Google to Test E-Mail in Challenge to Rivals

[MacBytes]

Category: News and Press Releases
Link: Google to Test E-Mail in Challenge to Rivals (http://www.macbytes.com/link.php?sid=20040401070812)
Posted on MacBytes.com (http://www.macbytes.com)

Approved by arn

[irmongoose]

Gotta love Google. :D
A whole gig of space... wow. The most I've seen yet (in free AND paid services - .Mac included)

Amazing stuff. Keep it up, Google!



irmongoose

[danbalsh]

Yeah!








April Fooooooooooooools :eek:

[wordmunger]

Apparently, there's no Safari support. Just Mozilla/Netscape/Firefox. Though a lot of sites that say they don't work with Safari actually do, so here's hoping. Not that I'd use the service, anyway. I like to have my e-mails on my own computer.

[wordmunger]

April Fooooooooooooools :eek:

No, It's real (http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/31/technology/31CND-GOOGLE.html). Note the date on the story.

[macridah]

it's real ... go to http://www.gmail.com

hope this is a wakeup call to .Mac and increase the standard storage

[KentuckyApple]

HOAX.

[wordmunger]

HOAX.
Talk about bad timing for Google to launch a new initiative. This is real, as reported in the New York Times yesterday (March 31). So many people think this is a fake it's hilarious. MacSlash put an April Fool's twist on this that is a hoax: that GMail will be hosted on Xserves (http://macslash.org/article.pl?sid=04/03/31/2341249&mode=thread). That one fooled me long enough to submit the story to MacBytes.

[mrsebastian]

it's real ... go to http://www.gmail.com



nothing comes up?

[wordmunger]

nothing comes up?
real url: http://gmail.google.com/

[Jerry Spoon]

For that kind of space, I'll drop my yahoo account and start using gmail. Hope .mac ups their space too though. I've got an account there also.

[1macker1]

ummm, i could send several MP3's. will this be the new file sharing.

[macridah]

ummm, i could send several MP3's. will this be the new file sharing.

Depends on the max attachment size. Usually, free accounts don't allow emails larger than 2mb. However, if you upgrade a yahoo account, then your email could be as big as 10mb.

[Kirkland]

Yeah I think the point of that much space is to keep as much emails for as long as possible, rather than being able to send big attachments. There should be an obvious limit on file attachments, but even if there isn't, something like that isn't going to be better than [faster] P2P networks.

[macridah]

google does have 1 catch ...

They get to search your email and place ads next to your emails. But this is done by software, not humans. Nonetheless, google goes through your mail.

[KingJobs]

or Try the new Spymac Mail, coming april 5th.

[Nermal]

No, It's real (http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/31/technology/31CND-GOOGLE.html). Note the date on the story.

It's a very elaborate joke. Remember PigeonRank? This is a step further :)

As for the date, Gmail was unveiled on 1/4, GMT. It was still 31/3 in the US at that time.

[HexMonkey]

Apparently, there's no Safari support. Just Mozilla/Netscape/Firefox. Though a lot of sites that say they don't work with Safari actually do, so here's hoping. Not that I'd use the service, anyway. I like to have my e-mails on my own computer.

From the FAQ:

What are Gmail's system requirements?

Gmail currently supports the following browsers:

Microsoft IE 5.5 and newer (Windows)
Netscape 7.1 and newer (Windows, Macintosh, Linux)
Mozilla 1.4 and newer (Windows, Macintosh, Linux)
Mozilla Firefox 0.8 and newer (Windows, Macintosh, Linux)

Regardless of the browser used, you must have JavaScript and cookies enabled. We hope to expand this list of supported browsers in the near future. To get updates on our progress with Gmail, add your email address using the form at the bottom of this page.


Does Gmail support automatic forwarding and POP3 access?

Not at the moment, but Google believes in helping people access information whenever and however they want to do so. Your email should never be held hostage by a service provider. In the future you will be able to access Gmail messages from non-Gmail accounts for free or at a nominal fee.

It's a very elaborate joke. Remember PigeonRank? This is a step further :)

I doubt it. Mainly because Google publicly stated that it wasn't, also because it would be extremely bad PR to announce something like this and then say it wasn't true, and it's previous jokes have very obviously been jokes (Who could take PigeonRank seriously?).

[Nermal]

Maybe, but I can't take a press release seriously when it includes sentences like "Millions of M&Ms later, Gmail was born." :rolleyes:

[HexMonkey]

I guess we'll find out definitively within a day or two. It's already been over 24 hours since the announcement, and in 5 minutes it will be April 2 everywhere in the world, so I'd think that they would have said by now if it was a hoax.

Still, If I were them, I would have never announced something like that on such a date. :rolleyes:

[1macker1]

The max size on each email is 10 meg, which isn't so bad. But they are going to go through each and every one of you emails so they can see what you are "talking" about so they can send you the appropriate AD's. No thanks, i'll pass. It's not that i'm saying anying important in my emails, but this just seems kind of BIG BROTHER'ish.

[sjk]

Gmail screenshot (https://adwords.google.com/select/images/gmail_screen.gif)

I'm curious to find out what "Labels" are.

[King Cobra]

All right, for those concerned about the email "scanning" for ad types issue, this is kind of how it works...for those of you that have browsed these forums, which is everyone, you'll notice that at the top of most topic browsing pages are various ads for Mac products, like memory, used Macs, Filemaker, and Jaguar. But if you've checked out the ads at the bottom of the Yankees thread over in the Community forum, you'll notice that the ad types are all related to the Yankees and/or baseball. A few of the ads I noticed include stadium tickets and caps merchandise. So what (I guess) vBulletin does is search through your post content for keywords and generate ads that "seem" relevant to what's being most talked about. For instance, if I said the word "Yankees" more times than any other keyword that has been mentioned in this thread, then there would be at least one ad (probably two or three) involving something related to baseball. So that's kind of how Gmail's screening works.

(Oh, and do not turn this thread into a Yankees-bashing thread. We have a thread like that going on right now over in the Community forum. Bash away over there. Go Gmail.)

[redkore]

That doesn't exactly address privacy concerns…

Forums are public, email isn't.

[Applexilef]

I think the name Gmail sucks...

Is it too hard to call it Google Mail?

[Kirkland]

That doesn't exactly address privacy concerns…

Forums are public, email isn't.

How much different is it from something like Spam Assassin or another Spam Blocker which almost every ISP has in use. They "read" your email looking for certain "keywords" or phrases and decide if you would like to read it or not. The difference here is that Google will be making money directly from it, for giving you something for FREE.

[King Cobra]

I think the name Gmail sucks...

Is it too hard to call it Google Mail?

LOL!

I'll tell you...before the first iPod came out, the name iPod sounded pretty stupid to me.
Anology being...views change given one's overall positive (or negative) perspective of the product.

[sjk]

Moogle would have been more fun.

For a deeper and more serious discussion of Gmail and privacy issues try this EmailDiscussions.com thread (http://www.emailaddresses.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=20528).