise on the features I liked about GMail:
- The scripting that lets the Reply/Forward text areas open almost instantly with an option to open them as new windows.
- If you liked the MS-Word spell checker Gmail has got it better, and remember this is not a desktop application.
- Email addresses being automatically added to address book (offcourse this may lead you to delete the unwanted ones later-on as the list swells) and the choice to get the ones you send mails frequently
- The external image concealment feature making emails work-safe (offcourse rediffmail had implemented it much earlier)
- Adding attachment works like magic and you don't even get to notice the time it takes to attach and send the mail
Now for the annoyances:
- Wonder if this is only me who mentions this, but the initial loading time (once you press the login button) is way too high. I see atleast two sets of loading screens occurring first at left hand corner of screen and then then on the other.
- Detecting a new mail (though its in bold fonts) out of the chained list of "Rahul,me,Sneha,me" would sure be tedious once it expands.