Recently, Comcast decided to “upgrade” it’s Webmail to something called SmartZone Communications. This program sucks. Seriously, it’s really bad. It’s slow, has some serious usability issues, and it lacks features that were included in the previous webmail system. For example, I have several Comcast email accounts that could all be accessed in the old webmail system, but in SmartZone Communications I have to add them as external POP accounts and even then I can’t reply to messages from the account they were sent to, I can only send mail as the account I am logged in to as the Primary account. Comcast was unwilling to offer any form of resolution or compensation for the inconvenience this caused, nor does there seem to be any timeline for when this feature might be added to SmartZone.

Enter Google’s GMail.

I’ve had a GMail account for years that I haven’t used. It was just one more account that I’d have to maintain, so I never used it for anything. However, when complaining to a friend about Comcast he suggested that GMail had the ability to add POP accounts. Sure enough, I was able to add all of my Comcast accounts, and I can send mail as those accounts. Not only that, the UI is fantastic! It’s very simplistic, nothing flashy, but very easy to use. I love the conversation views of emails, and the auto complete of addresses in the address book is great. My only complaints would be that you can’t specify how often it checks those external POP accounts (though you can force it to “Check mail now” through the Settings), so it’s not as real-time as I’d like, but it works well enough for my needs. My only other complaint is that I’d like the “Compose Mail” link to be more prominent.

In addition, I’ve also started using other Google online services regularly now. Google Calendar is now keeping track of my schedule (and I like the ability to add other calendars to my calendar, like US Holidays). And Google Docs is a great place to keep those documents I’d like to access from anywhere, and/or give access to other people. My Christmas list is currently stored in a Google Doc. And last, but not least, I’ve been using Google’s new Chrome web browser. I have my Gmail account open in one tab, my Google Docs in another, and my Google Calendar in another. I love it. I still use Firefox for most of my web browsing, but I have been using Chrome more and more.

Kudo’s to you Google.

So goodbye to Comcast’s crappy SmartZone Communications. I really wish Verizon FiOS was available in my area so I could drop Comcast altogether, but unfortunately, Verizon has sold much of it’s New England customer base to Fairpoint Communications, which doesn’t offer FiOS in my area (and even if it did, I’m not sure I’d switch to them).