Gmail
by Mentality
Google - the world's most famous search engine. The word 'Google' has become a verb (the phrase "Google it" has become a phrase well accepted by the average Joe on the street), and is one of the few companies to incorporate its name into the English language. Television shows will specifically mention Google, and know that whoever is watching will know exactly what they mean. Pretty impressive. So, now Google have expanded into the world of electronic mail...
Gmail is Google's answer to electronic email. At the time of writing, its in beta stages, the only way to get a Gmail account is to be invited by another Gmail user. This has been viewed as a very smart move by Google, as the supposed 'exclusiveness' of having something the general public can't have is a big hook. However, although it indeed was an exclusive thing to have a Gmail account, various forums and websites have been set up to literally give them away to anyone who wants one. The special feeling is fading. Soon, Google will be finishing the beta stages once some minor bugs have been fixed and opening Gmail to the public.
So, what does Gmail offer? Well, Google probably knew they had a battle on their hands if they wanted to be popular - Hotmail and Yahoo! are the biggest names in the business when it comes to free email accounts on the web, and generally, there was little alternative that offered better. True to Google's belief that 'good is never good enough', they really went all out to win the public. Hotmail offers 2MB of storage space. Google answered this, by offering every user a free 1000MB (1 GigaByte) of storage space! On top of this, emails of the same topic are grouped together in 'conversations' for quick viewing, no going in and out of the inbox or clicking the 'next' arrow. A search feature that quickly scans your email folder. An archive folder so you can simply store an abundance of emails away and never view them for 5 years until you want to.
Even further than this, no default spam signature is added to the bottom of your mail, you can set up as many custom filters as you like to sort your mail (Hotmail restrict it to 10 filters) and there's an active spam filter that does a good job in catching junk mail. Hotmail have been pressured into changing their ways, as have Yahoo!. One bit of evidence is Hotmail's fairly recent announcement that it will be upgrading all of its free customers to 250MB free (a BIG step-up from 2MB), and for 'premium users', 2GB (double what Gmail offers). I can honestly say I have found Gmail to be perfect however, and the space isn't the only attraction, I would not go back to Hotmail. However, that's only my view...
One of the things Gmail is criticised about is the fact that it displays Google ads down the side of the page when you view your mail. Like all Google ads, they are relevant to the content of your email, so it may interest you. The question raised is, how is Google determining what's in your email in the first place? Google says email never passes human eyes, everything is completely controlled by computers that automatically fill the ad space with relevant text-based ads. Naturally though there are those people who have scrutnized Google's policies to the letter. Some people say there is no privacy with Gmail and your emails could quite possibly be freely viewed by any Google employee or administrator, that they could login to your account and see whatever they like.
Furthermore, for some reason, it is harder to delete emails than in other mail clients. You have to move the mail to the Trash folder, then check the box next to the email and then click on 'Delete forever'. There is no option to empty the trash folder, or to click a 'select all' for easy removal. Google have also admitted deleted emails do stay in the database, quite possibly forever. Over 30 privacy organisations have written to Google asking them to halt the Gmail project, something that is unlikely to happen any time soon! So, the main issue is privacy and how Google can give out, at their discretion, any of your emails to any governmental agency of any country, as set out in their Privacy Policy.
Despite this though, the Gmail critics are by far the minority. Google has the world wrapped round its little finger. Everyone loves it. I love it! Despite the small uprising of Anti-Googlers, figures and facts show that Google is currently one of the most unstoppable forces on the Internet, and Gmail is showing no signs of slowing the success rate down...
Happy Googling!
Written By: Mentality
© (2005)
