Google email, anyone?

[hbdragon88]

http://gmail.google.com/

I read this in the L.A Times. I find it kind of interesting and yet bold at the same time - 1GB of email storage? Whoa, that's a lot of space. Yahoo and Hotmail only give you a max of 100MB on a paying plan. I don't even know what I would do with 1GB - possibly store every file and picture I have amassed over the years? (I have about 600MB of files.)

Another neat thing: No popups or ads except for those Google text ads. But so far it's in its preview mode so nobody can just sign up for 1GB email space rightaway.

 

[taper]

Google
Gmail
Gullible

 

[FireBall]

Yet another April Fool's Joke...

Go Google! You rule!

 

[Turner]

Turns out this is real. Unless they're really going all out on this joke.

Google: 'Gmail' no April fool's joke; lunar jobs posting is

Its planned free e-mail service 'is not a hoax,' said a Google exec
News Story by Lisa Baertlein

APRIL 01, 2004 (REUTERS) - It's not like Internet search service Google can't laugh at itself, but when an April Fools' Day joke got out of hand today, a real business plan just announced by the company was also rumored to be a Web hoax. And for the company, that was no laughing matter.

Privately held Google Inc. had Web message boards buzzing today over whether a new e-mail product, announced yesterday and meant to challenge Yahoo Inc. and Microsoft Corp, was actually an April Fools' joke.

Mountain View, Calif.-based Google's announcement was questioned because of the No. 1 U.S. search service's unconventional subheading on a press release and because it also posted a fictional job listing seeking engineers for a "Google Copernicus Hosting Environment and Experiment in Search Engineering (GCHEESE)" lunar outpost.

Google's free e-mail service, called Gmail, will offer significantly more storage than Yahoo or MSN and "is not a hoax," said Jonathan Rosenberg, Google's vice president of products.

Google's unconventional March 31 Gmail announcement helped set Internet message boards alight because the subheading read: "Search is Number Two Online Activity -- Email is Number One: 'Heck, Yeah,' Say Google Founders."

"It is April Fools' Day. We were having fun with this announcement. We are very serious about Gmail," Rosenberg said in an interview.

Still, the Web was buzzing with speculation. "It's going to go down in history as one of the biggest pranks ever pulled," wrote one message poster at Slashdot.org, which bills itself as a news provider for nerds.

That view was countered by others who noted the relatively low cost of storage and Google's registration of Gmail.com. "The real joke was an advertisement for a job opening in 2007 at their lunar facility," another Slashdot poster wrote.

That recruiting advertisement -- which can be viewed by clicking on the Google.com link "Want a job that's out of this world?" -- details the benefits of working at Google's "Googlunaplex" location on the moon.

"The notion that we're actually opening a lunar office is consistent with the spirit of April Fools' Day, and, yes, it is a joke," Rosenberg said of the ad, posted around midnight Greenwich Mean Time today (7 p.m. yesterday).

In fact, Google's informational site about Gmail, at www.gmail.com, was up and running during a test period with a small group of users.

According to Whois.net, an online service for researching domain-name registration, Gmail.com does belong to Google.

 

[Plexus]

I hope it's a joke. HOPE.

 

[Achinz]

Not quite there yet:

How do I sign up? When can I get a Gmail account?

We're currently only offering Gmail as part of a preview release and limited test. We don't have details on when Gmail will be made more widely available, as that depends in part on the results of the test. If you're interested in receiving updates on Gmail, submit your email address using the form at the bottom of this page.

 

[Turner]

The 1 gig storage space makes it look like a joke, especially since other providers are only offering 2 to 4 MB. I might get one, just to have one, but use it? I don't know.

Another board I'm on, one guy brought up a really good point. If you're using GMail, and trying to sell stuff to people, then they will get your competitor's ads on the same page as your email. Not really that big of a deal, right? I mean, who's going to use this as a business account? But what if you don't like someone? You can start taking ads out against a certain person, and anyone (s)he emails will get the defamation add along with the email.

And that's just one case. I'm sure other ways can be easily created to pervert this service.

 

[FireBall]

I'm going to point to this thread:

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=83808


An article in aa newsletter means very little.... I think it's a hoax...

 

[yaroslav]

I don't think it's an april joke:

https://gmail.google.com/?dest=http://gmail.google.com/
http://www.google.com/press/pressrel/gmail.html

 

[Archer 007]

Very interesting. I dont see how they will have the server space, however.

 

[Archer 007]

Its going to be Firefox compatable, but not Opera compatable.

 

[cgannon64]

I don't care about the server space, the other stuff is cool enough for me.

 

[yaroslav]

I use Firefox

Why would you prefer Opera over Firefox? Firefox also includes themes, mouse gestures and tab navigation and it's free

 

[hbdragon88]

Originally posted by Archer 007
Its going to be Firefox compatable, but not Opera compatable.

WTH?! Dammit if this is true...I hate Google. I already hate Yahoo for rendering its "Reply" and "Forward" drop-down menus unusable in Opera (Yahoo sends Opera a broken javascript). If Google is going to take the step an alienate Opera usres also, I'm gonna switch from using the Google search bar (in Opera) to Alltheweb or something like that.

Originally posted by yaroslav
Why would you prefer Opera over Firefox? Firefox also includes themes, mouse gestures and tab navigation and it's free

So it's free. And it sucks. Firefox just absolutely loves extentions. That's fine. But when I have to get a million extentions to achieve the same level of function and accessibility enabled by default in Opera, it's gone too far. It's a lot easier (and possibly better) to code options and features in the release, so why didn't they? I want the convience. Firefox doesn't give me convience; it gives me grief, because I had to download so many, like Reload Every, Work Offline, and other extensions.

 

[soren]

Originally posted by Plexus
I hope it's a joke. HOPE.

Why do you hope it is a joke?

 

[MarineCorps]

I am so getting one of these.

 

[Archer 007]

Originally posted by yaroslav
I use Firefox

Why would you prefer Opera over Firefox? Firefox also includes themes, mouse gestures and tab navigation and it's free

Firefox looks too odd. I cant find themes eitherr.

 

[Plexus]

Originally posted by Archer 007


Firefox looks too odd. I cant find themes eitherr.

Hmm...

 

[Turner]

I've been using Firefox for about a month now, and damn, I don't like it. Like HB said, if you want anything that opera has, you have to find it and install it.

There's two reasons I stick with it. I've yet to see a takeover ad on the 'net, and I like the cookie management. That's the only reason I stick with it. Yeah, tab browsing is nice, but there's an extention you have to get. Avant Browser had all this, including themes and mouse gestures (which I don't really use) and tabbed browsing on the original install, but it's IE core, so I get takeover ads. . . Firefox is just too slow.

 

[FireBall]

Why, oh why has this turned into a FireFox vs. Opera discussion?

Curse you, google! Curse you!