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Gmail Goes Public

An anonymous reader writes "Google has apparently given the green light for Google's e-mail (Gmail) to be open to the general public." From the registration page: "As we make room for more Gmail users, we want to first extend invitations to Google users. We're still working to make Gmail better, so for now, we're just inviting a small number at random. Looks like that's you! We're really excited to share Gmail with you and we hope you like it." Observed at the P-I Buzzworthy Blog as well.

32 of 527 comments (clear)

  1. the link is one-time by eobanb · · Score: 4, Informative

    the link that appears on the front page of google for certain people only works that one time. There is no universal link for creating a gmail account right now. You need to just go to google.com and it may or may not show up.

    --

    Take off every sig. For great justice.

    1. Re:the link is one-time by Mr.+Sketch · · Score: 5, Informative

      No, but you can always get an invite from the GMail invite spooler. It has almost 500k invities waiting to be given out.

    2. Re:the link is one-time by WormholeFiend · · Score: 3, Informative

      I doubt it.

      I noticed a few days ago that the 10 leftover invites I had were removed from my account.

      Made me wonder if something was up, but having no one else to invite, I just shrugged it off.

  2. Just refresh... by mobiux · · Score: 4, Informative

    if you don't get it the first time, just keep refreshing.
    It took me 3 times to get the invite on the screen.

  3. Bad Gmail link. by Osty · · Score: 5, Informative

    The link to Gmail in the story goes to a page that says:

    Account Already Created

    The link you followed to this page has already been used to create your Gmail account. To access your account visit http://gmail.google.com and log in with the username and password you chose during registration. To create another Gmail account, you'll need a shiny new account creation link. We apologize for the inconvenience.
    Here's a better link for Gmail.
  4. Two things by SweetAndSourJesus · · Score: 2, Informative
    --

    --
    the strongest word is still the word "free"
  5. Re:I can't even by Drooling+Iguana · · Score: 5, Informative

    Gmail lets you connect via POP3.

    --
    ... I'm addicted to placebos
  6. Direct link by turtled · · Score: 3, Informative

    Here:
    https://www.google.com/accounts/NewAccount
    Just truncated from the paragraph. The posted link was the result of someone singing up already. I also have 50 invites... but, with the link I posted, everyone is ready...

    --
    "I cannot think of any need in childhood as strong as the need for a father's protection." -- Sigmund Freud
    1. Re:Direct link by turtled · · Score: 1, Informative

      My fault - that's just for a "google Account" not the email. My mistake.

      --
      "I cannot think of any need in childhood as strong as the need for a father's protection." -- Sigmund Freud
    2. Re:Direct link by ral315 · · Score: 3, Informative

      Er...that's a link for a GOOGLE account. It's not the same as a Gmail account.

      Once again, Gmail accounts are NOT available to the general public, just a random sampling of the population.

  7. gmail is still buggy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Frankly, I'm surprised. Google has introduced a few bugs in its latest release of gmail.

    For example, the "mail forwarding" feature cannot be disabled once it has been enabled. Any change to it does not not save.

  8. Re:I can't even by mabinogi · · Score: 2, Informative

    your own server lets you do what the hell you want, and POP3 is a horrble mail protocol from a user's point of view. (IMAP is horrible from a developer point of view, but that's beside the point)

    when Gmail does IMAP it'll be interesting to those of us with our own servers, but only a little.

    --
    Advanced users are users too!
  9. Re:Give us folders by Poromenos1 · · Score: 2, Informative

    There is such a feature, it's labels. It does the same as folders, although a bit differently.

    --
    Send email from the afterlife! Write your e-will at Dead Man's Switch.
  10. Move along people.... by kiehlster · · Score: 2, Informative

    Isn't this old news? I've seen the gmail links on google search a while ago. It's not something new to me. They've been sneaking in gmail invites into their popular Blogger service for a while as a way to slowly increase their user base while they probably sit back and build the infrastructure to hold more users. Yeah, gmail's been boosting the amount of invites lately, but I still don't see a signu form on their gmail page. I think this is all just more invite leaking. It's not public until their signup page is public. Just look at the trail of evidence: techwhack guardian.co.uk Some other SEO news

  11. Re:I can't even by DigitumDei · · Score: 2, Informative

    I have my gmail forwarded to my home account where I access it through my local IMAP server. When at work I use gmail, at home I use thunderbird. And offshore backups of email thrown in for free. ;)

  12. Re:Google: Fix the top post reply method by NewWazoo · · Score: 2, Informative


    A: Because it breaks the flow of information.
    Q: Why is top-posting irritating?

    B

  13. HERE IS THE LINK by jester22c · · Score: 2, Informative
    Here is the actual link to sign up.

    Good grief.

    https://www.google.com/accounts/NewAccount

  14. Re:I can't even by CrankyFool · · Score: 3, Informative

    It's remarkably simple (though, true to OSS principles, it's also remarkably non-obvious if you don't pore through documentation). You need two things in your .muttrc:
    A) Specify what addresses might be valid addreses for you, using 'alternates'. e.g.:
    alternates user@dom.ain.com
    alternates otheruser@other.domain.com
    alternates @myspecial.domain.com
    The last line is the one that says that any mail address @myspecial.domain.com is a valid address for you;
    B) set reverse_name=yes

    That tells mutt that, if you get an email that's to one of your addresses (see A above), even if the current machine name is not that address, it should formulate the 'From:' address based on the recipient address, rather than the local machine name.

    That should be all you need.

    Eagerly awaiting my Offtopic moderation ...

  15. Re:SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP by SlayerofGods · · Score: 2, Informative
    --

    Technology, the cause of and solution to all of life's problems.
  16. Re:I can't even by MightyMartian · · Score: 2, Informative

    I think the world might be a tad better place if not everyone runs to GMail. It certainly isn't the be-all and end-all of email, and if you're just going to check via POP3, it loses some advantages. I have my own mail system on my Linux box. At home, I generally use Pine, which works directly with my (rather large) collection of folders. I have IMAP installed so I can use Thunderbird from work. I don't really see any point to GMail. If I have to change addresses, I'll just send out a form message to my address book.

    --
    The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
  17. Re:Sort on size by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    What about using the labels to actually tell you what's in the email with the attached image? That's quite easy because they can be searched for and categorized under many topics and are also available at a glance. I'm satisfied with the service so far.

  18. Re:I can't even by k.ellsworth · · Score: 4, Informative

    email me to k.ellsworth@ THESPAM gmail.com and i send you an invite... as anyone else need one i'll send back invites. i have 50 left

    --
    Putting a windows cd backwards, plays evil messages, but it gets worse, putting it right, installs windows.
  19. Re:I can't even by edesjardins · · Score: 3, Informative

    I've never receieved ONE piece of Spam at my Gmail address since I've had it - I got the account in August. Just sayin'.

  20. Google Mail now blocks all RAR files! by jbridges · · Score: 2, Informative

    As of last week, in the name of "security", Google Mail now blocks all RAR attachments, even a tiny test one with just a text file in it will bounce.

    Google Mail does not block all ZIP files, only ones with Executable files.

    Google Mail doesn't block TAR (or other archive) formats at all.

    The supposed danger in RAR files is someone will have WinRAR installed and open a executable attachment inside the RAR. Yet there is the exact same danger in TAR files. In fact more danger since more archiving programs (like WinZIP) support TAR files!

  21. Re:I can't even by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    If you have shell access, what is wrong with just using Pine? If you don't like Pine, you have your choice of cat, tail, less, or more the files in your $MAILDIR... ;)

  22. Because RAR files can be trojan'ed. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    There was a well-publicized buffer run exploit in RAR. You only need to open a RAR file to look at the contents - and the exploit can overrun various decompression buffers and execute code on your computer.

    So that's why it's a prohibited file type: somebody can run their own code when you open their file in WinRAR.

  23. Re:I can't even by shellbeach · · Score: 5, Informative

    Ah, Gmail misinformation. It's a wonderful thing ...

    A big thing is privacy. Google may be wonderful, but what about tomorrow?

    If you're that concerned about privacy, you could still use POP3 and SMTP with GPG or similar. Why would you bother, then? Well, having a non-ISP linked email address is a highly useful thing - for those of the community who don't run a mail server (e.g. don't have broadband or don't have the skills) this is vital to being able to switch providers and get the best deal.

    The other is web interfaces suck.

    You've obviously never tried Gmail then. I was a diehard PINE user before seeing Gmail, I hated Yahoo, Hotmail, Fastmail, etc interfaces and thought Gmail might be a good mailing list replacement for my yahoo account because of the greater storage space. I think it took about three days to forward all my mail to it and use it as my primary account. It's a beautiful interface, runs with some incredibly neat javascript - you have to see it to believe it.

    A third is the problem of using POP3 access, but still having to hike your mail client mail via SMTP. If you use your own ISP, you're at risk of getting flagged at some point in the future of failing SPF.

    But, you see, Gmail actually provides an SMTP server for you to use. That's right! You get POP3 and SMTP. And if they ever decide to stop that, there's still mail forwarding so you can throw everything else over to the email address of your choice.

  24. Re:I can't even by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    But what's the point? Gmail through a pop3 account is just the same as my ISP's mail through a pop3 account. And with gmail going public you can't even claim any geek cool for using a gmail address.

  25. Re:I can't even by MightyMartian · · Score: 2, Informative
    I didn't do anything complex at all. Just went to http://www.washington.edu/imap/ and downloaded their imap daemon and added the following line to /etc/inetd.conf:

    imap2 stream tcp nowait root /usr/sbin/tcpd imapd

    As I recall, a

    kill -hup `pidof inetd`
    was all it took and then it was off to the client. The only thing to remember is that you have to set the root mailbox to "mail", otherwise your entire home directory will show up in your mail client. I actually can use Thunderbird on the same machine, but though I like Thunderbird well enough, I stil prefer Pine. Next step for me is OpenLDAP, so I can grab my address book wherever I go.
    --
    The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
  26. Re:Google: Fix the top post reply method by Geoffreyerffoeg · · Score: 2, Informative

    Not universal bottom post...please no!

    Public forums, discussions, etc. bottom post and quote the relevant parts, or mix replies with the quotes. You rarely need to quote more than two replies behind.

    Lengthy individual replies mix replies conversation-style with the quote: > Can you do this? / No. / > What about this? / Yes.

    Normal/short individual replies (read: most e-mail) top post. The person who sent you the e-mail wrote the letter; don't you think he knows what he wrote already? An additional benefit of this style is it allows you to quote the entire original if necessary without forcing your reply to the next screenful.

    Most of the people I see supporting bottom posting are people who participate on mailing lists and USENET and assume that everybody does, too.

  27. Re:I can't even by ImpTech · · Score: 2, Informative

    > I also like not being more beholden to big companies for my communication.

    Of course even when running your own server, your ISP is ultimately in control.

  28. Is this a hoax? by adeydas · · Score: 2, Informative

    For some reason I don't see a 'Sign up' button. Also it is mentioned here that "We're currently only offering Gmail as part of a preview release and limited test. We don't have details on when Gmail will be made more widely available, as that depends in part on the results of the test."