June 22nd, 2004 | 7 Comments
GMail: Google’s Email Servce
April 2005
Since writing this, Google have made various changes to GMail, improving support to non-Javascript enabled browsers, other accessibility improvements, as well as offering POP3 access and auto forwarding.
Also, due to increased competition from other e-mail services, they have upped the limit of space given from 1GB to 2GB (and this is likely to continue rising as and when they are able to increase it).
If you are after an invite, go to my GMail Invite blog entry and leave your e-mail address in a comment.
After reading plenty about Google’s new(ish) email system, GMail, I’ve finally received an invite to test it thanks to a kind soul at the SitePoint forums.
The major reason for all the inital talk was not just the fact that this was a Google system (anything Google always causes a lot of discussion), but because of a couple of the features it offered; 1GB of storage space, plus context sensitive ads placed next to emails - Google’s way of paying for all that storage space, no doubt.
The storage space was, at the time, way beyond anything else offered by free email services (the announcement on April 1st caused many to think that the storage amount was an April fool), and was more than enough to hold the average users email for years.
The ads caused even more of a stir, as there were concerns that emails were being ‘read’ in order to provide the contextual adverts.
Personally, privacy wasn’t an issue that worried me, the massive storage space far out-weighed any issues in this respect. And if you don’t like the idea of a computer scanning your mail, then why sign-up? In any case, my recent sign-up has not revealed much personal information to Google - no address, age or other personal detail was required. No doubt they can build up a profile of me from scanning my GMails, but to me that is no more scary than any other site building up a profile of my visiting habits. And although I’ve never really noticed it, Yahoo! Mail could have been doing a similar thing for years to target the ad banners that they show when collecting mail.
Since it’s launch, other services have hit back in the storage stakes - most notably Yahoo! has just upped it’s storage amount for free email accounts to 100MB (from 6MB), and for a price you can secure a full 2GB of storage space. Again, for an average email user, 100MB is probably more than enough space, even given the huge amounts of spam that are flying around.
Although I have my own email accounts, and do not particularly need another web-based account, I was interested in getting a GMail address in order to see what all the fuss was about, to see how well their search and conversation threading features work, and also to try to secure a reasonable username before the service goes fully live.
My initial thoughts (after very limited use!) on it are that it appears to be extremely quick (perhaps due to a lower number of users at the current time?) - certainly faster than my Yahoo account, plus no annoying banners, and the contextual ads are hardly noticable.
The code behind it is however horrible (what no DOCTYPE declaration? Where are the html or head tags?? Heavy reliance on javascript and use of frames: ugh!). It would have been nice to see Google embrace the current push towards web standards. It is however still in beta, so hopefully these problems will be pointed out and sorted by the time it goes live to the masses.
WV4 is the online home of Rob Lewis, featuring a blog covering a variety of subjects, mainly web design, CSS and PHP, as well as featuring useful links to other websites.
I have found Gmail to be very good - using the gmail notifier is very helpful. As when it notifies you of the email a small pop up comes on at the bottom right hand side of the screen with who it is from and also a snippet from the email itself. The storage space is great - especially seeing as it is free!!
All the best to the Gmail team.
Competition is good for every human endeavour; for it brings out the best in all.
Good luck
Mark
I recently registered with Gmail with the above address. Alternative address - kimslim@pc.jaring.my But, I’m having problmes opening to have a look at my mail. Would appreciate your guidance. Please let me know which address you use when you respond. Looking forward to getting help from you. Thank you.. Kim
Hi Kim,
What type of problems are you getting? Have you signed up for your Gmail account but can’t read your mail? I know that Google have recently added support for more browsers, if this is the sort of problem you are getting.
I go to http://gmail.google.com every time to login.
If you need another Gmail invite sending then let me know.
Rob.
hi
i have not found my gmail
wher’s my gmail?