Read today's follow-up story:
The i-Technology World Remains
Giga-Baffled By Google's "Gmail"
It may not be
certain any longer whether or not Google will complete an IPO this year, but it
now looks certain to be entering the free e-mail market.
Offering better
anti-spam software than Yahoo Mail and Hotmail and other rivals, and throwing in
1GB of storage, Google is aiming - once the preview has been tweaked - to launch
"Gmail" later this year.
"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," Larry Page, Google
co-founder and president, told the Financial
Times (FT).
The FT comments:
"This is Google's latest step in its push away from being a mere search
engine towards taking on the world's biggest Internet portals, following moves
into news and Froogle, a comparative shopping tool."
The preview registration for GMail is here.
"If a Google user has a problem with e-mail, 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."
CNN.com
comments:
"Put in real-world terms, Gmail's one gigabyte of free storage could hold the
equivalent of a pick-up truck filled with books, where Yahoo's four free
megabytes could not quite handle the complete works of William
Shakespeare."
The Sydney
Morning Herald, in Sydney, Australia, where it's already April 2,
reports:
But there's a catch to the new service
announced today - Google's computers will scan emails to deliver targeted
advertising.
NBC's Channel
13 joins the speculation:
"Google has long exhibited a quirky sense of humor about itself and its
technology. One example of this is Pigeon Rank, a page on Google,
which claims its search results are compiled using large numbers of trained
pigeons. Then there is the recent job listing for the
Google Copernicus Center, which claims the company is hiring staff for a new
lunar hosting and research center, to be opened in 2007.
Skeptics also note that the press release announcing the service on Business Wire is dated
March 31 at 7:05 p.m., which is also just past midnight GMT."
So far, Google has been declining to comment further on Gmail, referring
all questions to the company's official press release
announcing the service.
Among the clues that awake suspicion in many, though, is this, from the Gmail
FAQ (italics
ours):
Is Gmail available in other
languages?
During this testing period, the
Gmail interface is only available in English. However, we're committed to making
Gmail available to as many people in as many languages as possible. And Gmail
accounts can already be used to read and send email in most languages (even
Klingon).
Nonetheless Reuters
is reporting Google's vice president of products, Jonathan Rosenberg, as saying:
"Gmail is not a hoax...We are very serious about Gmail." 
Subscribe to SOA World Magazine Email News Alerts
Subscribe via RSS
