GMail: Yay or Nay?

text scanning, ad embedding, and possible privacy invasion.

Hardly...

I'm in for it as soon as (if) it's available. Even if I only use it as a store for things I might want access to anywhere I happen to be by sending it to myself as attachments.

The idea sounds intreguing though - never an e-mail again, never file an e-mail etc, and find things using good search tools. Hmmm, as someone who lives by e-mail for work, with Gb's of them archived over the years and still needed for reference from time to time I am always cursing how difficult it is to find information when I need it, and if this system works or is even 10% better, then I'll be happy! And free....as long as you put up with targeted side ads (not embedded)....sounds all good to me!

Samething I was thinking. A gig or 100 meg is more than enough to archive every single email from other accounts and then some.

Nah I got web mail service with my email provider. Nifty ability, that.

Er 100 MB is not a GB. it's 1000 MB = 1 GB.

XX - actually, depending on who in the industry is asked, 1Gb is usually 1024 Mb as it's powers of 2 (Hard disk manufacturers have historically decided to use 1000 Kb = 1 Mb, but I think that's more for marketing reasons).

Gmail site says that at present, the service offers 1Gb for each e-mail account....we'll wait and see what they actually decided to provide if/when it goes live to everyone. I know Google have many terrabytes of storage potential, but a few hundred million more Gb of storage if gmail were to prove anything like as popular as Hotmail would surely stretch any company to provide - for free(ish)!

Yeah. It's "common knowledge" thanks to those adverts that say 1000 MB = 1 GB. I do know that usually those uses powers of 2.

well.. its interesting. i have 7 email addresses already.. i'm sure many of you have a lot too. my main email, my work email, an msn passport email, and some random ones you get when you buy a cup of coffee. msn is a spacific addy, used for when i'm within the MSN cirle of people, and also for dealing with some people who have very picky email filters.. sometimes only an email from my msn addie goes through (strangely).

along that logic - what's one more addy, if it's used very spacifically? what do i mean? with 1 gig of storage, i could use that address for sending mail to a press - or for emailing large attachments to myself instead of sticking them on my file server. my university email addie is censored, why not use google to send stuff to my professors? stuff that i don't care if its read by google. i can block most spam easily enough. i'd have to see what the adware policy is, however. but don't count it out yet.. we could all use a gig of storage in some form.

i'd say its rather brillaint by google. with the adware and collecting your information, they're going to make a killing on selling that stuff to marketers. what's a 1 terrabyte drive cost? less then 100 people's information. smart move by them.

DesignCaddy - they _could_ choose to breach their own declared privacy policy and sell peoples details and even their information too for that matter, but I don't think that's their business model. I think they have figured that targetted ads based on the content of the e-mails you're reading will mean they will be able to sell those ads to people at a handsome enough price to cover the storage. Particularly in a future where there might actually be progress against spam, and all those direct marketing companies are floundering around looking for ways to get customers for their clients....

Does anyone only where to get the invite to try gmail? If so, is there anyone that could get one for me? Thanks

Hey Zekeo (Ryan), I used ESP to get your name, but my senses aren't getting anything for an email address.

Care to supply it? Can't send an invite without it...

Rocky, click on his name.

im gonna use it i dont give a crap if googles gonna be basterds and snoop its still a gig

#12 by paxx - 8/26/2004 1:22:15 PM Rocky, click on his name.

I did, it only shows:

Citizen
Author: Ryan Zike
Nick: Zekeo
UserID: 703208

Well, I plan on trying it when it comes out, but I think I am with Jafo on the privacy thing. I wasn't before, but I am moving toward it.

It will be interesting to have related text banners in my emails, just to see what comes up. Read an email, get a bargain? Maybe... And yes, Gmail is going to make a killing, much like unsolicited mail (because it works).

This time, it is supposedly on the up and up and people opt-in. for 1000 MB of space and a 10 MB attachment, i would read the privacy statement over the next 2 days to see if i will keep the account or not, but its tempting to keep it.

I would have all my mail forwarded to Gmail (well most of it) and search for whatever whenever.

... but that privacy issue... don't know...



[Message Edited]

joetheblow, do you use Google to search?

If so, what's the issue with privacy? There is no difference in the advertising that Gmail uses vs. the advertising that Google uses.

When you search for something in Google, it uses the words from your search as keywords to show links on the right hand side of the page. You choose if you want to click on a link or not. The exact same thing happens when you read email on Gmail. Links are provided on the right hand side of the page that you can choose to click on or not. No advertisements are included in the email itself.

I just don't see what all the fuss is about.

Well, I can see the difference between a search and an email. Most people don't really care if what they search for is monitored.

My point is more like: do you use spam filters? A lot of ISPs, Hotmail, Yahoo Mail, etc, all scan keywords of your emails for spam. No difference.

A lot of ISPs, Hotmail, Yahoo Mail, etc, all scan keywords of your emails for spam. No difference.

Very true. And it's just a program that runs the email against a list of keywords, if any matches appear, it triggers an advertisement link.

Besides all the fuss about this, email is far from private in the first place. If you want privacy, you better be encrypting your email. Otherwise your ISP and any number of others can see what's in your "private" email anyway.

Been using it for weeks - it is great. The storage alone is worth it:

Gmail: You are currently using 35 MB (4%) of your 1000 MB.

Hotmail: 67% of 2MB used

And if you compare the intrusive ads:

http://www.kolumbus.fi/anders.ruohio/hotmail.png

and

http://www.kolumbus.fi/anders.ruohio/gmail.png



[Message Edited]

Zekeo can be reached through me.

Or at his email... zekeo_84@yahoo.com
[Message Edited]

I have been using it for a couple weeks now and am really impressed. Great service. And I agree with the visual demonstration from juni, the ads in Gmail are nothing, I never even really notice them, as opposed to the huge, sometimes flashing and blinking ads in Hotmail and even in Yahoo mail.

I use gmail, not very opften, just sort of have the account. And then I use my Yahoo email all the time. 2 GIGS of storage in that lil' bugger, I hate hotmail, but I also have it as well, just consider me a power mailer!

Juni, you deleted 3 emails in your visual of Gmail. What's with that? You're supposed to not have to delete.

Rocky, in case you didn't see it above, Zekeo's email is zekeo_84@yahoo.com

[Message Edited]

#10 by Zekeo - 8/26/2004 11:27:50 AM

Zekeo, you have mail...