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Google Gets the Message, Launches Gmail
Wednesday March 31, 7:05 pm ET
User Complaint About Existing Services Leads Google to Create Search-Based Webmail
Search is Number Two Online Activity — Email is Number One; “Heck, Yeah,” Say Google FoundersMOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–March 31, 2004– Amidst rampant media speculation, Google Inc. today announced it is testing a preview release of Gmail — a free search-based webmail service with a storage capacity of up to eight billion bits of information, the equivalent of 500,000 pages of email. Per user.
The inspiration for Gmail came from a Google user complaining about the poor quality of existing email services, recalled Larry Page, Google co-founder and president, Products. “She kvetched about spending all her time filing messages or trying to find them,” Page said. “And when she’s not doing that, she has to delete email like crazy to stay under the obligatory four megabyte limit. So she asked, ‘Can’t you people fix this?'”The idea that there could be a better way to handle email caught the attention of a Google engineer who thought it might be a good “20 percent time” project. (Google requires engineers to spend a day a week on projects that interest them, unrelated to their day jobs). Millions of M&Ms later, Gmail was born.
“If a Google user has a problem with email, well, so do we,” said Google co-founder and president of technology, Sergey Brin. “And while developing Gmail was a bit more complicated than we anticipated, we’re pleased to be able to offer it to the user who asked for it.”
Added Page, “Gmail solves all of my communication needs. It’s fast and easy and has all the storage I need. And I can use it from anywhere. I love it!”
Today, a handful of users will begin testing the preview version of Gmail. Unlike other free webmail services, Gmail is built on the idea that users should never have to file or delete a message, or struggle to find an email they’ve sent or received. Key features of Gmail include:
Search: Built on Google search technology, Gmail enables people to quickly search every email they’ve ever sent or received. Using keywords or advanced search features, Gmail users can find what they need, when they need it.
Storage: Google believes people should be able to hold onto their mail forever. That’s why Gmail comes with 1,000 megabytes (1 gigabyte) of free storage — more than 100 times what most other free webmail services offer.
Speed: Gmail makes using email faster and more efficient by eliminating the need to file messages into folders, and by automatically organizing individual emails into meaningful “conversations” that show messages in the context of all the replies sent in response to them. And it turns annoying spam e-mail messages into the equivalent of canned meat.
According to Page and Brin, Google will make the preview test version of Gmail available to a small number of email aficionados. With luck, Gmail will prove popular to them — and to the original user who sparked the idea.Those interested in learning more about Gmail can visit [url]http://gmail.google.com.[/url]
About Google Inc.
Google’s innovative search technologies connect millions of people around the world with information every day. Founded in 1998 by Stanford Ph.D. students Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Google today is a top web property in all major global markets. Google’s targeted advertising program, which is the largest and fastest growing in the industry, provides businesses of all sizes with measurable results, while enhancing the overall web experience for users. Google is headquartered in Silicon Valley with offices throughout North America, Europe, and Asia. For more information, visit http://www.google.com.
:rolleyes:
This looks great. I think I’ll give it a try once it’s up and running.
Same here … will close all my hotmail and yahoo accounts.
:rolleyes:
Free Google e-mail service alleged to invade privacy
Source: Baltimoresun.com
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.
The Internet search company says it needs to know what’s in the e-mail that passes through its system so they can be sprinkled with advertisements that Google thinks are relevant.
Revenue from those targeted ads will pay for the Gmail service, which began a test last week, offering up to 500 times as much e-mail storage as competing Web e-mail programs from Yahoo Inc. and Microsoft Corp.
The electronic letters will be read by computers, not by Google employees, but the specter 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 might put a damper on Google’s biggest move away from its core business of Internet searches. After reading the privacy policy on the Gmail Web site last week, consumer-rights groups began sending complaints to the privately held Mountain View, Calif., company and began 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, communications director for the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, a 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.
Spam-filtering programs routinely scour e-mail for telltale words such as “Viagra,” and companies monitor the messages of employees on their corporate networks.
In addition, Internet companies scrutinize Web search terms to serve up ads that are related to the topic a user apparently cares about.
Google’s AdSense program goes a step further, placing such ads alongside content on Web sites that come up in search results.
But e-mail is a more personal form of communication, making targeted advertisements feel intrusive, said Chris Hoofnagle, associate director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center in Washington. He likened the Gmail ads to a computerized voice interrupting a phone conversation about a vacation with a pitch for a travel agency.
“This is an expansion in a way that should bother people,” Hoofnagle said. “Communications are sacred.”
Consumer advocates are also worried about the potential for Google to link Gmail users to their Internet searches.
Google records the numerical Internet addresses of the computers that request each of the Web searches the company performs. But it hasn’t had names or other identifying information to link those addresses to specific people and learn who, for example, is searching for “Janet Jackson halftime show.”
Once users register for Gmail, Google could make that connection, said Pam Dixon, executive director of the World Privacy Forum in San Diego. And if Google ever compared the two sets of data, she said, “there are some people who would be chilled and embarrassed.”
Page wouldn’t say whether Google plans to link Gmail users to their Web search queries.
Even more interesting when you can see that the people that will eventually take over Google have links to the C.I.A.
:rolleyes:
If its not one hand its the other … just in today.
FBI Wants Access To Xbox Live
Wednesday, April 07 @ 13:22:40 PDTThe FBI proposes that they be allowed to wiretap Xbox Live communications. Could terrorists be using the Xbox Live service to transmit information?
In silly news of the day, we have learned that the FBI has made a proposal to the FCC that would require all Internet Providers to rewire their current system in order to make wiretapping accessible to the FBI. Experts claim that if the new proposal were to pass, MSN Messenger, Xbox Live and any voice over Internet protocol would be accessible for wiretapping.
The 85-page document that was submitted to the FCC would require all companies to build a “back door” for the FBI to monitor chatting. New services that did not offer a “back door” would become illegal and old services, such as Xbox Live, would have 15 months to comply.
Big brother is always watching, and this time they are watching little brother on their Xbox…
Read more at Gamers.com
:rolleyes:
Oh let’s not forget the fact that
Bill Gates gave the NSA branch of the U.S. Government
COMPLETE backdoor access to EVERY Windows machine.
:rolleyes:
I’m sure terrorists are just chatting it up discussing weapons of mass destruction while playing Duke Nuke Em.
I’m also sure they’re plotting world domination while playing Desert Storm.
Does it ever end? The us government obviously has too much money.
Antoine
OH my GOD!
LOL …
Antoine maybe they will be profiling for future terrorists
based on the games and frequency they play.
‘LOL …
Antoine maybe they will be profiling for future terrorists
based on the games and frequency they play.
‘Good thing I’m not 12 anymore, otherwise they would have nabbed me.
I wonder if they monitor the half-life servers……….
