GMail better than Outlook?

Interesting post from Jeremy Zawodny at Yahoo...  He writes about GMail, "Like Flickr, it's on a very short list of Internet applications that are at least as good as their desktop counterparts."  While neatly getting a nice plug for Yahoo's Flickr in there, he gives Google a nice pat on the back.

And makes a great point....

Although I have some concerns about the privacy issues around GMail, it is applications like this that must make Microsoft shiver.  As soon as network applications become as easy and fast as desktop apps, the days of the personal computer (and the need for a hard-drive and thus MS Windows) are numbered.  Why store things locally if storing them on the network is secure, less expensive and easy to search?  Keeping applications and documents on the network makes them universally accessible -- so there is no more forgetting your files or any reason to lug your laptop around with you. 

Finally, why buy anything from Microsoft if all you need is a browser to access your applications and documents from anywhere?

Google's mission statement: organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful.  Hmmm... universally accessible.  There may be more to this statement than meets the eye.