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coolbreeze

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Jan 20, 2003
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http://news.com.com/2100-1032_3-5182805.html?tag=nefd_top

Presuming this isn't some sort of April fools joke, gmail will crush any email provider, pay or free, with a gig of email storage per account. The best thing is, it'll be free and backed by Google.

I don't think $100 for 15 MB will fly with this offer standing...even with all of the other benefits of .Mac.

Once again, Google is upping the ante. Can't wait.
 
its true, it was reported in the ny times two days ago.
be aware though that the contextual ads thing sounds a little bit sketch.
at least enough to me that i dont plan on signing up until i know more about it....no spam emails, but spam IN your email? whoop de doo.
 
question fear said:
its true, it was reported in the ny times two days ago.
be aware though that the contextual ads thing sounds a little bit sketch.
at least enough to me that i dont plan on signing up until i know more about it....no spam emails, but spam IN your email? whoop de doo.
I interpreted it as Google using their textual, non-intrusive ads in the service, NOT NECESSARILY inlined in your email messages. I like Google's advertising policies; they're the best of any web advertiser I know of. I'd sign up for Gmail too, if I actually needed the space and didn't like .Mac as much as I do...
 
Wow, such pessimists.

I, for one, don't think google would allow this service to be shoddy, ridden with tacky spam ads, etc. Take a look at their subtble ads on this page. Very non-intrusive, and actually somewhat useful.

Why not sign up and try it out when it's available? :confused:
 
It's probably going to be similar to how yahoogroups does it with having an ad at the base of the e-mail. You guys are too picky. 1GB of storage isn't exactly chump change for server space. You multiply that by 100,000 or 1,000,000 users and the money has to come from somewhere. I personally will probably join as long as Google has strong anti-spam policies and filters in place unlike hotcrap...oops sorry...hotmail that even with their filters set to high I get about 100 spams a day. The only use I have for my hotcrap account at this point is a placeholder for sites where I need a legit address to register. The could workout well.
 
It'll be great reading spam. Now when I get an e-mail about money from Nigeria I can have ads for competition!

Actually I like google's ad words. They're very unintrusive and they often times have something interesting (if the page you're reading is interesting).
 
SilentPanda said:
Actually I like google's ad words. They're very unintrusive and they often times have something interesting (if the page you're reading is interesting).
I also like Google's Ad Words system. Google is the only advertiser that consistently delivers relevant, non-invasive ads on the pages it advertises on. (Down with Flash ads! Down with flashing GIF ads! Up with Google's Ad Words!)
 
ill definately sign up....anything to get away from hotmail, i mean i have attempted to find another free email account at other places but they just suck, and i think google can do it right...
 
This is the scary part:

But there's a catch to the e-mail. Hoping to turn a profit from the service -- dubbed Gmail -- privately held Google has programmed its computers to dissect the topics being discussed in the e-mails and then deliver text-based ads related to the subjects.

For instance, an e-mail from one friend to another discussing an upcoming concert might prompt Google to include an advertising link from a ticketing agency.
-- S.F. Chronicle

I don't know about you, but I'm not sure I want Google scanning my email to figure out what topics I'm discussing.
 
Flowbee said:
This is the scary part:
I don't know about you, but I'm not sure I want Google scanning my email to figure out what topics I'm discussing.

well you could test it, try writng yourself lots of email about sex toys, see what google suggests.
 
I will keep .Mac. works flawlessly and has so many other benefits. I never receive spam so I don't need all that space to keep email :D

If I ever need an additional email for sketchy business or something I suppose then I would probably try google, but until then, it is .Mac all the way!
 
Is this right?

Has anyone looked at the URL? It says news.com.com; smells like a chain yanker to me!
 
The double ".com" has been going on with CNet for a while. I know so, since about two years ago,
"download.cnet.com" redirected to either "download.com" or "download.com.com"

Actually, I just tested that out now, and download.cnet.com redirects to download.com.com, then to download.com. You can tell by looking at the status bar area of your browser right after you send the URL query.
 
A GB of storage is huge but gMail is only in beta and not widely available yet. Spymac also announced that they will now provide a GB of free email. It all sounds nice but who really needs that much space? My work email which contains a few thousand emails and attachments is a few hundred MB at best. My home accounts don't even come close to that.

A GB is just a marketing gimmick as the vast majority will never come close to using that much space.

That being said, Apple will need to up the space on .Mac to keep it from looking paltry in comparison, although I think .Mac has other very valuable (to me at least) features. I've been trying to teach my step father OS X (he has limited mac OS 8 use) and wasn't getting anywhere. Gave him access to my .Mac account and the training videos have done the trick.

What I'd really like to see is Yahoo, MS, Google, big ISPs and other high volume email providers to get together and try and reduce spam by sharing spam filtering techniques. The only way to stop it is to not deliver it. A campaign to educate the masses in how they can help reduce it would also be nice.

I am very careful about what email address I use and where but lately, my .Mac account has been inundated.
 
gMail will be successful because Google will make LOADS of cash selling suspicious E-mails to the government. The thought of such a conspiracy alone will keep me from signing up. A small error there could have terrible consequences! :eek: :(
 
If 1 GB is what you want, Spymac also is offering 1 GB of free email space. They also offer free webdisk based storage which they call Spydisk (iDisk).
 
sounds tempting, considering my .Mac email has recently been PLAGUED with spam for no reason i can think of. i give my address to NO ONE.
 
It's a bit crazy, I've never had spam on my .Mac account and I have never hit close to the 15 meg limit as far as I know. Do they send you a warning if you are close to it? Either way, it seems like this free GB account will end up biting someone in the ass at some point considering the costs of this sort of thing.
 
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