Gmail

http://gmail.google.com/

April Fools!

I really can't work out if it is a April Fools hoax or a double bluff with typical quirky Google timing.

I believe this one's real. They have another April Fool's joke elsewhere. If it is a joke, they went all out, with real-looking terms of service and the like.

If it is a joke, they went all out, with real-looking terms of service and the like.

Plus there's very little of it that seems exaggerated. But 1000MB??

Storage is cheap, and most people won't use near 1GB. They can always kick out the warez punks who are using it to hold ISO's and what-not. They can limit attachment sizes... etc. Comcast theoretically gives 3000 down/256 up speeds, but they also shitcan the accounts of those who use too much bandwidth per month. Google would likely be cooler about it, but really, saying everyone gets 1GB storage doesn't mean they have to buy ($num_users * 1000MB).

This one is confirmed real. Kudos to Google.

Hm, it appears Google are going to start analyzing incoming emails and inserting targeted ads to Gmail users. This makes the prospect of using Gmail slightly less appealing.... Though I'm not sure it's as big of a deal as it's made out to be in the article. I'd have to see it in action to decide if it's as undesirable as they say it could be.

Yeah, that is kind of what I thought too, but then it was pointed out to me that all of the webmail services like Yahoo or Hotmail already machine read all the email coming for their spam filters, so there is nothing all that new here. Nobody should be under the illusion that their webmail, or even any unencrypted email at all, is truly private.

This is a different issue, though. Of course automated systems and the occasional human being are going to read through our email. But the issues brought out in the article, such as certain political agendas being inserted into your mail based on the content of your conversation, are a step up from spam filtering or a nosy sysadmin. Sure, it's just a logical extension of advertising that already happens, but has an intrusive feel about it. Certainly a step up from the stuff that happens on current free email services.

But, again, it is free and you're welcome to use it or not use it as you wish, and everyone who does use it knows up front what's going to happen. Or should. Google is usually pretty up-front about such things, and I imagine that they will continue to be so once they really get the ball rolling.

I'm with you, and as I said before, I will reserve judgement until I see how bad the advertisement stuff is. And I will, if for on other reason than to get an ereet @gmail.com address.

This doesn't sound too worrying to me...

http://gmail.google.com/gmail/help/about.html#ads

If thats all it is I think I could put up with it.

But if they gauge your interests based on received emails then doesn't that mean you'll just get porn and viagra ads once your address gets harvested for spam?

But if they gauge your interests based on received emails then doesn't that mean you'll just get porn and viagra ads once your address gets harvested for spam?

You can get a preview of that kind of thing by browsing news.admin.net-abuse.sightings on Google Groups, eg. this message.

Gareth

It's more obvious when you view the newsgroup message listing;

http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&group=news.admin.net-abuse.sightings

Its less obtrusive than Yahoo I think.

Bandwagon and jumping come to mind

Some screenshots of Gmail's interface.

- trs

If it ever gets launched.

A draft law is being drawn up by local Democratic Senator Liz Figueroa, who calls Gmail "an invasion of privacy".

Idiot. It's not as if you wouldn't be specifically acquiescing to this in payment for the service. Hopefully this bill gets nowhere.

She would also apparently think that using supermarket cards should be illegal, as they get to know everything that you buy. Or banks, since they know nearly every financial transaction you make.

What do you people think, are those 'privacy advocates' who claim that 'even machine-reading of one's mail creates a dangerous precedent' bought (by Google's competition or spam 'providers') or simply morons? Some privacy concerns are legitimate (what Google plans to do with long-term archived mail, what are guarantees that any mining or profiling beyond ad selection will be done only with user's consent etc), but have those guys ever heard of spam filters operated by ISPs? Does that not constitute 'precedent' of 'machine-reading user's mail'?! They should better concentrate on FBI efforts to make FCC force ISPs and backbone operators to re-engineer the whole Internet infrastructure as to make eavesdropping simple, and to pass any costs of that to users.

BTW, I think that Google's plan is to attract users not merely with enormous archival storage and ultra-efficient search eliminating the need for folders and other crude classification, but with nearly-perfect spam filtering, which comes as handy by-product of their superior searching technology.

Concerning those targeted ads (on search pages - I suppose that Gmail ones will be similar), I find them obvious (no fear of confusing them with direct search results), nonintrusive and quite often useful, just as advertised.

It's april fool's day again and Google is aparently ramping storage up to 2GB starting today. I get more space almost everytime I refresh my inbox. I've got 1417MB now.

http://www.google.com/gmail/help/whatsnew.html