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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?
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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
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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Same with Google... GMail requires space to be dedicated to each new person. If the influx of new people is greater than the rate at which they can aquire new hardware and squash new scalability bugs, then it won't be rock-solid anymore.
Controlling popularity is important. Google might be overdoing it a little bit... But in this game, it's far better to err on the side of going too slow, especially when you're as popular as google is.
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.
> 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.
Another post from someone who's never taken a MARKETING class.
This has nothing to do with server space. Gmail would never be as popular as it is today if they hadn't used their ingenious "give these codes to all your friends!!! -- or else you can't get in" promotion. This has nothing to do with a beta stage it's a marketing promotion. Sometimes, making your product artificially scarce makes people want it more, and I for one am once again awed by Google's awesome duality of marketing and technical brilliance.