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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.
people to take my gmail invites any more. I think it's a little late to open it to the public-- everybody already has an account.
It's hard to believe that's how Micronians are made. Why don't we see it right now by having you both kiss one another?
I've been using the beta for awhile and i'm amazed this didn't go live sooner. Rock solid, score one for google.
Enough google news!
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--beef
2. How do I sign up? When can I get a Gmail account?
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.
Uh. Without a way to create public accounts, this is just another form of beta. Looking on the main gmail page, it sure looks like there's no way to create an account for someone who doesn't have a google account yet.
Beta? Yes. Public? About as much as it was before.
On the other side, I've got about 50 invites left.
"We have to go forth and crush every world view that doesn't believe in tolerance and free speech." - David Brin
Please fix the interface so that replies do not top post. (Yes, I did submit this to Google when I first discovered it).
UNIX/Linux Consulting
After the 50 invites each of us have on Gmail run out I suspect there won't be many peopleleft on Earth without a Gmail account.
Hell I've got half a mind to go and make 50 Gmail accounts with the invites purely to use them up..
I like muppets.
I just hope that the best feature of Gmail will remain free now that they've gone public.
POP3 access, no strings attached (read, stupid Hotmail requiring Outlook). Gotta love that.
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It's not so weird that Google has waited almost a year to go public with Gmail. Clearly it's the finale of a very large marketing experiment. First, Google develops an initial core of beta users, who upon registering for the email system get to invite more beta users. Then Google gets to sit back, watch the whole thing percolate, and collect valuable data on how long it takes for word-of-mouth to translate to market saturation, or how often free invites turn into new users, etc. From a research point of view, to get all of this they would need those several months they took.
How about trying that nifty link named "forward"...?
Its too bad its beginning to go public. As of right now, pretty much anyone who wants a gmail account has one, with isnoop.net's Gmail Spooler at something around 500,000 invites. I just hope people don't start signing up for mass accounts and spamming everyone with 1 GB worth of junk.
Ahh... Gmail *will* forward attached images - just not embedded HTML images... =\ So yeah, what you really want is HTML support in the editor, and I second that. If the pics are attached as simple files, it will forward them - but those pesky Outlook users that have the pics showing within the message always mess it up for us Gmail users lol. -Ares
Labels are better. I can apply several labels to a message, but I can only put a message in a single folder (without having multiple copies...)
But if I ask many questions, or discuss many topics, then it makes sense to indicate which part you are referring to. It also often makes sense to re-read what I wrote, since I have been dealing with many other things since I wrote you. I also often get copied into the middle of a thread, so I have to read from the bottom up to figure out what is going on.
I generally prefer to quote the relevant line, and then reply to it. Repeat until done. The problem is that since Outlook made top-reply the standard, everyone has become used to it. Now you'll get the entire email thread in every single email, and some people can't live without that. It's a waste of space (and dangerous, since people don't bother to read what they're forwarding sometimes). It would be far better to have a good threaded mail reader, but unless MS does it, it's irrelevant. People are trained the Outlook way, for better or worse.
Then again, I still use a text-only mail reader.
I think that is kind of the point.
It keeps people from signing up for the accounts with a bot better than the obscured numbers thing does. (Although it is possible to automate joining still.)
Oh yeah man. It would kick some posterior to be able to use the Gmail interface with my own domains.
> Bottom posting is for grizzled usenet hippies.
Bottom-posting (quoting the whole message and then putting your reply at the bottom) and top-posting (quoting the whole original message below your reply) are both cretinous and bad. The correct way to quote is interleaved, i.e., you quote a relevant excerpt, reply to it, then if necessary quote another relevant excerpt, reply to it, and so forth.
Gnus gets this right: it quotes the whole message (depending on how you have it set up) (except the signature (if it can tell where the signature starts)), but if you go to any point in the message and start typing, it breaks there and rewraps the quoted portions above and below, and your reply gets inserted at the proper place, unquoted, as a separate paragraph. Any parts of the quoted message you don't need to reply to, you're supposed to delete before sending. Gnus warns you if you try to send a message that's mostly quoted material and very little original response (though it'll let you do it if you insist).
But I don't suppose it's reasonable to hold a webmail interface to the standard of functionality set by Gnus.
Cut that out, or I will ship you to Norilsk in a box.
No it's not. Good grief. :P
A: Because it breaks the flow of information.
Q: Why is top-posting irritating?
Not being an irritating prick a good reason.
in email there is NO REASON ON GOD'S EARTH YOU WOULD NOT WANT TO TOP POST
I can think of a reason why they have the invite system... they have just mapped the social networks of the net's most avid and active users.
Who might you ask does the spooler identify? The friendless.
Probably the best thing about GMail going public is the fact that it puts even more pressure on other free E-Email providers to improve their services. Anyone remember the pre-GMail days? Hotmail and Yahoo both charged to get you over 10 MB, POP3 access was almost NEVER free, and quite often you had to put up with tons of banner adds, popups, end-of-E-Mail footnote adds, and spam kindly sent by your E-Mail provider.