Gmail in the News
Posted by
michael
on Fri Jun 18, 2004 06:07 PM
from the you've-got-google dept.
from the you've-got-google dept.
roadies writes "Despite all the negativity and privacy concerns that surround Gmail, it has still gained cult-like status where net-d0rks feel self validated by having a gmail address and will do anything to get one. Services like the Gmail Machine, a randomized Gmail lotto that has people hitting refresh until they get carpel-tunnel in the index finger, reports over 7 million pageviews (though, definitely not uniques) in 3 days and 55 invites given away. They just added 222 more through donators who have given up invites in exchange for a text link on the high-traffic site. GmailSwap (covered recently on /.) has given away everything from cameras to good vibes. Good news for hardpressed geeks: The invites are becoming more and more available and mainstream. Ebay once had gmail invites going for a couple hundred dollars. Now, nobody is bidding on them anymore, so you can purchase one the old-fashioned eBay way for a dollar or two." Reader marklyon writes "Third party developers have stepped in with utilities that enhance and improve GMail. One utility, Mbox
& Maildir to Gmail Loader allows users to upload their existing email to
their GMail account. Another, POP
Goes the GMail, offers the ability to access your GMail account with any POP
mail reader, giving users the ability to permanently archive messages. GTray
lives in your taskbar and alerts you to incoming messages. Other, more
general programs, allow you to forward your Hotmail
or Yahoo! Mail messages to your
new GMail account. The question that remains, however, is whether Google will
work with or against third party developers in GMail's future."
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Gmail in the News
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My experiences with Gmail invitations (Score:5, Informative)
(Last Journal: Thursday May 10 2007, @01:10PM)
Initially I got a couple of invitations I could give away, every couple of weeks, and it was easy to find close friends to give them to. Then I found I had seven invitations this week and had run out of obvious candidates. I tried gmailswap, but the interesting ones (like a pound of Kona coffee) went too quickly, and the others were uninteresting to me. So I sent a note to my orkut friends, and quickly had well over a dozen requests for accounts despite including a disclaimer pointing to gmail-is-too-creepy.com [gmail-is-too-creepy.com] :). I gave away the ones I had, and surprisingly got a few more the
very next day. I still have a queue of about 5 people I owe accounts
to.
PS. This was a really, really nice Slashdot article, with a treasure trove of gmail information. Well done.
Re:My experiences with Gmail invitations (Score:5, Insightful)
(http://userful.com/)
-M5B
Re:My experiences with Gmail invitations (Score:5, Interesting)
(http://kalgash.geek-night.com/ | Last Journal: Monday January 15 2007, @09:36AM)
See Google-Watch Watch [google-watch-watch.org] for details on the creepy paranoid dude and then go back and read his rantings with a large-ass grain of salt.
For those who still think email is secure I got news for you: Your email is already exposed in plain text on just about any server it is sent to. If your email is ever relayed through a third party server (and a lot of mail is) then chances are an unscrupulous admin has already read your messages or at least stored a copy.
What GMail does by comparison is relatively tame. The adds are inserted at display time. All email is parsed to more effectively block spam. No human will ever read your email.
Don't take my word or the word of some kook with issues.
Read the Gmail privacy policy [google.com]
EXCERPT BELOW:
Email contents and usage. The contents of your Gmail account also are stored and maintained on Google servers in order to provide the service. Google's computers process the information in your email for various purposes, including formatting and displaying the information to you, delivering targeted related information (such as advertisements and related links), preventing unsolicited bulk email (spam), backing up your email, and other purposes relating to offering you Gmail. Because we keep back-up copies of data for the purposes of recovery from errors or system failure, residual copies of email may remain on our systems for some time, even after you have deleted messages from your mailbox or after the termination of your account. Google employees do not access the content of any mailboxes unless you specifically request them to do so (for example, if you are having technical difficulties accessing your account) or if required by law, to maintain our system, or to protect Google or the public.
Donate Gmail invitations to troops (Score:5, Informative)
(http://www.1writersway.org/ | Last Journal: Friday June 17 2005, @09:01PM)
From the entry [wilwheaton.net]:
A worthy cause, I should think. Currently, I believe people are just looking over at gmailswap for service men and women to donate their invites to, until this 'clearinghouse' is created.
I thought some slashdotters might be willing to participate.
Re:My experiences with Gmail invitations (Score:4, Interesting)
(Last Journal: Tuesday June 27 2006, @08:05AM)
I too am a Gmail beta user, and I've been very pleased with the service. Setup my
I wanted to bring up something else that I just came across that was kind of strange. I agree that the people freaking out over adwords is a little over the top, but I found this article [hackinthebox.org] that brings up a very interesting point:
"Moreover, like any e-mail provider, the text of your Gmail is stored and subject to subpoena. I can envision a situation where an advertiser, paying Google hundreds of thousands of dollars, claims that Google failed to "insert" its ads in relevant e-mails, or inserted a competitor's ads instead (or in addition to, or more prominently). In the course of the ensuing litigation, wouldn't both the ads themselves and the text of the messages into which they were inserted be relevant, and therefore discoverable? I can't imagine why not."
I generally believe Google is a good company, but this argument actually got me thinking.
Re:My experiences with Gmail invitations (Score:4, Informative)
First, I'm fairly certain that YOUR privacy ranks WAY higher than any company's supposed "right" to a profit.
Secondly, the only way the advetiser would find out is by setting up a mail account of their own, and then sending mail to themself, trying to find out wether or not it's working. They could then easily save copies of the web-views, and use those.
Thirdly, such a lawsuit would be a civil matter, and I doubt that you can just get a judge to sign over a subpoena to go searching though million of people's mail. This relates to point number one.
This is of course dependent on the legal system, and we've all seen that they're very keen on protecting our rights, right?
Re:My experiences with Gmail invitations (Score:4, Informative)
(Last Journal: Tuesday June 27 2006, @08:05AM)
First, I'm fairly certain that YOUR privacy ranks WAY higher than any company's supposed "right" to a profit.
This is simply not the case. When you agree to the terms of Google Mail, it specifically says that your email will be provided to any court if they are given a subpoena. Right to privacy be damned; if a court issues a subpoena, Google will pony up the data, rather than be found in contempt of court.
Thirdly, such a lawsuit would be a civil matter, and I doubt that you can just get a judge to sign over a subpoena to go searching though million of people's mail. This relates to point number one.
Yes, you can. In a civil matter, discovery allows both the plaintiff and defendant to subpoena corporate data and documents that apply to the case. If the case involved a dispute over adwords, the subpoena might very well include "the contents of all messages that triggered the customer's ads to appear." Google would have no choice but to comply.
For an example of this, look at the SCO vs. IBM case. This is a civil matter as well, and both SCO and IBM have been subpoenaing millions of documents and source code and probably emails from each other as well.
Having said all of that, I don't want you to think I'm paranoid or anything. I use Gmail every day now, and I don't really care if they read my email or not. The reason why is because email is going in plaintext over the wire every day and Carnivore is probably already reading everything I send and receive anyway. Who cares about Google reading my email? I'm much more worried about the FBI reading it and building a profile on me.
Obligatory Gmail whoring. (Score:5, Funny)
(http://www.chriscanfield.net/)
There was a man without gmail
Whose VAC could tell quite the tale
his wife worked real hard
to stack the punch cards
but she died, and now he's in jail
One gig, two gigs or three
Gmail's the right size for me
Don't be upset
I read the usenet
all archived, from 1903
My Friendster, and his big gut
has been reclusive somewhat
Gmail requests
he won't address
I think that he moved to orkut
I could be rich, without a doubt
I found an unbeatable route
this Nigerian guy
wants a reply
but I can't with my inbox maxed out
My mailbox will always O flow
inflators, fellators, you know
I get lots of spam
Thanks to my mam
That woman named me Info
Anyone have a spare invite for a clever guy?
cgenman@pobox.com
Waning excitement (Score:4, Insightful)
(Last Journal: Friday August 27 2004, @01:39PM)
OK, I was one of the sheeple who used to go a few times weekly to the gmail website [google.com] to check things out.
But I awoke earlier this week [slashdot.org] to my Yahoo premium account suddenly offering two, not one, gigabytes of email storage... and all without the (overblown) privacy concerns and advertising. *And* I only pay $19.95/yr. for it.
I'm not (or at least don't need to be) interested in Gmail anymore. I've moved on and Yahoo has succeeded in taking the wind out of Gmail's sails, at least for me.
Re:Waning excitement (Score:5, Insightful)
(Last Journal: Thursday May 10 2007, @01:10PM)
Re:Waning excitement (Score:5, Insightful)
(Last Journal: Wednesday June 29 2005, @09:39PM)
'Cause no one else is scanning your e-mail (Score:5, Insightful)
G-mail's problem is not that it scans your e-mail, but rather that the good people are honest and upfront with what they are doing.
I'm sure people would all be thrilled about a virus check if it was billed as 'automatic file parser.' Sure, it might seem weird having a conversation about your favorite jewish actor and getting an add for 'learn hebrew in 24 hours' but that's only because google is utilising what everyone else has. And their only crime was the niavety that people would find this useful. Had they said 'magic pixies work out what you want and sudgest how to get it, while you browse your e-mail,' the tinfoil hate wearing community would embrace it (after all, fairies can't get through tinfoil!).
G-mail is a wonderful, not only because of the unprecedented amoutn of free space, but because of it's intuative and innovative features that help you organise your e-mail while still having that sexy, clean, not 'all up in yo' face' look google is so good for.
If i had to chooose between microsoft and google, i pick the one who vows to 'do no evil' and, so far, has done nothing to make me think otherwise
Re:I'm lost (Score:5, Interesting)
(Last Journal: Thursday May 10 2007, @01:10PM)
Perhaps all three, but I think after using Gmail for a couple of months, the idea that I can quickly search the full content of everything I've received is nice; the threaded conversations are really cool; and the sharp user interface is pretty nice.
On the other hand, the filter model doesn't cut it for me. Tagging things with a label but leaving them in an "inbox" makes it hard to find the good stuff. Maybe if I could "star" incoming messages based on criteria as well?
Problem Solved (Score:4, Informative)
(http://pigeon.psy.tufts.edu/ | Last Journal: Wednesday April 14 2004, @11:57AM)
Problem solved?
Re:I'm lost (Score:5, Informative)
(http://slashdot.org/)
1) It's webmail like the ORIGINAL hotmail before MS tookover. Few ads, non popups, just gets you to your business
2) Google search for your e-mail, nice and fast. Beats the hell outta Eurora and Outlook searching
3) Threaded e-mails. I sent out an e-mail to a group of 10 friends, they all responded, I responded to some, etc. It all gets stored in ONE thread.
I thought about bidding on an account... (Score:5, Funny)
(http://www.livejournal.com/users/k4_pacific | Last Journal: Tuesday May 25 2004, @10:16PM)
Still policy blocked from work... (Score:5, Insightful)
(http://apl.jhu.edu/~mekkab | Last Journal: Tuesday January 30 2007, @03:45PM)
Still hanging on to my shell account.
Re:Still policy blocked from work... (Score:5, Interesting)
(http://slashdot.org/)
The filters at my office don't handle https! So it works well that way.
As always, your mileage may vary.
Yahoo has retaliated (Score:5, Informative)
(http://centralizati0n.blogspot.com/ | Last Journal: Tuesday February 10 2004, @12:26AM)
I got an account a few days ago (Score:5, Funny)
(Last Journal: Monday October 22, @04:01PM)
My impression: It's nice webmail. That's it.
I don't see the huge hype, but then again I did click on that invite link, didn't I?
I did it before, and I'll do it again (Score:5, Interesting)
(http://www.furtivecode.com/)
What I noticed was that as soon as Yahoo announced they were upping their email limit, Gmail started letting me invite about 5 people a day.
Understand that I already have a backlog of 10 slashdotters waiting for accounts, but I labeled them all and as the invites trickle in, I'll pass them on...my friends and family and irc buddies are already hooked up.
Cheers!
Start Your Betting! (Score:5, Funny)
Slashdot vs. a 1 Gig Inbox: Who Will Win?
The Logical Next Step (Score:5, Interesting)
Use Gmail address as a login ID, use it to capture the business IM and email market
Re:The Logical Next Step (Score:5, Interesting)
(http://www.angelfire...irak/tutorial/day10/ | Last Journal: Sunday November 04, @05:00PM)
Imagine Google IM, it would read your conversations as you were having them in order to send you targeted ads. Now that is creepy.
The GMail Market (Score:5, Interesting)
(Last Journal: Thursday January 13 2005, @02:27AM)
One thing I noticed about GMail was that it was, at least for a short time, a small commercial market within itself. The market ebbed and flowed depending on if invites had become availble that day or not. Originally, there were few accounts, and I managed to snatch one up thanks to my Blogger account - while it lasted, my invites were gold. Before the market "crashed" a few weeks ago, I managed to get unlimited virtual hosting and some nude pictures from a college CS girl who wanted one for "geek cool". My, it was great.
Of course, then the market crashed. So now GMail Swap and others are worthless. But I've been using my invites for another purpose now - I currently have 30 GMail addresses to my name, including some interesting ones. I figure, although the rarity may not exist in having an account, the rarity could exist in having the account you want. Commercialism rises again.
Multiple accounts violate the Gmail TOS... (Score:5, Informative)
(Last Journal: Tuesday September 06 2005, @12:39PM)
From the Gmail Help Center:So, unless you've covered your tracks very well, don't expect to hold onto those accounts. I know of at least one case where a user who made more than one account had all his accounts shut down.
Gmail is currently in beta. Use of that beta is a priviledge, not a right, so abusing it is the quickest way to find yourself locked out.
Re:The GMail Market (Score:5, Funny)
(http://www.musicsaves.org/)
Are you sure about that? Your site [zenwhen.com] has a big ass "This Account Has Been Suspended" page on it.
--ajay
The real success of Gmail (Score:3, Insightful)
(Last Journal: Monday June 21 2004, @01:29AM)
In the long run, having a gig of mail is pointless if you can't find what you're looking for. Assume you can have all the space in the world and you didn't delete a single email. How will you find the email sent sometime ago that you can't remember from a girl you can't remember who conversed with you on craigslist [craigslist.org] but you did remember her fantasy about being your naughty bukkake star?
You can't! Not without search.
Re:creepy (Score:5, Insightful)
(http://cumulo-nimbus.com/)
If you're paranoid about GMail, but you're happy to send unencrypted email to other addresses, then you're an idiot, that's all there is to say.
Donate those invites! (Score:3, Informative)
Reply-to Feature Tops My List (Score:5, Interesting)
(http://www.lonseidman.com/ | Last Journal: Thursday February 26 2004, @02:15PM)
Since I am a Treo user, I still valued having the ability to check my account from my phone. But I also really liked the Gmail interface when I was at my desktop. So here's what I did:
I was pleased to see that Google allows you to override the reply-to address, so I immediately changed that to my current email address.
I then deleted my IMAP account and set up a mail forwarding alias that directs any incoming messages to my Gmail account as well as a pop account on the hosting provider's server.
I use the POP account to check mail from my Treo, and it also gets picked up by my Outlook client for permanent archiving.
The best part is I was able to switch my email exclusively to Gmail without anyone noticing the switch. This is top notch stuff.. Google has done something extraordinary here.