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Google to offer GMail with 1GB free storage


Peachy

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This is no April Fool's joke. Google is going to launch an ad-sponsored web mail service ala Hotmail and Yahoo! Mail. The features include 1 GB of storage space and the ability to Google search your messages. All this for free (i.e., ad-sponsored). :)

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I think it is great, but not sure why 1GB of space - that is a lot of email.  5mbs of space holds a lot for me.
Google plans to sell all addresses to SPAMmers and they need the extra space to handle the flood of new animated and musical email attachments they intend to send. :rolleyes: :whistling: Sorry, being silly. :whistling: It would appear that they intend for subscribers to be able to save almost everything they receive or send which is definitely a unique position for free webmail. If they include antivirus filtering and user set filters it should be quite a service.
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Guest LilBambi

Just under 300 spam emails on my Yahoo! account in the last week ... no sir, I am not gonna go with this one...yahoo's bad enough. And this on an email address I don't even use.Glad I just go in to delete the spam and leave on yahoo.

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linuxdude32

Saw this on Slashdot and at first thought it was an April Fool's Joke. Pretty cool. Which they'd add the option to secure the mail like with Hushmail. I like Google services so I might give this one a serious try.

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it might be cool, but I dont like ad sponsored anything when it comes to using any email services. who knows whats in those ads.....J

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linuxdude32

Yeah, but look at how long the Roman Empire lasted! What, 700+ years? :o Please don't say that there might be a day when Google is gone! :)

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Yeah, but look at how long the Roman Empire lasted! What, 700+ years? :o Please don't say that there might be a day when Google is gone! :)
If you take into account the Eastern Roman Empire, it actually 1500 years.Which might mean Google 700 years. Google + Microsoft=1500 years. :lol: :D :D
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linuxdude32
Which might mean Google 700 years. Google + Microsoft=1500 years. :o  :lol:  :D
So those 100-year terms on Domains that Verisign is selling might not be such a bad idea after all? :)
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I think it is great, but not sure why 1GB of space - that is a lot of email.  5mbs of space holds a lot for me.
Sounds like classic overselling. They are probably relying on the fact that 90% of users will only use a fraction of the space. Its going to be interesting to see how long the 1 gig limit will last.
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Sounds like they're going to scan through the emails  that are sent and stick "related" ads in some of the emails...  seems scary to me.
Yep, its right in their TOSStates that No human will read your mail to target ads. That creeps me out a bit too. I don't know about the public at large, but I know I have NEVER clicked on an ad generated by these free email companies. I'm so used to them, I don't even pay attention to them anymore.
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Sounds like classic overselling. They are probably relying on the fact that 90% of users will only use a fraction of the space.  Its going to be interesting to see how long the 1 gig limit will last.
That question was raised the response was hardware costs are dirt cheap so not very expensive to maintain that storage limit.or like other marketing gimmicks the way to get people to sign up for the service initially then you change terms of service. :)
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It might be interesting to get an account and hang on to use for your junk mail stuff. Just to see what happens. :) Julia :o

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nlinecomputers

Personally I wonder how fast the spammers will start using the service. I sure hope they host the sites away from the google search engine servers. Google is fast but I can just see spammers eating all the decent bandwidth. Personally I wish google would stay out of this market.

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  • 2 weeks later...
Guest LilBambi

I love the Google search engine and most of their offerings but GMail is definitely not on my even mildly interested list of things to get. I dislike the web beacons on Yahoo bad enough, that's why I never use the account at Yahoo for email. Also, as I mentioned in just one week I received just under 300 SPAM messages in my bulk mail box for my Yahoo account that I don't even use!EFF.org: GMail: What's the Deal?

Read on for a brief tour through news pieces that point to and/or explore Gmail's outstanding privacy issues:Google's Email Strategy Criticized (reg. req.): "Page wouldn't say whether Google planned to link Gmail users to their Web search queries. 'It might be really useful for us to know that information'to make search results better, he said. 'I'd hate to rule anything like thatout.'"Why I Couldn't Consider Google's Email: "The 'privacy policy' for the not-yet-available Google 'GMail' email service is nothing short of chilling."Why Gmail Gives Me the Creeps: "The Google contextual advertising system automatically scans [Gmail users' incoming email] for frequently used terms in order to serve up ads...The company says it is not going to read the contents of anyone's in-box. Still, you don't need to be a privacy extremist to realize that this fundamentally remains a bad idea."Google's Web Mail No Joke: "With Gmail, Google will become a prime repository for personal profiles or life memories...Because many people wouldn't have to delete email, they could potentially search for communications a year or two, or 10 in the past, with ease. The downside of that is the creation of a centralizedhoneypot of personal data for legal investigations..."GMail Not So Google-rific: "What's to stop our good ol'buddy John Ashcroft down at the U.S. Justice Department from dropping by Google headquarters with a quiet little PATRIOT Act subpoena, or something similar, that would instruct Google to add a few extra features to its machine that reads emails, creating 'special' searches to 'help with the war on terror'?"Google Responds to Gmail Privacy Concerns: "In response, Google says what's drawing concern is what computers are capable of doing, not what the company does in reality...But [Google] stopped short of saying that the company will never correlate [your Gmail identity with your Google search behavior]. 'Then it gets to be an issue of what happens if we have to do something to comply with a legal situation,' [Google] said, apparently speaking of criminal cases in which the company might be subpoenaed by law enforcement."
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linuxdude32

Maybe if everybody started using encrypted email, this wouldn't be such an issue. What's to stop your ISP from scanning your normal email for interesting stuff or checking logs to see what websites you visit? Absolutely nothing. It's not illegal. Advertisers and websites already store cookies to see what subjects, websites or pages you visit. A ton of people use Yahoo and Microsoft email accounts and every time you click on a link in a Microsoft email, it sends that link to Microsoft servers before forwarding you to the link. I wonder why?There certainly are issues that need to be looked at regarding this, but the fact is that email as it exists now can already be scanned, stored, backed up and served up to the government, law enforcement (hopefully with a proper search warrant) or advertisers and I don't believe the legislation exists to protect us. On top of that, almost everybody uses discount shopping cards, credit cards and so forth. Why do you think stores like them so much? They are collecting tons of data on purchase decisions, likes and so on.Don't ever say anything in email that you couldn't handle the entire world knowing about or use encryption to protect it.

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Also, as I mentioned in just one week I received just under 300 SPAM messages in my bulk mail box for my Yahoo account that I don't even use!
Wow! You are popular. :D I don't think I have had 20 spams in my yahoo account in over three years! :) I know my daughter's junk account that she uses when she has to give out for places that require an email gets a lot but I thought 20 a month was a lot.Did someone post your address on the Spammer's must list? :whistling:Julia :) <ducking for cover>
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It might be interesting to get an account and hang on to use for your junk mail stuff.  Just to see what happens.  :D Julia :)
That's exactly what I'm planning to do.Already signed up for notifications :)
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I have a junk mail account on Go.com which I intentionally keep full, in fact it's at 104%. I filled it myself by sending large zipped files to it. In it's current state it can accept 1-3 small emails. Anything over that gets bounced back to the sender. ;) When it was empty I use to get 20-30 SPAMs a day sent to it. I got tired of deleteing them so I chose this approach.When I need to provide an actual email address to something, rather then my standby a@b.com, and I'm skeptical of the recipient, I delete the 1-3 SPAMs from my Go.com account and use that. I also have one called junkhere@****.com that I use when I know there may be and exchange of emails for a period, like vendor support.

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I'm thinking about using a gmail account as a place to receive and store all of my technology-related email newsletters. Scot's Newsletter, LangaList, Tech Republic, Karen Kenworthy, PC Mag, etc.If they are all in one easily searchable place, after a few years it may be quite a reference resource. I don't care if Google indexes them, and I can ignore the ads.I'd never use the service for personal emails, though. Even if I never have plans to overthrow the government. ;)

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I'm thinking about using a gmail account as a place to receive and store all of my technology-related email newsletters. Scot's Newsletter, LangaList, Tech Republic, Karen Kenworthy, PC Mag, etc.If they are all in one easily searchable place, after a few years it may be quite a reference resource. I don't care if Google indexes them, and I can ignore the ads.
Sounds like an excellent use for it. The ads I believe would only apply to outgoing emails not the incoming so that shouldn't be a problem.
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linuxdude32

Review of Gmail here at Forbes. Author also addesses the privacy concerns:

Finally, you've probably heard much of the hot air surrounding Google's plans to push ads at Gmail users. The first night we started using Gmail, late April 9, we saw the text ads, which were nearly identical to the text ads you're used to seeing in on the right side of the screen after a Web search at Google.com. As of this morning, we noticed no text ads at all. E-mail is an inherently insecure medium. For the most part messages are sent in the clear, meaning almost no attempt is made to obfuscate the contents of a message from someone with prying eyes. All Internet service providers store e-mail on a server in order to deliver it to you. Technicians with time on their hands and lousy ethics can--if they want--read your mail. The only way to prevent this is to encrypt your e-mail so that only those who have the keys to decrypt it can read it. But consumers have shown that they overwhelmingly don't care to use encryption, mainly because it adds too many steps in the process of sending and receiving e-mail. Google insists quite clearly in its privacy policy that "No human reads your mail to target ads or other information without your consent." The process by which it pushes ads at its users is fully automated. Fears about privacy problems inherent with the Gmail service are, in our opinion, overblown.
Moderators: Is there a better place to post the review link? Not sure what category to use.
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Grasshopper
I have a junk mail account on Go.com which I intentionally keep full, in fact it's at 104%.  I filled it myself by sending large zipped files to it.  In it's current state it can accept 1-3 small emails.  Anything over that gets bounced back to the sender.  :rolleyes: When it was empty I use to get 20-30 SPAMs a day sent to it.  I got tired of deleteing them so I chose this approach.When I need to provide an actual email address to something, rather then my standby a@b.com, and I'm skeptical of the recipient, I delete the 1-3 SPAMs from my Go.com account and use that. I also have one called junkhere@****.com that I use when I know there may be and exchange of emails for a period, like vendor support.
That's a pretty good idea Ed. For some reason, I've never thought of that. Duh!
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Guest LilBambi
Also, as I mentioned in just one week I received just under 300 SPAM messages in my bulk mail box for my Yahoo account that I don't even use!
Wow! You are popular. :D I don't think I have had 20 spams in my yahoo account in over three years! :D I know my daughter's junk account that she uses when she has to give out for places that require an email gets a lot but I thought 20 a month was a lot.Did someone post your address on the Spammer's must list? :whistling:Julia B)
My Yahoo! account used to be used in my early Internet days for form email address for signing up at websites, and stuff like that. Haven't used it for that in years, but they just keep coming, and coming and coming! :rolleyes:
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I think, this whole issue about the privacy thing is being over-rated...Whats all the fuss about? Doesnt Yahoo! and other other web based email, *study* email to mark future messages as SPAM? Infact, they have a very good idea of the kind of email one receives....Thats how, false positives are reduced etc....Come to think of it, 1GB is pretty cool.... :thumbsup:

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this can't be real...say 10 million users at 1 billion each? that's what, 10,000 terrabytes?even if they assume only 30% utilization... that's ludicrous.
Why? At work this week the ITS department upgraded their Storage Area Network so that the capacity for storing user data is now 3 terabytes. This is for 3,000 users. :P
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