The Email Wars

GMAIL: 1 GB
YAHOO: 100 MB

Confession: I have a Gmail account.. the 1 GB utopia that is unleashing
a new kind of frenzy on the internet..

Though Yahoo has made public announcements on the 100 MB space my yahoo
account is still the old 6 MB. Yahoo plans to implement the 100 MB space
only in the summer!

Here are some of the interesting things that I thought make sense:

1. On CNET.com I read an article that said - GMail will be reading all the email that
flows in and out of the GMail mailboxes. On further investigation from
the GMail help pages, here is what I gathered - "No humans will read the
content of your email in order to target such advertisements or related
information."
This is talking about a technology called Ad-Sense that makes it
possible for advertisers to target specific email campaigns based on the
text of emails that a person sends or receives. Also, through the magic
of "Family-Safe" ads, only safe ads will be sent out to the consumers.
Ad-Sense and Family Sense technologies being a Black Box, I really don't
know what is happening inside.
I personally don't have a problem with machines reading my email till I
am not spammed against my wishes.
The privacy policies of GMail seem good and promise not to sell any PII.

2. "Privacy International" is going after the GMail. Looks like GMail is
now BIG enough to warrant attention and law suits :) After all, it is
only big fish that yields meat...
California State Senator Liz
Figueroa
author of "Do-Not-Call legislation" is also in fray to
"warn" people of the dangers of GMail.
My concern is that lawyers force technology companies to become more of
a lawyer firm than a technology firm that it started with. Google might
one day find a law suit so big on their chest that it will decide to
throw out the "rotten apple" from its basket.

3. Till today, no email service has proved to be economically
justifiable. Hotmail, Yahoo or any other.. Email is something that is
retained to keep the consumers coming to their e-commerce portals even
if the company is loosing money in hoards... So the rule should be,
lesser the space, lower the losses. IF GMail is to sustain the 1 GB
limit, I really think that they have to come up with something more
justifiable, something that looks like a business model...

4. Is GMail a pre-IPO gimmick to get people excited on google? Given
that GMail is tom-tomming about the BETA aspect, when it goes lives the
promised space would be missing due to "sustainability" issues.

5. MOST IMPORTANTLY, what happens to my other email accounts that all my
friends and family know? It is unlike the Cell Phone no. that can remain
constant even when one switches operators...
If I get a GMail account today (till the IPO is hugely over subscribed
and Google gets the money), my friends might find a return mail in their
mailboxes if they write to me @gmail.com post the IPO.

The two features that I find cool about GMail:
- Google search to look up information in my mailbox. Currently, there
is NO better search technology than Google. It remains to be seen though
how dedicated that technology will be to the GMail mailboxes.
- Preview feature of GMail that is not available in Web Based emails.
Though, my favourite MS Office Outlook does give me that feature!!!

The fact remains that GMail AMAZES me.... both from the mind blogging
space if offers and the business model they are going after (that might
be a trade secret)...

Till the dust settles... I am not swimming with the sharks....

P.S.: I am making this post using the new email based blogging support
recently introduced.

Comments

Richard Hsu said…
- we can change cell operators and retain the phone number ?? This is not available here at least in Kolkata.

- I am swimming with the sharks!! but I am only using it for contacting people who I have other ways to contact. Also the people I am mailing with gmail are those that I can reach personally and on phone. BUT, I should be more careful in relying on gmail.

- Mainly I am trying to get a hang of the google guy's idea of an email system. And they do have a lot of cool ideas indeed. 'Expand All', email trail, labels (I know I should be more specific, but feel lazy right now :-) ) and of course the Super Cool Search.
Abhishek Kant said…
we can change cell operators and retain the phone number ?? This is not available here at least in Kolkata.
--this is available in US.. we yet don't have legislation in india for that.. technically feasible.

- I am swimming with the sharks!! but I am only using it for contacting people who I have other ways to contact. Also the people I am mailing with gmail are those that I can reach personally and on phone. BUT, I should be more careful in relying on gmail.
-- Use gmail as much as you want.. i think it makes you lazy.. on my 2 GB hotmail, i tend to keep it clean and tidy.. but with gmail, things would be back to messy.

- Mainly I am trying to get a hang of the google guy's idea of an email system. And they do have a lot of cool ideas indeed. 'Expand All', email trail, labels (I know I should be more specific, but feel lazy right now :-) ) and of course the Super Cool Search.
-- some cool features almost nearing the MS Outlook's rich client.. with the latest glitch of 1 TB notice, it looks like there is some sloppy programming at the back end.. given it is a beta right now, they are not even responsible if everything is lost one day. No archiving gurantees as well :(
Unknown said…
One thing I noticed about this mail-to-blog post is that the line wrappings are happening according to the paragrpahs in the email client and not according to the blog layout. Maybe you should try to write the entire blog in single paragraph ;)
Sudhakar said…
Hey

Check out www.spymac.com also :)

The Internet's First Free 1 GB Email Service.

http://www.spymac.com/user.php?action=login

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