Google?s name has become synonymous with the web search. Here comes the another product which extends its simplicity, relevance, interactivity & efficiency to the next level.
Welcome to Gmail, Google?s answer to all the Hotmails & Yahoo!s.
What is Gmail ?
Gmail is a new free email service offered by Google. Right now it is in its testing phase and is not open for the general public. You can sign up only when you receive an invitation from Google. Gmail created the news when it claimed to offer whopping 1GB of storage space to its users. Which is far more than what other email service providers are offering now.
The Hype
It?s a talk of town. People are dying to try this new service. There is a website (Gmailswap.com) where you can trade virtually anything for a Gmail invitation. It includes, two batches of home-made cookies, a 14-inch string of tikki lights, a commitment from a Utah chiropractor to take on a low-income patient and even a romantic night at Canadian capital !! Just check the site and have a laugh !!
Those with a less mercenary bent have frequented sites like gmail4troops.com and gmail4u.blogspot.com, both of which link those desiring invitations to those possessing a surplus. Gmailswap.com has been particularly popular, with more than 78,000 posting requests for invitations since its creation in mid-May.
?People were lining up for them?, said Amantha, who estimates that she has passed out 36 invitations through her blog at LiveJournal.com
And take this.. Gmail invitations have been auctioned on eBay, at one point reaching prices as high as $200, according to some reports.
Testing of early or beta versions of software used to be limited to serious computer users, who devoted hours to working with flawed programs and reporting bugs to developers. Nowadays, though, the tester?s focus is often less on improving new software and more on just being among the first to have it. It is a shift that some firms have embraced, selecting testers in ways that seem intended to maximize hype.
Why should I wait for Gmail ??
Believe me, its worth waiting for this much-awaited service. Here are some reasons :
(At the same time, I?ll try to compare it with other service providers)
# Mammoth storage space.
Gmail provides whopping 1GB of storage space!!
?1000 megabytes of free storage, so you'll never need to delete another message.? That?s what Google says on its site. I think we can not even compare this with the hotmail (2MB), yahoo (6MB) or any other email service provider.
# Easy search.
If you have decided not to delete any mail then how you gonna find that recipe which you received in last month from your grandma? Relax. When it comes to search, Google is the King.
Gmail has a very simple but powerful search engine. Google search is at the heart of Gmail. Fast, efficient and effective. Just type a few keywords into the search box and your message appears. You don't have to remember where you put your mail.
# Conversation
Gmail takes an initiative and introduces a new feature called Conversations. That means, Gmail groups messages having similar topic or subject. With Gmail, you'll see your messages in context. If there was a reply to a message you sent or received, Gmail will automatically display it in chronological order with the original. This conversation view continues to grow as you respond and new replies arrive, making it possible for you to follow the whole back and forth discussion in one place. It has got a slick tabbed interface.
# Labels, Stars & Spam
Gmail has replaced the concept of folders with more simpler way. Instead of putting your mails in particular folder, you can just assign a label to a mail and later access it easily. I found it convenient.
There is a folder named, ?Starred mails? which contains the mails which you have starred for later viewing. For example: You get a mail which contains your registration information. Now you?ll just ?Star? that mail and it will go into ?Starred? folder.
Spam is something I didn?t test properly as I never got one. (This doesn?t mean that Gmail is Spam free). If you get a Spam message, use the Report Spam feature to squash it. The Spam will automatically be removed from your inbox and information about it will be reported to Google?s quality team.
What about Ads ?
This has attracted a lot of unnecessary attention from across the world. They say your mails are not private in Gmail. Google clarifies this and claims that no humans are involved in this process and no one reads your mail.
Unlike Yahoo! And Hotmail, there are no pop-ups, untargeted banner ads or warnings urging you to buy more storage. Gmail however, will often place a few highly relevant, text ads adjacent to the body of your email. You'll also see links to related web pages you might find of interest.
These ads and links are displayed automatically using the same technology that Google uses in AdSense system, which delivers targeted ads to thousands of sites across the web. Computers scan the text on a given page, perform a mathematical analysis on it and match it to ads in our extensive database. You may find that hard to believe when you see how closely the ads match the topic of your message.
The thing I liked most is, it doesn?t append outgoing mails with irritating Ads like all other free email service providers do.
Final words
Besides these advantages, Gmail does have some problems. Your browser has to be enabled to receive cookies. Gmail doesn?t work well with ?Opera? browser. You can not use HTML tags while composing a message. Sometimes it refuses to load. It doesn?t have a calendar, scheduler, reminder or any other value added feature that Hotmail & Yahoo! Offers. (I?ve also read somewhere that Hotmail is coming up with 250MB and Yahoo with 100MB of free storage space).
Now, it is up to you. If you want an email service with added features but a little (I should say tiny) space, go for Hotmails & Yahoo!s. And if you want plain, clean and rather simple email service, nothing comes closer to Gmail.
© Harshal Katre 2004
PS: Try rediffmail from rediff.com, it has also started to offer 1GB of free storage space.
