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In the early days
of what we know as the Internet, Yahoo emerged as a search giant. It was
a huge online directory that categorized websites and made the categories searchable.
To enhance their online prominence, they offered free email addresses that were
easily accessible from around the world.
At the time, everyone wanted
at least one email address and hundreds of companies were offering
freebies. Many of those are long gone, although Yahoo held its ground.
So did Bill Gates' Microsoft free webmail offering - Hotmail. Both Yahoo and
Hotmail offered a limited amount of free server space unless users were
willing to pay to increase the size of their mailbox. Millions of users
signed up with each service.
Enter:
Google
In 1998, Google entered the search system battles with its own version
of a search engine. In keeping with the tradition of what makes a great
website even better, they offered a superior product in their searching capabilities.
Moreover, Google had and still maintains a clean and simple appearance,
making it quick to download and easy to use. Millions of people switched to Google as
their primary search engine but still relied on email giants Yahoo and
Hotmail for free email.
Google
Launches Gmail
In Google-style, they came up with novel ways to use their searching
capabilities. Although they were not the first to do so, they launched
an excellent image search function. Additionally, their news service, catalogs, and
shopping network are all increasing in popularity. Given the rise
to prominence of these products, it was only a matter of time for the
Google people to release their own version of a free webmail service: Gmail.
Gmail
Marketing
Instead of
just opening it up to the masses, Google decided to market Gmail in a
different way. They gave email addresses to their employees who could
then send Gmail "invites" to other people. Using this slow
distribution method, they were able to test their Beta version
("Beta" indicates that it is in a testing stage).
The
combination of anticipation and hype has lead to craziness over the acquisition
of Gmail accounts. Web users are scrambling for Gmail addresses and it has
brought the greed out in many. Once a users gets an account, Google
provides
a few invites to spread around. Some users create more personal accounts
while others send the invites to friends and family.
On the
flipside, many people who have been fortunate enough to get an account
have been selling their Gmail invites on Ebay, Craigslist, and other
websites. Greed still runs deep on the Internet. The sad part is that
eventually, everyone will have access to Gmail email accounts. Also,
with thousands of new Gmail accounts starting each day, the account name
you want is probably already gone anyway!
It was only a
matter of time for yours truly to be invited into the Gmail club and now
that I'm in, I can review it with credibility!
Gmail
Advantages
Google is a trendsetter and usually offers products that incorporate new
ideas to enhance the end-user's Google-related experience. This trend
continues with their free webmail service Gmail.
The single
most impressive feature of Gmail is the amount of space allocated to
users. They offer a GIG (1 GB) of storage space, meaning users will not have
delete old emails to ensure that their mailbox is not full. In
anticipation of Gmail's coming, Yahoo increased their mail storage space
from 4 megs to 100 megs and hotmail increased theirs to 250 Megs. Still,
Gmail offers 10 times what Yahoo is offering. Essentially, users can
store thousands of emails before filling up.
A second
useful part of Gmail is that it does not have the usual folder set-up
for a file system where users can place emails into user-created folders,
a categorization method that is the standard format for emails that are
to be saved. Instead, they employ a more complex but useful system
called "labels." Additionally, users can search through their
emails. It is as though you are using the Google search engine but only
to find specific information in your stored emails. Also, Gmail allows
users to tag their emails by placing a star next to the most important
ones.
Another
feature which makes Gmail an impressive offering is that users can
import their address books from many other systems including competitors
Yahoo and Hotmail, and Outlook.
Next, the
"conversations" break down is usability feature that will come
in handy. Gmail saves all of your back and forth email exchanges as one
link in your inbox. When you click the link, you get all of the
correspondence with that person in a list. This is similar to the
threads in a message board. Truly a useful feature.
The
Downside of Gmail
Gmail has its downside. Perhaps the most brilliant yet eerie is that users will see contextual advertising in
their emails. The Google ads you see on this page are based on technology
that reads the topic of the webpage and places ads accordingly. Gmail
uses a similar principle,
only it reads the content of the user's email. For example, if your
email is about bikini models, you will see ads
on the side of your email about swimwear and modeling. It is an automated system
so actual people do not read users' personal messages. However, who
knows what kind of abuse of privacy this will lead to in the future?
On a related
note, users of free email services should always be aware of the
company's privacy policy. Similarly, always remember that sending an
email is more like sending a post-card than a sealed envelope.
Finally, Gmail
cannot send HTML emails. I personally prefer simple non-HTML emails so
this certainly does not bother me. At least it can read HTML emails.
Free Email
Services Continued?
Google has a decent product in Gmail and it remains to be seen whether
they will continue to expand their free webmail services.
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