1GB free email from Google (Gmail)

dod · 01-04-2004 11:20am #1

http://gmail.google.com/

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/3588933.stm

Google plans rival e-mail service
Google, the world's most popular internet search engine, plans to offer a e-mail service called Gmail in a bid to rival Yahoo and Microsoft's Hotmail.

The new service will take away the need to delete unwanted messages and organise e-mails according to topic.

The service is not generally available yet, but will be offered free of charge on www.gmail.com.

Google mail provides one gigabyte of storage - many times more than existing rivals that also offer free e-mail.

Each user would have storage equivalent to 500,000 pages of e-mail, said Google.

Idea followed complaints

The idea came to one of Google's founders, Larry Page, after listening to complaints from a Google user. She said she was spending all her time filing messages or trying to find them and "deleting like crazy" just to keep within the storage limits. She asked, "Can't you people fix this?"

Google has a commanding lead in the global search market, although its market share has shrunk sharply during the past month after Yahoo stopped using Google technology to power its searches.

GMail is a new approach to email which takes advantage of a search facility and would group messages displaying them as a conversation.

Yahoo is now using its own search engines, which it developed after buying search companies Inktomi, Overture and Altavista.

Google is privately-owned, but expected to float on the stock market later this year, a deal that could value Google at up to $25bn (£14.7bn) - slightly more than listed online retailer Amazon.

The California-based company says it has expanded its web index to include more than six billion items.

Four billion of these are web pages, while Google has also put more effort into the size of its picture database.

Google is by far the world's most popular internet search engine. It has had a meteoric rise since the company was founded in 1998 by Larry Page and Sergey Brin.

Stark · 01-04-2004 11:22am

God bless the April Fool's jokes

tman · 01-04-2004 11:25am

heh, thats a guddun. had me salivating for a second:)

smoke.me.a.kipper · 01-04-2004 11:31am

im believeing nothing today. would've been nice tho

Karoma · 01-04-2004 12:01pm

it's actually legit.
there's been talk of being able to "google your mail" for a while now.. google have actually taken it upon themselves to do it. wow.

weh weh

Enygma · 01-04-2004 12:07pm

It seems legit so far, it's a good way to get a feel for demand though, spreading the news as a potential April Fools.

Emboss · 01-04-2004 12:13pm

It's no joke....

lynchie · 01-04-2004 12:15pm

http://gmail.google.com

Stark · 01-04-2004 12:17pm

The website means nothing. Would have taken 5 minutes to put that together for the sake of a joke. I've seen whole wonderful project sties complete with preliminary documentation spring up on April's Fools Day.

1GB of FREE e-mail storage with the coolness factor of an @gmail.com address? It it sounds too good to be true, then it is

Karoma · 01-04-2004 12:19pm

Originally posted by lynchie
http://gmail.google.com

wow! oh wait... *looks at THE VERY FIRST THREAD* .... :rolleyes:

Emboss · 01-04-2004 12:21pm

Originally posted by k.oriordan
The website means nothing. Would have taken 5 minutes to put that together for the sake of a joke. I've seen whole wonderful project sties complete with preliminary documentation spring up on April's Fools Day.

1GB of FREE e-mail storage with the coolness factor of an @gmail.com address? It it sounds too good to be true, then it is

the PRESS RELEASE itself is a JOKE

the product being discussed in it,is NOT.

Karoma · 01-04-2004 12:25pm

http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum86/235.htm

other plebs discussing what this is discussing... plebmania.

oneweb · 01-04-2004 12:25pm

The service is not generally available yet

Got that far before I realised the date had summat ado wif it! :dunno:

Rabies · 01-04-2004 12:33pm

There is no way it is true.
Each account could have 1GB of storage for free.
Maybe in some dream world this might be true but not in this one.
The initial cost for Google would be huge. No one would need such a large email account, its only purpose could be to store large files, patches, projects and porn. Most of which is freely available anyway.
Good April Fools joke, it had me going for a min.

briano · 01-04-2004 12:41pm

According to the register they made a spoof press release, but the service is going ahead.

http://theregister.co.uk/content/6/36714.html

Oriel · 01-04-2004 12:42pm

I'm not sure. The only thing that doesn't seem beliveable about this is the 1Gb storage space the rest seems OK.
Thing is, there's a lot of info on the service there if it is just a joke...

Rabies · 01-04-2004 12:46pm

Originally posted by briano
According to the register they made a spoof press release, but the service is going ahead.

Could it be possible that Google has fooled more than one media source :eek:

Karoma · 01-04-2004 12:48pm

"1000 megabytes of free storage so you'll never need to delete another message"

where does it say 1000 megabytes for each user?

Emboss · 01-04-2004 12:51pm

Originally posted by Karoma
"1000 megabytes of free storage so you'll never need to delete another message"

where does it say 1000 megabytes for each user?

Google have this policy where they assume the person is not a complete ****ing idiot....

silly google.

Rabies · 01-04-2004 12:52pm

Originally posted by Karoma
"1000 megabytes of free storage so you'll never need to delete another message"

where does it say 1000 megabytes for each user?

Google mail provides one gigabyte of storage - many times more than existing rivals that also offer free e-mail.

Good point.

Karoma · 01-04-2004 12:54pm

Originally posted by Emboss
Google have this policy where they assume the person is not a complete ****ing idiot....

silly google.

Where? I don't see that in the policy..

<aside: *screaming* i got a bite!>

penguinbloke · 01-04-2004 1:03pm

Just checked the USA today article and it was posted at 3/31/2004 11.27 PM.

and all that seems dodgy is the size, so maybe it's legit.

viking · 01-04-2004 1:19pm

Whatever about about Gmail being a real service or not, the real technology behind Google's success was discovered some time ago.

viking

lynchie · 01-04-2004 1:24pm

Originally posted by Karoma
wow! oh wait... *looks at THE VERY FIRST THREAD* .... :rolleyes:

hmm.. didnt spot that.. just saw the bbc link

ChipZilla · 01-04-2004 2:04pm

Google are well known for taking the mick: :rolleyes:

[url]http://www.google.com/mentalplex/[/url] (Google's April Fool for 2000)

[url]http://www.google.com/intl/xx-elmer/[/url] (Google's April Fool for 2001)

[url]http://www.google.com/intl/xx-bork/[/url]

[url]http://www.google.com/intl/xx-klingon/[/url]

[url]http://www.google.com/intl/xx-piglatin/[/url]

[url]http://www.google.com/technology/pigeonrank.html[/url] (Google's April Fool for 2002)

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/s1078997.htm

Come on, a Gig of storage?

bus77 · 01-04-2004 2:32pm

heh, with one gig of storage, google would become the next big warez source

send me a game will ya?:D

Karoma · 01-04-2004 2:32pm

previous spoofs were just changing (pronunciation of) words,etc - they have never done this sort of thing before.. posting stuff like this from them to business journals,were it fake would lead to lawsuits/bannings,etc. (how much has google stock gone up?)

sutty · 01-04-2004 2:47pm

Originally posted by Karoma
previous spoofs were just changing (pronunciation of) words,etc - they have never done this sort of thing before.. posting stuff like this from them to business journals,were it fake would lead to lawsuits/bannings,etc. (how much has google stock gone up?)

Their privet owned aren't they? so they aren't on the market yet...

as for the 1Gig of space.... for free..... only a fool would fall for that! :rolleyes:

Karoma · 01-04-2004 2:50pm

can never find a link when i need to...

bah! you're so paranoid.. i mean...really! the bit about coming with a free porn is unbelievable,but 1 gig... why not?

ChipZilla · 01-04-2004 2:52pm

Originally posted by Karoma
previous spoofs were just changing (pronunciation of) words,etc - they have never done this sort of thing before.. posting stuff like this from them to business journals,were it fake would lead to lawsuits/bannings,etc. (how much has google stock gone up?)

They haven't even had an IPO yet, so they're still a private company. And if you look at the links in my previous post their previous spoofs were not all "just changing (pronunciation of) words,etc ". They've got a sense of humour. It's just that some people reading this stuff don't...:rolleyes:

AdMMM · 01-04-2004 2:53pm

from: http://www.google.com/gmail/help/about.html#signup

2. How much does Gmail cost?

Gmail is a free service and includes 1,000 megabytes of storage with each account. However, Gmail is still in preview mode as we test it to work out the kinks. So for now, it's not generally available.

Im in mixed minds about this!

Karoma · 01-04-2004 2:55pm

Originally posted by ChipZilla
They haven't even had an IPO yet, so they're still a private company. And if you look at the links in my previous post their previous spoofs were not all "just changing (pronunciation of) words,etc ". They've got a sense of humour. It's just that some people reading this stuff don't...:rolleyes:

bah. let it go.. i was leading up to something. but it's all fallen flat

ah well:)

dsab · 02-04-2004 8:01am

It`s still going around today, even in more serious papers...and it is already the second. Google sharply denied, that it was an April Folls Joke...

http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/apr2004/tc2004041_5024_tc120.htm

Rabies · 02-04-2004 9:39am

Looks like I could have been wrong

Maybe it is true

Link

Hoping to turn a profit from Gmail, 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 a link from a ticketing agency.

Google had an April fools joke but it wasn't the email one.

Link

Google is interviewing candidates for engineering positions at our lunar hosting and research center, opening late in the spring of 2007.

dod · 02-04-2004 5:44pm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/3591589.stm

Timing makes Google an April Fool

The first rule of public relations: check the calendar before your big product launch.
Google, one of the savviest firms on the internet, has learnt this lesson the hard way after announcing it was taking a leap into the e-mail market.

Thanks to the date on its press release - 1 April - most of its target market was convinced the launch was a hoax.

Despite the firm's reassurances, online message boards have been full of speculation about Google's Gmail.

"It's going to go down in history as one of the biggest pranks ever pulled," wrote one visitor to Slashdot.org, a major talking shop for tech workers.

No kidding

Google's insistence that Gmail was genuine was undermined by the oddly jokey style of its initial announcement.

A Google user, the release said, "kvetched like crazy" about existing web e-mail programs.

"Millions of M&Ms later, Gmail was born."

The company has a reputation for unconventional humour, and did publish a genuine April Fool's joke - a fake advertisement for engineers to work on the moon.

"It is April Fool's Day. We were having fun with this announcement," said Jonathan Rosenberg, Google's vice-president of products.

"We are very serious about Gmail."

chakotha · 02-04-2004 11:10pm

I reackon they're serious and fair f**ks. Email is going at a rate of knots. I thought the powers that be would soon invent another mail protocol altogether and charge like pay-as-yu-go or something but Google are onto it.

On the page http://gmail.google.com/ it says

No pop-up ads. No banners.
You see only relevant text ads and links to related web pages of interest.

so they might create another Adwords/Adsense thing there and use the advertising revenue to pay for the hosting. They will have a bit of time to build up funds before they have to pay for acres devoted to 1Gb per user using it mail storage and they might restrict messages to 1Mb or something.

Dunno how they'll stop all the spam though.

sceptre · 03-04-2004 2:15pm

I'd assumed it was a prank as well.

Some more more denials of prankdom.

Where do I send that application for the moon job?

gs39t · 03-04-2004 3:29pm

http://gmail.google.com/gmail/help/terms_of_use.html

At the very end there's something that says "V033104" which is obviously the date it was released. Seems to be legit

smoke.me.a.kipper · 03-04-2004 3:39pm

now it says happy birthday april on the site.

Rabies · 03-04-2004 3:42pm

Originally posted by smoke-me-a-kipper
now it says happy birthday april on the site.

link

halkar · 03-04-2004 3:48pm

Who is April ? who is Paul? multi million - billion $$$ company and Paul and April

, linked from the main page of gmail.google.com. Maybe it should have read Happy April fools Day

Ok, Not sure about 1000mb claim but a little whois reveals that gmail.com is registered to Google so there is probably something in the pipelines.

Stark · 03-04-2004 9:13pm

Maybe GMail won't allow you to store attachments?

Silent Bob · 04-04-2004 12:35pm

If it is for real the privacy implications are huge. Firstly they can hang on to your mail for bloody ages (the policy mentions it not being deleted if you close your account) and you have to accept that the mail is read by Google. Secondly they use cookies to track every search you make, the Google cookie lasts till 2039 or something crazy like that. Thirdly, if you use Orkut they have a load more information about you.

Put these all together and you have a marketing persons dream.

dod · 06-04-2004 7:08am

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/3602745.stm

Google's Gmail sparks privacy row
Internet search engine Google's plans for a free email service have come under fire from privacy campaigners.

Google is devising Gmail as a rival to Microsoft's Hotmail and to Yahoo!

Privacy campaigners have objected to plans to send users adverts linked to the content of messages, and to the permanent storage of email.

Campaign group Privacy International has filed a complaint with the UK Information Commissioner, Reuters news agency reported.

The Information Commissioner's job is to make sure organisations comply with a web of laws safeguarding privacy and freedom of information.

Online snooping?

Privacy International objects to Google's plans to send users links to advertising based on a computer scan of their correspondence, and presumed interests.

At present, users of Google's internet search engine receive advertisements for commercial sites linked to their search topic arranged down the right-hand side of their screens.

Gmail would use similar technology to scan emails and offer advertisements.

Google says the content of users' email would remain private because the process would be fully automated.

"No humans read your emails to target the ads," Google's web site says.

But Simon Davies, director of Privacy International has called the proposed system "a vast violation of European law".

Too much of a good thing?

Gmail's proposed message storage systems are also angering privacy campaigners.

Google has promoted free storage for each user of the equivalent of 500,000 pages of email among Gmail's benefits.

Google says this will enable users to retrieve vast amounts of old emails, and that it will back this up with superior spam filtering.

However, its terms of use acknowledge that "residual copies of email may remain on our systems, even after you have deleted them from your mailbox or after the termination of your account".

"If a person deletes an email, he should be confident that email is actually deleted," Bits of Freedom founder Maurice Westerling said.

Google has a commanding lead in the global internet search engine market, although its market share has shrunk sharply during the past month after Yahoo stopped using Google technology to power its searches.

Google is privately-owned, but expected to float on the stock market later this year, a deal that could value Google at up to $25bn (£14.7bn) - slightly more than listed online retailer Amazon.

The California-based company was founded in 1998 by Larry Page and Sergey Brin.

Tenshot · 06-04-2004 7:21am

Google have an option on their GMail page to sign-up for notification of developments as the service gets ready for launch. If anyone is planning on doing this, you might want to read this article first:

http://www.google-watch.org/email.html

Essentially, Google keep a cookie associated with your PC which means they have a permanent record of everything you've searched for (unless you block cookies from Google). Once you sign up for GMail notification - which is a page on the same site, so gets the same cookie - then Google can associate your email address with all the searches you've been doing; this is a marketing person's wet dream.

(I should point out that Google's Gmail notification page explicitly states they won't do this, and I'm sure they're sincere - at least as long as Google isn't taken over or bought out by someone less scrupulous.)

Note that you can easily block Cookies from Google.com in IE if you choose: just go to Tools / Internet Options / Privacy / Edit and add a Block for Google.com.

Paulw · 06-04-2004 11:12am

Interesting offer, but I certainly want any mails I delete, deleted !! I don't fancy someone/something snooping through my mails.

It just feels wrong.

vorbis · 06-04-2004 3:10pm

I'd imagine the delete comment is taken out of context. It probably relates to how the data on the server is managed. I.e. messages are tagged for deletion and are erased all at once every week or something. Think about it rationally. there will probably be millions of users. What benefit would accrue from storing user deleted emails?