Google launches unbelievably cool free email service on April 1st, and nobody can figure out if it's a joke or not.

The press release reads like a joke, except it's not really particularly funny. And all the wires picked it up as true, so it seems like there might be some SEC regulations that were violated if it is a joke. But I'm really not sure. I definitely want it, but it does seem too good to be true. 1 Gig of free web based email storage integrated with Google's search engine. Who wouldn't switch to this? But how can they give away a gigabyte of storage?

Please be true, please be true...
- jim 4-01-2004 4:02 pm

I can't tell if it's bogus or not. There are a few hints that it's a spoof, including ... "And it turns annoying spam e-mail messages into the equivalent of canned meat."
- mark 4-01-2004 10:32 pm


Spoof. They're combining everything people hate about/don't have with email with expectations for future Google wizardry and plugging themselves/informing about themselves in the best pr tradition.
- tom moody 4-01-2004 10:47 pm


The Merc claims to have seen a demo of Gmail.
- mark 4-02-2004 1:58 am


Yeah, everybody has it. Seems like it's true. I guess the big question now concerns any stipulations on binary attachments.
- jim 4-02-2004 4:44 am


The 1 Gigabyte capacity seems to wow people. But think about it. A gig costs a buck.
- mark 4-02-2004 10:57 am


If its not a hoax, why did they announce it on April 1st?
- sally mckay 4-02-2004 4:25 pm


But what if 100,000,000 people sign up? I guess they can afford it. But probably they are banking on the fact that nobody will use that much. And if they limit binary attachments they are correct. Pretty hard to fill up 1 gig with plaintext. So everybody "gets" 1 gig, but most people only use 10 megs.

But if I can put binary attachments up, then what's to stop me from sending warez or pr0n or whatever to a google mail account from which my ring of nefarious friends then all check in and download? If I can send 1 gig of such data to my 50 closest friends like this it adds up to a substantial amount of bandwidth (something that would cost me $200.) They must have thought of that already, because a gig is a big enough space for people to use it this way.

Also, I wonder why they went with gmail.com. Wouldn't people rather have google.com addresses? I would. Google is the brand, why dilute it?

But I've signed up to be notified when new info is available, so we'll see what happens. One thing is for sure, people at Yahoo must be feeling a little uncomfortable today.
- jim 4-02-2004 6:41 pm


I suspect that they'll have BW limits that make the 1 GB of capacity hard to use for high volume distribution of bits.

I view this counter move by Google similar to the Baby Bell vs. Cable MSO battles. As the MSO's add data and voice, the Baby Bells feel compelled to add video (without much success so far).
- mark 4-03-2004 1:52 am


A lot has happened with this story, but I haven't been able to keep up. I missed a whole round of battling over privacy issues. But, frankly, that is not a very exciting issue. I see no reason to trust anyone, but I also see no reason not to trust google more than most. Still, yes, if you are not the trustworthy type then you really need to run your own mail server (and your own ISP, and...)

But now the more interesting layers to the gmail story are starting to emerge. I think this article zeros in on the main point: The secret source of google's power.
- jim 4-05-2004 7:19 pm


Kottke likes the Skrenta piece (linked to above,) and provides his own summary of the Google as operating system idea.
- jim 4-06-2004 7:59 pm


Google is a company that has built a single very large, custom computer. It’s running their own cluster operating system. They make their big computer even bigger and faster each month, while lowering the cost of CPU cycles. It’s looking more like a general purpose platform than a cluster optimized for a single application. While competitors are targeting the individual applications Google has deployed, Google is building a massive, general purpose computing platform for web-scale programming. This computer is running the world’s top search engine, a social networking service, a shopping price comparison engine, a new email service, and a local search/yellow pages engine. What will they do next with the world’s biggest computer and most advanced operating system?
- Skinny 3-30-2022 4:21 pm


Spoof. They're combining everything people hate about/don't have with email with expectations for future Google wizardry and plugging themselves/informing about themselves in the best pr tradition. - tom moody 4-01-2004 10:47 pm
- Skinny 3-30-2022 4:22 pm





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