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Google Eyes New Email Service, Expansion

GillBates0 writes "According to a CNN/Reuters story, Google is developing a service to attach its lucrative keyword-based advertising to email: ''I'm sure Google is getting more and more concerned about locking in users. It wouldn't surprise me if they did something very sophisticated with e-mail,' said Danny Sullivan, editor of SearchEngineWatch.com, who tracks the industry.' Apparently, Google has purchased an e-mail management software maker and registered the domain name googlemail.com. The article also speculates that Google is slowly on the way to becoming a full-fledged portal, with the gradual addition of more and more portal-like features like Froogle."

6 of 287 comments (clear)

  1. Oy. by DrEldarion · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Dear Google,

    Instead of messing around with all this e-mail stuff, how about you concentrate on actually making your search engine useful again? It has become completely overrun with results like sony.dscp10.reviews.digital.cameras.hot.sex.now.fr eesexsite.com that it's becoming incredibly hard to actually get any information out of it. It used to be that when I searched for a product, you gave me user/site reviews on that product. Now, all I get is a bunch of people trying to make me buy it from them.

    Please remedy this before trying to do other things.

    Thank you.

    1. Re:Oy. by larry+bagina · · Score: 5, Insightful
      Remember when yahoo! had a useful catalog of sites? Remember when their search/catalog started sucking? remember when they added featres like email, new, stock quotes, chat, etc?

      Remember when google had a useful search engine....

      --
      Do you even lift?

      These aren't the 'roids you're looking for.

  2. Keep the Look by Saige · · Score: 5, Insightful

    As far as I am concerned, they can start offering e-mail, or whatever. They can become as much of a portal as they want.

    Just don't destroy the simplicity of their search engine's front page by tacking on all sorts of ads and images and text. The bare-bones website they offer up for searches is so much more efficient and, I feel, better for serving the purpose of what Google primarily is - a high quality search engine.

    If they start tacking all sorts of crap to it, they'll become just like everyone else, and lose their uniqueness. It'll still be a high quality search engine, but without stand-out packaging.

    --
    "You know your god is man-made when he hates all the same people you do."
  3. Wild Speculation by sithkhan · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Isn't this a perfect time for Google to announce such a common, easily identifible service as this than at this particular juncture? How better to prepare the investing world to sell this upcoming IPO to Main Street Techno-Neophyte Investors than to say that Google is expanding, and that they even have email services ... Plus, think about those eyeballs that will be locked into those browser-based email pages, and all the ad space that comes with them. I am a cynic, but that's just me. I'll still sign up for the service!

    --

    is it that bad seein a hot chick again? if i see a hot chick walkin down the hall i dont say "repost"
  4. I would like a Journal tab in Google. by F34nor · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Wouldn't it be great if you could use Google to search full text all the refereed scientific journals?

    That would make the internet into what it was made for, free open exchange of scientific work.

    A LexusNexus Tab would kick ass to but might be a little pricey.

  5. Re:Prepare to be underhwelmed by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    What is left in webmail?

    What was left in search before Google started adding features? Until Google took over the market, people thought that search engines were just about finding relevent stuff and seeing a page full of adverts. Google proved that they could build a less advert-laden page, add features such as caching with keyword highlighting, translation, word/pdf conversion, etc, whilst still remaining lucrative.

    They've revolutionised news aggregation with their automatic classification and sorting. They are the definitive Usenet archive (mostly thanks to their Deja Vu buyout, but still). They have bought out Blogger and will almost certainly move things forward in that respect.

    The question isn't "what can they possibly offer?". The question is "why wouldn't you expect them to excel at this?".