“A Google approach to email: Gmail is an experiment in a new kind of webmail, built on the idea that you should never have to delete mail and you should always be able to find the message you want.”
I’d heard the rumors, and now it’s confirmed. Google is launching email. I love the concept: A free email account with an entire gigabye of storage without the need to delete or sort. This approach is very much in line with the way I handle my own email. I already archive everything on my Web server, with sent archives at my fingertips dating back to June 1999. Pine is my primary email application, and search is pretty powerful in it, but it’s far from the search behemoth that is Google.
We know Gmail will be fast. And the concept is great. All your emails — sent and received — at your fingertips. Spam won’t matter — sure they’ll have spam filtering — but who cares about deleting when you can find exactly what you want when you want it?
I’m an email fanatic, as most of us are, so this is one free email account that I am, without a doubt, going to add to my list.
Questions I have:
- Can Gmail be leveraged as an online file backup service? That is, I wonder if there will be a limit to the size of an attachment in an individual message.
- Will they eventually offer IMAP access to Gmail accounts? From question 6 in the FAQs, it sounds like they may.
- Are Yahoo and Hotmail scared? Their email services suck anyway.
- Why is the logo so lame?
Finally, whenever free email services come up, I can’t resist mentioning my favorite one of all: Fastmail.fm. It blows Yahoo and Hotmail out of the water. In fact, I’d say if you’re going to have any free email account, there’s no reason to have any but Fastmail.
So the real challenge for Gmail will be how it fares against Fastmail, the current king of the hill, as far as I’m concerned.
4 responses so far ↓
1 Dan // Apr 2, 2004 at 11:26 am
You forgot to mention the scary part – Google will text search your emails and give you customized ads.
So if your friend emails “lets go to the show” they’ll be an ad for ticketmaster.
thats not good.
2 gabe // Apr 2, 2004 at 12:04 pm
excellent point, dan! you’re right. of course, the technology does all the work, so no one but you will ever see your personalized adwords.
3 Dave Reed // Apr 2, 2004 at 1:07 pm
Given that Gmail is in beta form, I seriously doubt that the logo is the final version. I would certainly expect a much better one when they officially launch the full, non-beta version.
4 Duncan // Apr 2, 2004 at 5:28 pm
screenshots of gmail:
http://thelastminute.typepad.com/blog/2004/04/gmail_screensho_1.html