Yes, google is getting into mail. Now, what’s different? Well, first of all, ads will be inserted into emails on the sides like their searches do? Why do that? Because, get this, each e-mail account will get 1 gb of space. Yes, you read that right, 1 gb. Bye-bye yahoo mail!
All I have to say is “WOW”. 1 GB is just a LOT
(Good April Fools joke)
Is it? I noticed they recently remodeled their website and added a beta version of “Froogle.” Although the 1gb not very believable at all. I think it would be cool to have google mail, although I would really have no use for it. I guess we shall see.
(April Fools jokes that come before April 1st are not that funny.)
If you look at this forum you can see news articles which may back up JosephM’s statement.
It’s not an april fool’s joke
although I can’t seem to get http://gmail.google.com to work.
http://www.google.com/press/pressrel/gmail.html
http://news.com.com/2100-1032_3-5182805.html
http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/internet/01/19/google.email.reut/
1 GB for free! Not a bad deal. I use Hotmail but it’s really limited even with the extra storage I’m paying for.
Even if it’s an April Fools joke from Google, most places have picked it up as a true story. I think this might be bigger than that iLoo thing Microsoft Europe joked about last year.
Wouldn’t be surprised since Yahoo! is ditching there free email service. That would make for a massive surge for google. In fact from reading those articles it sounds like GMail is going public the same time Yahoo is ditching there mail.
Privacy policy:
“‘The contents of your Gmail account also are stored and maintained on Google servers in order to provide the service. Indeed, 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.’”
I like Google a lot but I don’t think I’d ever use their service as my main account. Great job to Google though for upping the ante on free email service providers.
1gb will be awsome for me, i can’t ever seem to throw anything away, and recieiving pictures in hotmail is a very un fun thing to do. My inbox hovers around 90% full ALL the time.
1gb of space sounds very tempting, but i’ve read an article, and apperantly, there are some security concerns since google will be scanning your emails to get advertising info
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/3602745.stm
http://www.clickz.com/news/article.php/3335481
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/business/technology/8337390.htm
I haven’t heard anything about Yahoo! yet…When did they announce that? Any chance you’ve got a news link as proof?
Oh sure, you delete my post for me expressing myself… What I was saying (in the non-offensive version:P) is that I couldn’t believe that they are offering that much space. Why would any company offer such a thing and still have it be free? It doesn’t make any sense. What are they getting out of it? (don’t mind me, i’m extremely paranoid…)
Ranma-
They are getting the same thing that all free email providers get- Advertising dollars.
The reason Google can affored to offer so much space is because of two factors (or, the two most likely factors in my mind):
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Instead of banner ads that I think most people have learned to completely block out, Google will be inserting targeted ads (I am still not sure were they are inserted exactly) that will be based on the topics that the message discusses. This is attractive to advertisers because, on paper at least, it seems like their money will get more impact. So, Advertisers will spend more for an ad and more people will use the service because of the extra storage, which means more ads. So, this has the potential to make Google a lot of money, as well as getting people used to Google as more then just a search engine.
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Storage is cheap and only getting cheaper. Sure, 1 Gb is a lot, but then I belive consumer drives are under a dollar a gig. I’m sure that large scale server level drives are even cheaper and faster.
Now, there have been lots of questions raised about security, since Googles computers will be reading all your mail. These concerns are valid, I think, and it will be up to google to adress them. That said, it’s still a searchable gig for free.
-Andy
I haven’t heard anything about Yahoo! yet…When did they announce that? Any chance you’ve got a news link as proof?
Sorry. For some reason it said April of 2002.
Are they really going to read everything? That makes it less of an incentive of actually getting it then… 
A person doesn’t actually read it – a computer does. It then provides advertisements based on the content of the e-mail, similar to their AdSense and AdWords programs.