Slashdot Mirror
GMail Sign-Ups Via Mobile
jm.one writes "In the wake of recent releases releases Google Desktop 2.0 Beta and Google Talk 1.0 Beta, Gmail (known as Google Mail for legal reasons in some areas) is finally open to everyone. Learn more in the Google Blog entry and register at the Gmail website. Please take note that sign-up occurs via mobile phone at the moment, and only U.S. citizens can register for now. Plans to add more countries are on the way."
I just noticed that I'm now able to send email out with addresses other than my gmail account.
VERY cool from a business standpoint.
So they want your mobile phone number as well
**Strokes chin...**
Please take note that sign-up occurs via mobile phone at the moment
Let me be the first to say, huh?
Is this odd to anybody else?
Mod me down with all of your hatred and your journey towards the dark side will be complete!
Please take note that sign-up occurs via mobile phone at the moment
Alarm bells are ringing... Why would Google want mobile numbers? More direct advertising? Relevant, SMS Spam straight to your pocket?
Glad I got it in beta.
Unfortunately, I am not Wil Wheaton
Google's social networking project, sadly, I don't think will ever get out of beta.
Google says they're sending invitation codes by SMS to prevent spammers from obtaining Gmail accounts.
I call shenanigans. What good is a Gmail account in comparison to a zombie?
5. excellent spam filtering
I can't remember the last time GMail missed a spam.
Ingenious my ass. CBV [callback verification] was COMMON back in the 80s as a method of user account verification [e.g. prevent people from making multiple accounts].
Of course back then it wasn't spam it was time. You had to limit users to [say] 30-60 mins per day online so that others could use it. So you limit them to one account per phone number.
Tom
Someday, I'll have a real sig.
2. Undoubtedly better than Outlook.
3. Yes. This is Google we're talking about.
I do think my e-mail should be backed up, and I trust the good folks at Google to do that for me.
Moving from one computer to another constantly, it's a must that I have a webmail account that I can use anywhere, and for that, GMail is simply the best.
I work for a journal that sells PDF copies of our articles to customers. I still get bounced messages from Hotmail accounts saying that our 1.5-2MB attachments exceed their per message limit, even though it was supposedly bumped up to 10MB over a year ago...
I'll turn into a supernova and burn up everything. Well I'll turn into a black little hole and you'll turn into string.
I call bullsh*t... how does requiring a mobile phone help anything spam related? I can sign-up with my mobile phone for 1 account, and then, if history is any indication, Google will grant me hundreds of invites within a week or so, and I can send them all to myself and sign up hundreds of accounts... hell I still have hundreds of invites left... TO THE SPAM CAVE!!
Don't anthropomorphize computers: they hate that.
I really want google to do something like MSN direct. that watch was really cool and I was happy to pay $50.00 a year to get im messages on it as well as the other info and calendar data.
Problem is that MSN sucks. they changed their protocols so my home automation system can no longer send IM's to my watch from it's linux server. Also they have not been attracting any more FM broadcast stations to carry their data signal so there has been no expansion in coverage. coupled with the fact that their biggest watch maker fossil has dropped them, things look bleak for this really neat idea.
Google has the chutzpa to do it right, and hell I'm tickled to pay for the service as well as many others seem to be.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
If you company uses commercial software to filter websites, its true that you may not be able to access the website directly.
However, this might just be the trick for you. I know that this works at the company I'm at. Here's how it goes:
1. Go to Google's translator page (or alta vista's babelfish). http://www.google.com/language_tools/
2. Select Chinese to English (ensures that none of the words on a page will actually be translated) on "Translate a web page"
3. ??? 4. Access (probably without the images, depending on the blocking software)
So, basically Google's servers access the content, do the translation, and feed it to you through their site's url. Again, this may or may not work. It all just depends on your company. I should also note that you should be careful, because this may be a terminable offense at your employer.
It seems that I made the mistake of adding the / onto the end of the tag in an attempt to follow XML syntax made my URL invalid
http://www.google.com/language_tools
The interface is unobstrusive, I'll give you that. But the rest of the reasons aren't that great.
It's very slow. Opening it up takes ages. It just says 'loading' in the top of the screen. If you're in another tab, the gmail tab doesn't have the swirling thing to show it's loading, so you don't know whether it's actually loaded or not.
When it actually loads (after around 10-20 seconds), the interface isn't reliable. Sometimes when you click on an email the whole thing just freezes. When you click on a link in an e-mail, TWO tabs come up, one with the link, one back to your inbox. And the focussed tab is your inbox, not the link.
The size isn't much use. Other providers have similar size. Can't say I've ever filled it past 500kB so I couldn't care less about that.
I don't use search features, I store e-mails in relevant folders. Gmail doesn't even have folders, just 'labels', which means they're not neatly stored. It also doesn't tell you how many e-mails you've got in each 'label'. For instance if you put messages from person 'x' into label 'y', It just says 'y' at the side of the screen, it doesn't actually tell you how many are in there. It only shows unread mails. I thought people raved about Google's interfaces? They're worse than others.
As far as I'm aware there's no custom filters you can put on incoming mail like you could do with a proper e-mail client.
I'm afraid the conclusion is that gmail is an average webmail service with excellent marketing.
3. Yes. This is Google we're talking about.
Actually, you can't just generically say google searches are automatically good.
I have been unimpressed by the searching functionality inside their maps tool.
Whenever I enter a place name to goto it fails horribly and tries to list business locations within the displayed area. A lot of the time I end up back on my old mapping site until I find the location and then drill down from a country view to where I am looking for.
Other map software finds addresses and locations using single keywords MUCH better than google.
Try going onto maps.google.com and entering "Hollywood" to see the effect. I do note however it is getting better and can now finally find my hometown at the first attempt.
Other search problems I have noticed were bugs in gmail, but those have been fixed now, so all is good again.
liqbase
GMail accounts can also be used for Google Talk. Google Talk supports voice chat. I wonder if they are planning on partnering with some of the mobile telephone companies to allow mobile 'phones to work as endpoints for Google Talk conversations (or even provide an SMSIM gateway - there are a couple for XMPP but they require you to have some way of sending SMS, which costs money). This would be much easier to do in the US where you need to pay to receive mobile 'phone calls, since the cost to Google would be relatively low.
I am TheRaven on Soylent News
Just joking...though this would cost me $.05 cents a pop in text messaging to sign up. A small cost to pay for a decent free email service. It does keep people who do not have cell phones from getting free email (yes those people exist, and are probably one of the people that NEED free email the most). And I worry about them storing mobile phone numbers by default (they say you can remove them manually). It would just really suck if someone hacked google and got a bunch of mobile numbers, but all in all a novel way to stop spammers.
And access to my emails...who cares? It's the same no matter what email service you use...unless you host your own server.
No...regular internet companies don't save any of your mail. Especially once you download it off your POP3 server. Google is the only one that ENCOURAGES you not to delete it....it's the only one whose servers READ your email to give you targeted ads. Because of your Google cookie, Google in theory knows exactly what you search for, what you shop for, who you IM, and your entire email records. I don't think Google actually cares, but the GP was pointing out that if you are suddenly suspected of being a terrorist under the patriot act or whatever, the Gov can find out your entire life from one court order to google. Microsoft, Apple, etc... know nothing about your personal life.
They could finalize this as the solution to avoid bots, except everyone doesn't have a cell phone. However, I can easily see this as being a solution for Japan. Anyone who bothers to use email does so by their mobile phone. "Then why get gmail?" Well, some people like having more than one email account.
Gmail uses an ActiveX control to give IE the functionality it is missing, but which Firefox and Opera are not: standards-compliant DHTML and CSS support.
On those modern browsers, and you don't need any plugins to use Gmail. But IE is quite old. You would also need a plugin to use Gmail with Mosaic, or Spyglass. Get a modern browser, problem solved.
Edith Keeler Must Die