Gmail and the Google Weblog

“Gmail”:http://gmail.google.com/gmail is the cat’s pajama’s. All other webmail applications might as well just pack up and go home now. I have a fast computer, yet Gmail has faster response times than both Outlook and Opera 7.5b1! Opera does a lot more than Gmail, but just the fact that Gmail runs so fast is staggering. I think we’re finally getting to the point where the Network is the computer, and pcs are just access points.


Services like Gmail also help to bridge the ‘digital divide’, as everyone can now have a sort of permanant email address. (It expires in after 90 days of inactivity).

Technically speaking, “Fastmail”:http://fastmail.fm offers a bunch of features which Gmail doesn’t have, but only the basic service is free. So it too is left in the dust. I’m looking forward to see what Microsoft, Yahoo etc. do with their email services now… currently they’re all the equivalent of digital slums – I feel sorry for people who use them as their primary email accounts.

For more information and screenshots, “Shellen.com has a roundup of reviews on Google”:http://www.shellen.com/jason/archives/2004_04_01_default.asp#108155076336778542 and there’s always “Feedster”:http://feedster.com/search.php?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&q=gmail&btnG=Search&sort=date.

In other google news, “this is really interesting”:http://www.google.com/googleblog/ – “via plasticbag.org”:http://www.plasticbag.org/. _this being the new google weblog_

*June 16 2004*: Gmail’s stepping up the invites – they’ve handed out quite a lot now. Must be approaching the final stages of the beta.

bq. It’s worth pointing out that the one gig limit in Gmail is a nice marketing device, but it’s the user interface that sets Gmail apart from other webmail packages. As I may have said before, I can get to my personal mailbox at pair.com using SquirrelMail. I’ve also used Yahoo Mail for a long time. Neither can compare in any way, shape, or form to Gmail, which is probably the most advanced Web life form I’ve ever encountered. I’ve gotten to where I barely read my personal mail at all now unless I can use a desktop client because SquirrelMail is so painful to use after having enjoyed Gmail. People always talk about the gig of mail and the ads when discussing Gmail, but it’s the interface that’s the story. For what it’s worth, my brain has completely blocked out the Gmail ads at this point, it’s as though there were no ads at all.

>> ” rc3.org”:http://rc3.org/cgi-bin/less.pl?arg=6321

11 thoughts on “Gmail and the Google Weblog”

  1. Although admitted it is a great addition to the email scene and even moi is considering shifting over, it does have its quirks. The main one being that quite often you end up clicking on a mail and get the message that the service is not available and to please try again. It works on the second try but… this does become a little annoying. Maybe just a Beta issues. Lets see what happens next.

  2. Spymac is so much inferior to Gmail that it’s hardly worth considering. Sure you get a gb of space but thats about it. With gmail, at least you can be sure it’ll be around for a long long time, and when they offer 1gb of email to the world they have the means and a business plan to actually do so. Spymac just jumped on the bandwagon to be the first to offer a 1gb service.. if they even get 1/ten thousandth of the amount of people signing up as will be for gmail they’re going to crash and burn.

  3. Is it possible to sign up for Gmail now. I have tested out Spymac and that doesnt appeal to me at all.

    so any links for me to sign up from Gmail?

  4. What is really exciting, is that Google shows so much promise in its first incarnation of the service. It’s often mentioned that it has its quirks; and that other web apps have features gmail is lacking–but keep in mind: This is only the beginning–the tip of the iceberg.

    Imagine what it will become. Potentially staggering.

  5. gmail is really good.its a good thing that i have an active blogger. u were rite. spymac is lousy. thats why i said it has some teething problems. lets see if gmail lives up to its promise. 😀

  6. “It expires in after 90 days of inactivity”.

    Hi,

    Actually it expires after nine months; from the ToS:

    ‘Dormant accounts are email accounts that have not been logged into for an extended period. If the account owner doesn’t log in for nine months, Google will delete all messages in the account, close the account, and recycle the username.’

  7. Thanks – I had read the 3 month figure in some article or the other. That makes it even better… Hotmail expires after about a month or so, while Yahoo is not much better.

  8. Another thing that I love about gmail is the lack of junk mail I get. I have had my account for about a month now and have yet to get a single junk mail sent to me. hotmail on the other had, I usually get about 20 junk emails a day. Although, I had my hotmail account for several years, it is really nice not getting junk email in my primary email account(gmail) for once. Keep up the good work gmail, I’m looking forward to seeing what they will do next 🙂

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