GMail's Future?

[nightmaresc]

Obviously, Google's GMail is becoming very popular. What worries me is how tainted the @gmail.com accounts will become if/when GMail becomes totally open.

Some of you may have had a similar experience, but I have had several companies, people, and spam filters not take my past @hotmail.com e-mail seriously. It's not really considered a 'good' e-mail provider any longer.

If GMail becomes available to everyone then the same thing might happen. Google is one of the most popular websites on the Internet and it will definately get a lot of people on GMail.

Share your thoughts on GMail's future. Should it stay invitation only or not?

Personally, I believe that GMail and Orkut should both remain invitation only.

[intelliot]

I think so too, but it would definitely be a break from tradition. It seems that everyone has assumed that Gmail would eventually become open to the public ever since it was announced April 1.

Unfortunately, I've read that there are a couple people who already don't take Gmail seriously. They don't like how email is stored forever and (possibly) never deleted, and how targeted advertising appears by their emails.

Still, Gmail has a far better reputation than Hotmail so far.

Part of the reason Hotmail is tainted is that it's loaded with ads and gives you only 2 MB of space (for free). The ads are annoying banners for dating sites, etc. Since Gmail is very different from this, there's a good chance it won't share the same fate even when it becomes public.

[Randy]

I agree with both of you, and believe that GMail should be not made publicly avaible. However, it will be close to publicly avaible anyway because of the invites. I believe that GMail should be per-invite only.

[oblivious]

How is it that Gmail won't share the same fate as Hotmail? I mean if they make it public (which it will because there is already stock for it), then technically it's free to anyone who wants to make an accout. So whos to stop somebody from making 10 accounts and spamming with 9 of them? Unless they make some sort of a requirement that they can randomly send emails to the account to "renew the subscription" (bad choice of words, i know, but you get what I'm saying). This way if a user is only using his account for signing up at sites and doesn't want his real one spammed, then he would have to check it periodically to renew his account. That's the only possible way they are going to keep gmail clean. Otherwise it will be another yahoo or hotmail and you won't be able to sign up for nothin' with the account because no one will know if it's real or just a "fake" address...

[leogodoy]

I don't agree with this "there goes the neighborhood" (spelling?) vision of making and e-mail invitation only. I have my gmail, and I wish I could get one for my brother and my girlfriend, but I CAN'T. I have to wait till they allow me to invite them. I don't see how this is fair to people who don't know other people. It only makes it easier for them bloody pirates who are selling invitations...

Cheers,
Leo

[nightmaresc]

Originally Posted by leogodoy

I don't agree with this "there goes the neighborhood" (spelling?) vision of making and e-mail invitation only. I have my gmail, and I wish I could get one for my brother and my girlfriend, but I CAN'T. I have to wait till they allow me to invite them. I don't see how this is fair to people who don't know other people. It only makes it easier for them bloody pirates who are selling invitations...

I can understand problems like this with the invitation system. If they kept it invitation only they should make unlimited or daily limits on the number of invites you can send. That way people with problems like you have can fix them easily.

[intelliot]

I think the way they've been doing it, randomly giving invites, works well. It's a beta service after all.

I don't think Gmail will share the same fate as Hotmail because:
1) Hotmail is slow
2) Hotmail has annoying, unrelated banner ads
3) Hotmail has a 2 MB storage limit
4) Hotmail accounts get spam from Microsoft (about MSN, etc.)

These are the major reasons why people dislike Hotmail.

Hotmail isn't really used to send spam anymore, but the "from" address is often spoofed with a Hotmail one because it's well-known.

[nightmaresc]

Something that Hotmail has that Gmail doesn't (so far) is e-mail access from Outlook.

I think Gmail has a FAQ on this, hopefully they do it.

[intelliot]

Someone made a program called "Pop Goes the Gmail" which lets you access Gmail with any POP3 mail client. I haven't tried it, though, so no guarantees.
http://jaybe.org/info.htm

[leogodoy]

Originally Posted by intelliot

I think the way they've been doing it, randomly giving invites, works well. It's a beta service after all.

Of course, being a beta the selection of betatesters is ok. But I guess people were saying it should stay an invitation-only service after the test is over, and with that I cannot agree.

Cheers,
Leo