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30Gigs Web Mail Launches Into Beta

gaanagaa writes "Neowin reports, that a new web mail service launched today is promising to bring users an email inbox of 30gb." The original intent of 30gigs.com was apparently to create an "'All in one' site for the webmaster and avid computer users. According to the sites 'about us' page, combining personal file storage, GD2 signatures and anonymous email all in one service, which would be free." In their brief review of the service a Neowin user also offers a word of caution with regards to their extremely short terms of service and privacy policy, calling them "shady".

59 of 320 comments (clear)

  1. Send me an invite? by rdwald · · Score: 4, Funny

    Can someone give me an invite? Oh, and maybe First Post.

    1. Re:Send me an invite? by SpectreBinary · · Score: 5, Funny

      pfft. 30 gigs ought to be enough for anybody.

  2. Malibu by Blimundus · · Score: 3, Funny

    According to their website, they provide you with a "malibox"!

    1. Re:Malibu by Baddas · · Score: 2, Funny

      http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/ ml.html

      Apparently a landlocked west african country with a democratic government and a sadly low life expectancy.

      Why one would want a box there, I have no idea.

  3. 30 GB?!?!?! 250K oughta be enough for anyone! by Palal · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I can't fill up my 2 gigs on Gmail, nor my gig on Y! mail, why in the world would I need 30 gigs?

    --
    -Palal
    1. Re:30 GB?!?!?! 250K oughta be enough for anyone! by master_gopher · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Agreed, mail servers seem to be trying endlessly to outdo one another on storage, whereas it's the systems which attract most people I know. As argues elsewhere, many Yahoo!ers prefer to stay with Yahoo despite gmail, because they like/are used to the setup.

    2. Re:30 GB?!?!?! 250K oughta be enough for anyone! by Baricom · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I agree that competing on storage is kind of pointless now, but when Gmail launched last year offering a gigabyte of space, that was a really big deal. People were used to having to delete their e-mail every so often; now, they didn't have to.

      There's not much difference between 1 gigabyte and 30, but there's a huge difference between 5 MB and 1 GB.

    3. Re:30 GB?!?!?! 250K oughta be enough for anyone! by pahles · · Score: 5, Funny

      I get more than a gig of email a day not even counting the couple gigs I get of pics, video, etc (pr0n) a day.

      No wonder the internet is slow...

      --
      Sig?
    4. Re:30 GB?!?!?! 250K oughta be enough for anyone! by PhotoBoy · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I run a few webmail systems myself, you would be amazed at how quickly people manage to eat up space. On one system we have a problem with people who sign up, turn off the spam blocker and then sign up for lots of spam. Their inbox fills up but they never actually use the service, making us wonder what the point to signing up was. We suspect it's just people who have a grudge against the company to whom we are supplying the webmail.

    5. Re:30 GB?!?!?! 250K oughta be enough for anyone! by MikeFM · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Email is really a horrible bunch of protocols not at all designed for real world use today. It seems crazy to me that we shunt around binaries encoded as text and that we have to pass duplicates along the same path rather than sending a single copy. Not to even get into the mess Email is in other ways. It'd be nice if major email providers at least could arrange a more effecient means of trading mail. I hope Yahoo, Google, etc don't store every single copy of duplicate messages and attachments. That'd just be stupid.

      --
      At what price learning? At what cost wisdom? The price is a man's peace of mind, and the cost is his life.
    6. Re:30 GB?!?!?! 250K oughta be enough for anyone! by Itchy+Rich · · Score: 4, Funny

      From 30gigs.com: "Our main goal is to increase our space even further, to 50 gigs, or maybe 100 as time goes on."

      Looks like they're going to keep changing their name to match the storage capacity. Foolish marketeers know nothing about encapsulation.

    7. Re:30 GB?!?!?! 250K oughta be enough for anyone! by tommertron · · Score: 2, Funny
      There's not much difference between 1 gigabyte and 30, but there's a huge difference between 5 MB and 1 GB.

      For the record: 1 GB = 200 times more than 5 MB; 30 GB = 30 times more than 1 GB.

      --
      Random rants about technology: http://technorants.blogspot.com
    8. Re:30 GB?!?!?! 250K oughta be enough for anyone! by Total_Wimp · · Score: 3, Insightful

      It's a testiment to convenience. People use email in the ways they do, and ignore other protocols that are more suitable, becaue it's just easier for them.

      At the company I work for I constantly get requests to let larger and larger attachments through. The reason? We make it hard for them to get data out any other way. Our bosses are (somewhat justifiably) paranoid about opening up easy access to our file system from outside the company so the users use the one method that's relatively open, email.

      You see this all over the place. Would you tell your aunt that it's ok to open a share to the outside on her Windows computer? Heck no. What's her alternative? Email. Can you name a service tha lets her upload a couple of gigs of non-specialized files that she could then share with her friends and family? No such service exists, unless you consider Gmail to be such a service.

      The only way you'll ever get people to use the proper protocol, meaning one that's designed for the purpose it's being used for, is to make that protocol ubiquitus, easy and cheap. As long as you make the proper way hard, even if it's for a good reason like security, people will find other ways to route their data, even if those ways are a horrible kludge.

      TW

    9. Re:30 GB?!?!?! 250K oughta be enough for anyone! by UberTod · · Score: 2, Informative

      Well...one successful way to fill up your multi-gig account on Gmail is to functionally use the tools people have written to use such a site to it's fullest potential.

      I get no kickback for this, and it was a /. post some time ago:

      http://www.viksoe.dk/code/gmail.htm

      It makes your gmail account a drive on your computer. Great for having access to your own personal sftp anytime you need it.

    10. Re:30 GB?!?!?! 250K oughta be enough for anyone! by Riddlefox · · Score: 2, Informative

      Actually, there are a few, depending on the size of the files you want to send, and how persistant you want the storage to be. You Send It is one I use (1 gigabyte files, good for 1 week). PutFile is another one - smaller file sizes (I think 60 megs for the free service), but the videos stay there longer.

  4. Signup requires invite, like Google Mail by marcello_dl · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I am not sure i like that. I think a playful method like a web based slot machine that lets you win an invitation (ajax based not to hammer the servers) would be nicer. Sigh.

    --
    ---- MISSING MISCELLANEOUS DATA SEGMENT --- [sigdash] trolololol
  5. phffff.. 30gig, that's amateur mang by porksoda · · Score: 5, Informative

    1 terabyte, right here.

    1. Re:phffff.. 30gig, that's amateur mang by Pleb'a.nz · · Score: 2, Informative

      Last time I signed up here, you couldn't send email outside of the hriders.com domain.

    2. Re:phffff.. 30gig, that's amateur mang by Narc · · Score: 2, Funny

      FTS.. We have been asked why we would do such a thing. The answer is simple to help people store large amounts of information in a safe and secure environment. Sure, yeah.. trust your data with a buncha bikers ;)

    3. Re:phffff.. 30gig, that's amateur mang by jbrw · · Score: 2, Insightful

      why do they need to know my rl address?

      why do they need to give you 1tb of space?

  6. TOS by Lussarn · · Score: 3, Interesting

    word of caution with regards to their extremely short terms of service and privacy policy, calling them "shady".

    It should be a good thing to not have a long lawyerlike TOS. Terms of service is a way for companies to bypass the laws and shouldn't be needed at all. Period.

    1. Re:TOS by XaXXon · · Score: 4, Informative

      I just read their terms of service. It's almost all about cookies. They basically say how they use their cookies, that they aren't responsible for the contents of the sites their ads link to, and that you may get cookies from their ad provider.

      While not being a service I would want to use, they don't seem to be "shady" in that they are hiding anything, just that they do things you wish they wouldn't, but they're honest about it.

      This is, of course, assuming their ToS isn't an outright lie.

    2. Re:TOS by aussie_a · · Score: 2, Informative

      I agree, they're extremely forward with what they do and don't do (and one thing they claim they don't do is sell out your information). If the TOS and Privacy Policy is the only reason people believe they're shady, then I disagree completely. Having said that, reading the comments it appears that some people are wary because 30gigs.com isn't a name they know, so they're wary if they'll be trustworthy or not.

    3. Re:TOS by nacturation · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I agree, they're extremely forward with what they do and don't do (and one thing they claim they don't do is sell out your information). If the TOS and Privacy Policy is the only reason people believe they're shady, then I disagree completely.

      Extremely forward isn't a phrase I would use. Sure, they tell you all about cookies... but what about your actual privacy? Nobody these days cares about cookies anymore. How about the contents of the email I send and receive? Oh... nothing at all to say about that. How about any personally identifying information? Suspiciously absent from their privacy policy. What if I'm under the age of 13? Who cares! Their privacy policy should state how they are protecting my privacy, not how I'm going to get bombarded by cookies from all manners of ad companies they've signed up with.

      --
      Want to improve your Karma? Instead of "Post Anonymously", try the "Post Humously" option.
  7. Missing the point by aussie_a · · Score: 4, Insightful

    To anyone that thinks this is a serious contender in the Webmail wars, you're missing the point. I doubt very many people use their entire storage, or even come close. It's just used as a marketing point. The reason that any particular mail storage will beat the others is because of it's features. Gmail is popular (well, for starters because it's google and at the moment google is sexy among some geek circles) because of it's interface. Yahoo recently realised this and brought out a new interface of it's own (well, I say new. As in new for a webmail provider. From the articles it's just an Outlook Express clone, although it may be quite useful, I don't know. Like google, Yahoo has decided to not open it's new and improved webmail service to everyone, at least last i heard anyway).

    Having said that, I doubt anyone is going to win the Webmail wars. All that will happen is they'll fight amongst each other to get more of a customer share by adding more features. Which is great for us. But 30gigs isn't going to be a contender anytime soon (if ever).

    I remember when everyone used hotmail, back when it used to be usable. Then Microsoft screwed over its users with more and more intrusive ads, shitty interface and more. I'm just waiting for Microsofts response to Yahoo and Google's improved webmail interface.

    1. Re:Missing the point by MikeFM · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Being copied doesn't mean something is good. It just means the copier has no better ideas of their own or have the mistaken believe that it's more important to copy a bad design to ease user's switching than it is to create a design that is actually good.

      OpenOffice's UI is almost as horrible as Office itself. Thunderbird is clunky for managing large numbers of emails but is nowhere near the mess that Outlook is (and really doesn't look much like it.. if you're actually familiar with both).

      Although you didn't mention it I'll take this time to say I hate how KDE and Gnome both copy way to much from Windows and OS X. They'll never get a good user-interface that way. Windows is just a mess that seems to have been made by a drunker marketing department. OS X is made to impress with eye candy and to be easy for newbies. Neither is designed to make experienced users more productive. Because of copying KDE and Gnome are really no more easy to use or productive than Windows and OS X. :(

      --
      At what price learning? At what cost wisdom? The price is a man's peace of mind, and the cost is his life.
    2. Re:Missing the point by aussie_a · · Score: 2, Funny

      Pfft. They're just copying Yahoo.

  8. Huge Uses? by Famatra · · Score: 4, Interesting

    With a box that big you could, if you developed a network, work out an eMail p2p system.

    Simply upload the stuff you want to trade and forward it to people who need it. How do you know who would want the stuff you've uploaded? You'd need to develop a network where your node advertises what it has available, and autoforwards the file when someone requests it.

    After the initial uploading there is really no more bandwidth costs for you as you can forward the files for free - the email providers' servers handles the load.

    1. Re:Huge Uses? by MikeFM · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Firefox has a BT extension as well that may be included in future versions of Firefox and Thunderbird. I agree that such use could be interesting although I still think BT is flawed as distribution tool for heavy automated use at this time. As you say speed and reliability is also a problem with BT for small distributions. RSS/BT could do a lot to replace mass transmission of binaries from services such as Yahoo and Google Groups.

      I've cheated and developed my own method that is similar to BT, doesn't require any browser add-ons or extra software installed, and fixes the speed and reliability problems as well as making it easier to use in situations where you need to expose many files from an automated system. It also makes uploading files extremely easy. Once I reopen my website with this new feature I am thinking of opensourcing the server and client code for it and licensing it off for those who don't want to agree to the GPL's restrictions.

      My site offers file sharing and discussion so I guess it might seem to attract some of that crowd you mention although I'm more interested in artists and other content creators looking for a new means of sharing their work. So far mostly it's been used by people trading amatuer porn. Not exactly what I was aiming for but porn is often at the bleeding (or just dripping with some bodily fluid?) edge of technology.

      --
      At what price learning? At what cost wisdom? The price is a man's peace of mind, and the cost is his life.
  9. Who cares? by Telvin_3d · · Score: 3, Insightful

    See, if you could use it as intentional FTP space or some such, there might be a use, but really, a 30 GB e-mail service is no differnt than a 250 MB e-mail service for 99.9% of people out there, including me. Most mail systems limit attachment size somewhere around the 5 MB mark, so it is not like you can either expect or send large files to use that space. Nice advertising gimic, but no real use.

  10. totally shady by XenonDif · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The privacy policy doesn't state that they won't read your data or not give it out to other people. I certainly wouldn't store my tax return on this server.

    1. Re:totally shady by Nasarius · · Score: 4, Insightful
      The privacy policy doesn't state that they won't read your data or not give it out to other people. I certainly wouldn't store my tax return on this server.

      On the other hand, your data is worthless to them if you encrypt it first. Of course, I wouldn't really trust these people to keep backups, not go bankrupt, etc.

      --
      LOAD "SIG",8,1
    2. Re:totally shady by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      The privacy policy doesn't state that they won't demand my first born!! That proves they are up to something..

    3. Re:totally shady by MikeFM · · Score: 2, Interesting

      As a web developer I can say that I would never promise not to read any data stored on my machines. It just isn't possible to say that. There is always the chance it could come up in some sort of log or be required for some sort of technical or legal reason. It'd be unwise to make such a promise knowing that you probably can't live up to it.

      --
      At what price learning? At what cost wisdom? The price is a man's peace of mind, and the cost is his life.
    4. Re:totally shady by mustafap · · Score: 2, Funny

      >I certainly wouldn't store my tax return on this server.

      I dont think it's your tax return you need to worry about. Indeed quite the oppostite; It's the stuff that didn't go on the tax return :o)

      --
      Open Source Drum Kit, LPLC deve board - mjhdesigns.com
    5. Re:totally shady by corvair2k1 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      You should hold an even tighter requirement than that. If there's something you don't want someone to read something, you shouldn't send it via email... This is not a secure medium at all. Things happen in plaintext.

      This rule holds for encryption: If you don't want people reading even the encrypted text, email is the wrong way to do things.

  11. 30 webdrive? by ZeroExistenZ · · Score: 4, Informative

    If there would be the ability to have a "webdrive" like there's available for google, this might be interesting.

    Otherwise, to keep 30G of chainletters, spam, and the occasional email seems like a waste of space. In the line of google's history, they'd come out with 50G mailboxes in no time to stay current and on top. ;)

    --
    I think we can keep recursing like this until someone returns 1
  12. Re:What's a malibox? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    It's a cocktail. Mixture of Malibu and Oxtail soup.

  13. One Word: Pron. by Famatra · · Score: 5, Funny

    "I can't fill up my 2 gigs on Gmail, nor my gig on Y! mail, why in the world would I need 30 gigs?"

    If you belong to a lot of yahoo and google groups, and the groups you belong to like to send a lot of attachments (porno) you can fill up 2 gigs in a couple of days.

    Not that I know from experience or anything...

    1. Re:One Word: Pron. by ahaning · · Score: 4, Funny

      So that we may all avoid said groups, please post some examples of the worst offenders. Thanks.

      --
      Withdrawal before climax is very ineffective and those who try this are usually called "parents."
  14. I tried it, here's my review by boingyzain · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I tried out this thing yesterday for a bit.

    Here's the problems:

    1) The domain name sucks. Who wants to be john@30gigs.com

    2) The interface sucks. Hard. It's about as plain as it can get (it looks like they're just using Squirrelmail with their own stylesheet).

    3) Their privacy policy is vague on what kind of information they share

    4) There doesn't seem to be any reputable parent company behind it meaning it's chances of survival are questionable.

    Overall rating: THUMBS DOWN.

    Besides, size isn't everything!

    - Do anyone know how much spam you get with this service?
    - How does it handle attachements and their sizes?
    - How fast does mail travel through their servers?
    - How high uptime do their servers have?
    - Customizable mail filters to manage mail?
    - Multiple labels per mail, set by filters?
    - POP3 forwarding/servers?
    - Address books?
    - Antivirus checks?
    - Do they backup?

    I mean, if you have 1 GB+, why in the world would you want more?
    My over-a-year-old Gmail account use 16 MB now. 0.016 GB. It can fit about 150x more mail. Now, how many years is that?

    To me, it's just not a valid selling argument anymore.

  15. 1 TeraByte FREE WEBMAIL by linumax · · Score: 5, Funny

    Hey folks!
    I'm planning to unveil my ONE Terabyte Free webmail service by the next couple of weeks and all people on slashdot will receive invitations ASAP.

    PS: Anybody got old HDD?! wish to get rid of em? Don't hesitate to contact me

  16. Soon it will be too small by pdx_joe · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I was talking to a friend the other day and we were laughing about our old systems. I remember having a conversation where we said "What on earth would you do with a 1GHz processor?" or "I got this new 1GB HDD and it should last me a couple years at least!" 30GB email boxes seem rediculous now but don't discount them. It's hard to imagine now but someday in the not too far future we will be laughing about how we somehow managed to get by with our 500MB hotmail account or our tiny 2GB GMail accounts!

  17. Can't miss moneymaking opportunity! by Anonymous+Squonk · · Score: 5, Funny

    The domain 700petabytes.com is still available!

  18. The home page is a mess by tricheco · · Score: 2, Interesting

    30gigs.com page is kind of a mess. Nice.

  19. SMTP is not a file transfer protocol! by NerdJock · · Score: 2, Informative
    I understand that some people need to transfer a lot of data between people and groups, but SMTP is not a file transfer protocol. That should be handled by another protocol, such as File Transfer Protocol or a P2P of your choice or perhaps a repository.

    If you transfer that much data you should think about designing a small interface to handle it, to include shortcuts for the functions you use. After all, it has to be a bit cumbersome to work with that much data through a mail client.

    1. Re:SMTP is not a file transfer protocol! by generic-man · · Score: 4, Funny

      So what? HTTP is a protocol meant to toss hypertext around, and look at all the people carelessly using it to upload files, do their e-mail, and even use so-called "web applications." For shame. I even hear that some people are transmitting XML by HTTP -- the horror!

      --
      For more information, click here.
    2. Re:SMTP is not a file transfer protocol! by AtomicJake · · Score: 2, Interesting

      You are right: SMTP is the wrong protocol to send huge attachments. However, people are using it. And worse, business people (e.g. marketing guys) depend on its ability to send large files (e.g. Powerpoint presentations, large PDFs, etc.).

      There are basically two solutions for this problem: Either restrict your users to send only mails with a limited size, or to install an intelligent SMTP server (e.g. Mailonator) that will automatically replace the attachments with URLs to a Web server, where the attachments are stored.

  20. Leading the way in privacy policies. by samj · · Score: 3, Insightful

    So a long privacy policy is a good privacy policy? I think not. 30 pages of lawyerspeak is for the birds - all privacy policies (at least the ones you have to click through to obtain some service) should fit on a page or less, else they aren't generally read.

  21. With free webmail being all the rage these days... by Electrode · · Score: 2, Insightful

    What I'm waiting for is someone that offers a PAID service, say around $5-10 a month.

    Not only would this eliminate any and all advertising in the interface and your outgoing mail, but it would invariably come with guaranteed availability. Y! and Gmail make no promises whatsoever that the mail stored on their servers won't get wiped due to a failure, upgrade or whatever.

    Such a service would also probably include features that you'll never see from the free ones, like telnet/SSH access (perhaps with a pine-like interface), access via POP, IMAP and maybe even certain groupware suites (GMail has POP, but the terms suggest they might do away with it in the future), ability to use your own domain, and high-security storage (encrypted disks and such).

  22. Size isn't everything? by dascandy · · Score: 3, Funny

    > Besides, size isn't everything!

    Ah, one of those again... luckily I've just set up my own dual RAID-5 mailserver for just my own mail, on 2.4TB disk.

    Whaddayamean, compensating?

  23. Re:webdrive? invite me and I'll build it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Something like... GmailFS?

  24. Re:With free webmail being all the rage these days by (A)*(B)!0_- · · Score: 2, Interesting
    "GMail has POP, but the terms suggest they might do away with it in the future

    From http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answe r=10350&topic=194

    "POP access is free for all Gmail users and we have no plans to charge for it in the future."

    What in that statement suggests that they might do away with it in the future? Or were you just spreading FUD based on something you read a long time ago?

  25. Runbox.com by Powertrip · · Score: 2, Interesting

    And alternative that is not free, but very full featured is RUNBOX (www.runbox.com). Runbox offers 10GB email, and 1GB of file storage. They also offer POP, IMAP, Webmail, WAP and Mobile access. They even provide SSL access to boot. Pretty great service for a small fee. You can also host your own domains email on their server, thus giving you the ability to keep your johndoe@mymail.xxx accounts if you desire. Check it out, I've been using it for several years and love it.

  26. Gmail responses by r3m0t · · Score: 2, Informative

    - Do anyone know how much spam you get with this service?
    You don't get spam from them. The spam filter has been excellent for me so far - and I've used it for a long time.

    - How does it handle attachements and their sizes?
    An e-mail can be up to 10 MB once encoded, including the message body and attachments. http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answe r=8770&query=attachments&topic=0&type=f&ctx=en:sea rch

    - How fast does mail travel through their servers?
    Who cares? It probably doesn't take very long.

    - How high uptime do their servers have?
    24 hours a day most days, but sometimes there are a fwe hours of unreliable service.

    - Customizable mail filters to manage mail?
    Yes.

    - Multiple labels per mail, set by filters?
    Yes.

    - POP3 forwarding/servers?
    Yes.

    - Address books?
    A basic one.

    - Antivirus checks?
    No (but viruses probably enter the spam box).

    - Do they backup?
    Dunno. Don't really care much, either. Google are good at storing data.

  27. SMTP banner by gumbo · · Score: 2, Informative

    Note their SMTP banner:

    220-server.solostar.ca ESMTP Exim 4.52 #1 Mon, 03 Oct 2005 09:23:15 -0400

    It doesn't even have their domain name in there, which is a good sign that they don't have their own server but are using shared web hosting or bought a dedicated server from a host. I doubt there's more than one server available.

    Then note the occasional MySQL errors trying to get to their home page.

    Then look at solostar.ca, the domain in the SMTP greeting, and all the weird spammy links on their home page.

    My guess is this is a site set up by one teenager somewhere and won't last more than a few weeks. It's impressive that he got it up on here, though, so maybe he has a future in future plans that are thought out better than this one...

  28. GD2? by Mike+Hicks · · Score: 2, Interesting

    What's a GD2 signature? A quick search only brings up material related to the GD graphics library, plus a handful of articles related to this webmail site.

  29. I am such a loser... by bromoseltzer · · Score: 2, Funny

    I signed onto gmail about 6 months ago, about when they upped their quota to 2 GB. How fine!

    Except since then, I've accumulated 172 MB of mail and the Gmail quota has gone up in steps to 2650 MB.

    I am falling behind by nearly 100 MB a month. Help!

    --
    Fiat Lux.
  30. Review from an actual user by nacs · · Score: 4, Informative

    I tried out this thing yesterday for a bit.

    Here's the problems:

    1) The domain name sucks. Who wants to be john@30gigs.com

    2) The interface sucks. Hard. It's about as plain as it can get (it looks like they're just using Squirrelmail with their own stylesheet).

    3) Their privacy policy is vague on what kind of information they share

    4) There doesn't seem to be any reputable parent company behind it meaning it's chances of survival are questionable.

    Overall rating: THUMBS DOWN.

    (I posted this review to Neowin yesterday BTW).

    --
    "I filter at +6, and have yet to miss out on an important comment." (#822545)