Gmail in the News

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."

Comments

My experiences with Gmail invitations

[Frisky070802]

I got a gmail account relatively early (early in April) from a friend at Google. I use it mostly for mailing lists, not quite ready to put all my personal mail on it, especially when until this article I had no idea how to download Gmail for use when disconnected.

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 :). 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

[bendelo]

Cais, Pieroxy and tabacco where the first 3 to reply. They have all been sent GMail invitations (I even sent one to awkmayle the 4th poster).

In return I hope you guys send me an invite or two back in good time.

Have fun!

Re:My experiences with Gmail invitations

[Hektor_Troy]

I highly doubt that. (IANAL, though).

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

[illumin8]

IANAL either, but...

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.

Yahoo has retaliated

[centralizati0n]

Yahoo now offers 100 mb to all free accounts, and 2 gigabytes to premium accounts. I love competition.

Re:I'm lost

[wo1verin3]

Personally I love the following:

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.

Donate those invites!

[jcull]

Wil Wheaton [clevernickname] is working on a project to donate Gmail invites to soldiers serving overseas who all have Hotmail which sucks. Go to his weblog entry for the skinny.

Re:I'm lost

[Wild Bill TX]

Actually, it is indeed 1024 MB. I heard about somebody who filled up their Gmail account (sorry, I have no link) and got the message at the bottom to say, "You have used 101% of your 1000 MB." They probably just call it 1000 MB so as to not confuse those who do not know that 1 GB is 1024 MB, which is totally lame.

Problem Solved

[Ieshan]

...You can "star" incoming messages based on criteria. Edit a filter. "Star It" is one of the filter options.

Problem solved?

PGP Anyone

[eyeota]

If you're really paranoid, just PGP your messages. Granted there's no direct plugin I know of yet, but I'm sure it's about to come. Then again there's always c&p into your email.

The propensity for unencrypted emails to be read and intercepted has existed on the net, but people just ignored the possibility or figured the probability of it happening them is low.

If it bothers you there's an indefinate log of your email, encrypt it--So what if google shows you nothing by PGP ads on the right side of your screen ?

Donate Gmail invitations to troops

[Slime-Half]

As suggested over at Wil Wheaton's blog, 1 gig of space is a perfect amount for troops to recieve/send videos and other keep-in-touch files that other web accounts can't handle.

From the entry:

Help spread the word about this effort, and keep checking back here for a link to the soon-to-be-built clearinghouse for requests.

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.

If you would like to be invited

[PureFiction]

Please send me an email to coderman at peertech.org with your first and last name, and email address (this is for the form).

I will reply with your current position in the queue of people wanting an invite, and when I get more invitations (currently 5 every one to three days) I'll send you one.

All I ask is this:
1. Please tell me if you get invited before your turn in queue, otherwise I will waste an invitation.
2. Please don't sell this invite, or sell the invites you subsequently get from your own account.

People who sell or extort for invites lack integrity and are selfish. Don't be that kind of person.

Multiple accounts violate the Gmail TOS...

[WIAKywbfatw]

I think it's worth pointing out that having more than one Gmail account is currently against the Gmail's terms of service.

From the Gmail Help Center:

Can I have multiple accounts?

While we test Gmail, we're gathering information and feedback from a
diverse group of users to polish our product. As stated in the Gmail
Program Policies, a Gmail user is allowed to open one Gmail account.

Each invitation link is valid for creating only one account. With
1,000 megabytes of storage per account, we hope you'll have enough
room to store all necessary messages and information.

If you would like to read more of our policies, please
visit: http://www.google.com/gmail/help/program_policies. html.

Thank you for your helping us improve Gmail.

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:Getting Invited

[cmacb]

"How does one get invited. I crave the invitation. I am almost tempted to start my own Google just so I could then invite myself to gmail.
"

If you have been using Blogger for a while then you probably already have an invitation. Sign on to blogger (as if to update your blog) and look carefully over on the right.