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wasn't sure where to put this..:D

Google to Introduce Free E-Mail Service


Apr 1, 7:50 AM (ET)
By MICHAEL LIEDTKE

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. (AP) - Google Inc. is introducing a free e-mail service to send a blunt message - the maker of the world's most popular online search engine is pulling off the gloves in its clash with high-tech heavyweights Yahoo! Inc. and Microsoft Inc.

The company unleashed the latest blow in a fierce fight for Web supremacy late Wednesday by promising to deliver 250 to 500 times more storage space than the market-leading e-mail services provided by Yahoo and Microsoft's Hotmail.

But there's a catch to the e-mail. Hoping to turn a profit from the service - dubbed Gmail - privately held Google has programmed its computers to dissect the topics being discussed in the e-mails and then deliver text-based ads related to the subjects.

For instance, an e-mail from one friend to another discussing an upcoming concert might prompt Google to include an advertising link from a ticketing agency.

"I don't think (the ads) will be annoying at all," Google co-founder Larry Page said during an interview Wednesday. "We think this will give us a business model that will work and allow us to provide a high-quality service."

Page said Gmail shouldn't raise serious privacy concerns because Google plans to closely guard the content of the e-mail messages. Ads are unlikely to accompany most e-mails, he said.

Gmail will offer 1 gigabyte of storage space, roughly 500,000 pages of e-mail. Gmail users will be able to receive up to 10 megabytes in a single e-mail - more than the free services of Yahoo and Microsoft's Hotmail allow to be stored in an entire mailbox.

Yahoo offers up to 4 megabytes of free e-mail storage while Hotmail provides 2 megabytes of free storage. Both services charge for additional space.

Gmail also will enable its users to type a keyword into a built-in search box to find information contained in their e-mailboxes within a matter of seconds.

For now, Mountain View, Calif.-based Google is only opening up the service to invited users but expects to make it accessible to everyone within a few weeks, Page said. People interested in signing up for an e-mail account are being encouraged to register at www.gmail.com.

Google's e-mail expansion is likely to escalate its mounting competition with Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Yahoo and Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft.

While those two giants have been revving up their own search technology, Google has recently unveiled a series of improvements to protect its turf.

By offering e-mail, Google is now invading a space dominated by Yahoo and Microsoft's Hotmail.

Yahoo has 52.6 million unique users per month in the United States, according to a February survey by online research firm comScore Media Metrix. Hotmail is next, with 45.4 million users. AOL has 40.2 million users, but they pay monthly subscriptions.

Officials at Yahoo and Microsoft's Hotmail division declined to comment on Google's entry into the new category.

Google had been testing its e-mail service for about a year internally before deciding to offer it to the general public.

"We think e-mail is one of those things that is not as useful and as well organized as it should be," Page said. "People have been asking us to do this for a long time."

---

AP Business Writer Rachel Konrad in San Francisco contributed to this report.

---

On the Net:

http://gmail.google.com
 
But there's a catch to the e-mail. Hoping to turn a profit from the service - dubbed Gmail - privately held Google has programmed its computers to dissect the topics being discussed in the e-mails and then deliver text-based ads related to the subjects.
......

"I don't think (the ads) will be annoying at all," Google co-founder Larry Page said during an interview Wednesday. "We think this will give us a business model that will work and allow us to provide a high-quality service."

Page said Gmail shouldn't raise serious privacy concerns because Google plans to closely guard the content of the e-mail messages. Ads are unlikely to accompany most e-mails, he said.
---
AP Business Writer Rachel Konrad in San Francisco contributed to this report.
---
On the Net:
http://gmail.google.com
Click to expand...

text based ads? not annoying? :rolleyes:

and most won't get them? wtf does THAT mean? some will? how many? 1 out of a 1000? 2 out of a 100? 8 out of 20? :mad4:

nope... I won't be signing up... :nono:
 
Considering the alternative of flash-based ads with full sound (and loud at that) that suddenly expand out of nowhere to obscure the text and have no "close" function, meaning you have to look atit for 10-15 seconds, I think text-based ads that are out of the way are practically a godsend in comparison.

I understand the need for ads, considering it's free to use and Google has to pay its worker's compensation insurance premiums somehow (the company's based in California).
 
when you put it like that I guess it's not so bad... but I truly hate ALL advertising... billboards, commercials, etc...I tend to listen to public radio and watch public television not just for the programming, but for the respite from Madison Av :shrug:
 
So you like to have your taxes pay for it instead of companies whose products you can choose not to buy if they support ptogramming you don't like? :p
 
public television and public radio both have corporate sponsors :eh:

whether I choose to buy their products or not won't make a bit of difference... boycotts rarely work :shrug:
 
Google's Gmail Raises Privacy Concern
Fri Apr 02 2004 00:33:23 ET

Privacy advocates are concerned that there's one big flaw with Google Inc.'s free e-mail service: The company plans to read the messages.

LA TIMES reporting on Friday: The Internet search firm insists that it needs to know what's in the e-mails that pass through its system -- so that they can be sprinkled with advertisements Google thinks are relevant. After all, revenue from those targeted ads will pay for the Gmail service, which began a limited test Thursday, offering up to 500 times as much e-mail storage as competing Web e-mail programs from Yahoo Inc. and Microsoft Corp.

The TIMES adds: The electronic letters won't be read by Google employees; computers will handle that chore. Nonetheless, the spector of seeing an ad for an antacid beside a message from a friend complaining about stomach pain is enough to make some people nervous about the e-mail service.

"There will undoubtedly be some folks that will see this and freak out," said Ray Everett-Church, chief privacy officer for TurnTide Inc., an anti-spam company in Conshohocken, Pa. The aggressive advertising strategy may put a damper on Google's biggest move yet away from its core business of Internet search. After reading the privacy policy on the Gmail website Thursday, consumer-rights groups began sending complaints to the privately held Mountain View, Calif., company and preparing to warn users to stay away.

"The privacy implications of going through and perusing a customer's e-mail to display targeted advertising could be the Achilles' heel for Google's services," said Jordana Beebe, the communications director for the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, an consumer group in San Diego.

The consternation caught Larry Page, Google's co-founder and president of products, off guard.

"I'm very surprised that there are these kinds of questions," he said Thursday.



Developing...
Click to expand...
 
since google would be spying on you, and spamming you.
You'd neeed 1gig. Now if you can just find the time to weed through
1,000,000 junk emails a day.
 
Like your ISP can't read your emails now? Get real people. Your ISP reads em, The FBI reads em, email is not secure, don't fool yourself into thinking it is.
 
PuterTutor said:
Like your ISP can't read your emails now? Get real people. Your ISP reads em, The FBI reads em, email is not secure, don't fool yourself into thinking it is.
Click to expand...

Ermmmm guys???? you DO know that was a google april fools joke right???
 
PuterTutor said:
Like your ISP can't read your emails now? Get real people. Your ISP reads em, The FBI reads em, email is not secure, don't fool yourself into thinking it is.
Click to expand...

I'm not sure if 'Charter' has enough people to read all the emails of all
their customers. That would be a massive job. :swing:
I do think places like google, yahoo, email.com....
are a lot less secure than my web hosting emails. At least I
kind of know the people that 'could' be reading them.

I don't see here anywhere that it says they can/will read/disclose
any emails.
http://www.charter.com/site/rules.asp#privacy
 
Quite frankly it would not surprise me in the least if it never came to fruition or was an April Fool's joke (Google is notorious for them after all)

However, why are people acting as though their ISP e-mail will barf on them everytime they access it? There's no reason IMO that makes your ISP e-mail address less able to do the job than webmail.
 
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