So Why Did I Wait So Long to Switch to Gmail?

I've been asking myself that question ever since my switch to Gmail, but really that is only one of many changes I've made. Sure, my life with email has been simplified for a number of reasons (backups are simpler, labeling makes email more searchable and my laptop is not nearly as busy) and I'm really excited about it, but my switch also encouraged me to investigate more of Google's offerings.

One item that has really bothered me for quite a while are RSS readers. I've used various readers over the years and I've never been able to adequately fold them into my daily habits. Every reader I've ever used has always required me to explicitly do something to view updated blogs as opposed to simply delivering the news. I want my RSS reader to act like a paperboy, not a newsstand. To my delight - and annoyance - Google Reader works exactly like a paperboy (reliability issues notwithstanding). If I open up Google Reader, all my news appears as a simple list of articles. No searching through feeds for new posts. It's that simple. What's the annoying part? Paperboys don't typically keep the five most recent papers on your doorstep. They keep delivering. It's up to you to get rid of old papers. In my world, an RSS aggregator should afford me the option of telling the paperboy to discard old news. With current tools, I have to separate my feeds from my news to avoid having 2,714 unread items when I get back from vacation.

Yes, I know many aggregators automatically update and some of them can even give me a view that I can acuatlly digest, but can you get them to show-up next to your unread email and upcoming appointments without scrolling or switching tabs? Using iGoogle, you can do exactly that with Google Gadgets. Below is a snapshot of my iGoogle page with my Google Calendar, unread Gmail, Google Reader feeds, several news feeds and a few miscellaneous tools.

Wow! The ability to absorb that amount of information in just a few seconds is simply astounding. Did I mention I can sync my phone directly to Google? All this because I decided to give Gmail a serious look. I can't help but wonder why it took me so long for me so long to switch to Gmail.