Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

GMail Sign-Ups Via Mobile

Posted by Zonk on from the finally dept.

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."

24 of 427 comments (clear)

  1. Invitations Still Work by under_score · · Score: 5, Informative

    So a person can still get on even if they aren't in the US.

    --
    Helping with organizational effectiveness is our job.
    1. Re:Invitations Still Work by b10m · · Score: 4, Informative

      Or just get them at spoolers like : http://b10m.swal.org/cgi-bin/gmail_invites.cgi

  2. A New Feature by voodoo_bluesman · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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.

    1. Re:A New Feature by brajesh · · Score: 5, Informative

      Yeah! I guess Google added this recently.

      --
      95% of all sigs are made up.
    2. Re:A New Feature by Spad · · Score: 4, Informative

      Click 'Next Step >>,' and then click 'Send Verification' to complete the process. Gmail will send a verification message to your other email address to confirm that you'd like to add it to your Gmail account. You'll need to click the link in that message, or enter the confirmation code in the 'Accounts' section of your Gmail account, to complete the process. Once you've verified that you'd like to add the address to your account, you can start sending messages using your custom 'From:' address.

  3. Not yet, it isn't by GauteL · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It is still clearly marked "Beta" and no links to registration is found on the gmail.com website.

    1. Re:Not yet, it isn't by Fishstick · · Score: 4, Informative

      don't know about a link on gmail.com (I already have an account so it seems it redirects to google.com/accounts when I try to get to the main page, but

      this link: Create a Google Account - Gmail does show up on that page.

      But yeah, it does still say beta.

      --

      There is much cruelty in the universe, John.
      Yeah, we seem to have the tour map.

  4. Aha... by irn_bru · · Score: 5, Interesting

    So they want your mobile phone number as well

    **Strokes chin...**

  5. Re:mobile phone? by mzwaterski · · Score: 5, Informative
    From Google's page:

    "You need to receive and enter a special invitation code in order to create an account. Currently, we are only sending these codes as text messages to US mobile phones. So you will need to have a mobile phone with text message capabilities (most phones have this) and the invitation code itself.

    One of the reasons we are offering this new way to sign up for Gmail is to help protect our users and combat abuse. Spam and abuse protection are two things we take very seriously, and our users have been very happy with the small amount of spam they've received in their Gmail accounts. We take many measures to ensure that spammers have a difficult time sending their spam messages, getting these messages delivered, or even obtaining a Gmail account (spammers will often use many different accounts to send spam). Sending invitation codes to mobile phones via SMS is one way to address this, as the number of accounts per phone number can be limited.

    If you want to open an account a different way, you may want to ask a friend with a mobile phone to receive an invitation code for you or to ask someone you know who already has a Gmail account to email you an invitation."

  6. Re:Great! by GauteL · · Score: 5, Informative

    1. Extremely quick
    2. Very simple, unobtrusive interface
    3. Extensive search features
    4. Very large storage space

    For a Webmailsystem from a commercial operator it is extremely good imho.

  7. Google officially evil by Henry+V+.009 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Give Google your phone number to get free email? Whoa, if Microsoft tried this, they'd have a mob with pitchforks and torches descending on Redmond.

  8. no longer compelling? by Dink+Paisy · · Score: 4, Insightful
    The most visible feature of GMail is the extra storage, but with Hotmail, Yahoo and others offering more storage now, will many people who haven't already switched to GMail want to? Acquiring a new email address is a pretty heavy operation, since you have to inform everyone who has the old one (well, everyone that you still want to communicate with via email...) about the new one. I have a Hotmail account, and despite the search features (that most people won't even bother learning about) I didn't switch when I got GMail invites, just because it would be more effort than it is worth.

    My personal opinion is that Google waited to long to release this service to the general public, and they have lost their edge in web mail.

    --

    Whoever corrects a mocker invites insult;
    whoever rebukes a wicked man incurs abuse.
    --Proverbs 9:7
    1. Re:no longer compelling? by arudloff · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The most visible feature of GMail is the extra storage

      I think it's safe to say that 99.9% of the people who use GMail will tell you it's the interface, not the storage.

    2. Re:no longer compelling? by justforaday · · Score: 4, Interesting

      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.
  9. Re:Great! by rbarreira · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Quicker than Thunderbird or Outlook?

    Depends on the speed of your computer and internet connection.

    Simpler than Thunderbird or Outlook?

    Sure.

    Better than Thunderbird or Outlook?

    Much better! It's as if you were searching the web with google!

    I already keep every mail that's not spam or duped in the replies, it's not nearly 2TB yet.

    It's not TB, it's GB.

    Plus; it's not backed up! If keeping e-mails is important, don't you think it should be backed up?

    Google employs redundant storage. I've heard that data is stored at least 3.5 times, but I'm not going to search for a source for this right now...

    --

    The AACS key is NOT 0xF606EEFD628B1CA427BEA93A9CA9773F
  10. Re:Huh? by Richard_at_work · · Score: 4, Informative

    Nope, they just changed the post, it origionally said Gmail was out of Beta. You see this is the type of confusion editors promote when they make POST PUBLICATION edits without marking that they have done so. If someone had checked the blog and gmail.com before the post was put live, they could have caught it then, but they waited until it was pointed out in the comments, and now you have 5 or 6 comments that are seemingly meaningless because of a silent editorial change.

  11. OH NO! by museumpeace · · Score: 5, Funny

    I was planning on using my 150 GMAIL invitations as christmas presents! Now they won't be very valuable.

    --
    SLASHDOT: news for people who can't concentrate on work or have no life at all and got tired of yelling back at the TV.
  12. Re:mobile phone? by jspectre · · Score: 4, Insightful

    shrug. don't like it? don't sign up. not like anyone is forcing you to. i'm sure you can sign up right now for a hotmail account and MS doesn't want your cell phone number.

    --

    abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz

  13. Google earth + mobile = teh win? by Netsensei · · Score: 4, Funny

    So they want our mobile numbers? I'm guessing that they are going to try to triangulate our positions. So they can put your position in Google Earth. Can you picture all those red dots in Google Earth? Can you picture the accompanying tooltips?

    "CowboyNeal is currently in Club Blue Oyster and has unchecked mail"

  14. Re:Why Google needs a mobile phone number by bhtooefr · · Score: 4, Informative

    Actually, there's a Captcha in there, too.

    So, cell phone number + a Captcha, and then you'll get an SMS with an invite code.

  15. Re:mobile phone? by mzwaterski · · Score: 4, Insightful
    It stops robots from signing up thousands of gmail accounts and using them to SPAM. Google couldn't keep up fast enough: think Hotmail and Yahoo before image verification. Google has simply taken it to the next level. This doesn't directly stop SPAM to gmail subscribers, its stops SPAM to all email users in general.

    If you believe that your public phone number is too much information to give google, then just have a friend sign you up. This is an added feature, not an added restriction. Before you couldn't sign up at all, now you can sign up if you have a phone. Doesn't really seem like anything to lose sleep over.

  16. Re:mobile phones? by metalmaniac1759 · · Score: 5, Informative

    RTFA!

    Why use mobile phones? It's a way to help us verify that an account is being created by a real person, and that one person isn't creating thousands of accounts. We want to keep our system as spam-free as possible, and making sure accounts are used by real people is one way to do that.

    Nandz.

  17. Re:mobile phone? by BackInIraq · · Score: 4, Funny

    i'm sure you can sign up right now for a hotmail account and MS doesn't want your cell phone number.

    No, they just want your soul.

    Bastards didn't get mine, though...I signed up for my Hotmail account back before Microsoft.

  18. you don't need an invite at all by cjasonm · · Score: 5, Informative

    If you sign up for a Google account, it comes with GMail. All you need is a valid email address to confirm with. All this fuss is silly considering that such an easy backdoor exists.

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