Why I paid for extra storage on Gmail

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.