Google's Gmail customers happy to be among elite - 06/18/04

[Randy]

A good article...

Posted on Fri, Jun. 18, 2004

Google's Gmail customers happy to be among elite

By Aman Batheja

Star-Telegram Staff Writer

Nothing is so treasured in the world of geeks as being the first to try out a new toy.

So when Google unveiled its new e-mail service in April, people receiving Gmail became the envy of the online community.

"It's about status," said Dallas Web designer Micah Boswell, a Gmail account holder. "It's the Hummer of the online world."

But not only did those account holders have status, they also had power -- in the form of invitations for Gmail accounts to disperse to whomever they please.

So began a bidding war.

Invitations for Gmail accounts became a hot commodity on the Web and have inadvertently created a robust market economy. When invitations were scarce, they were selling for as much as $200. Now that the market for invitations has flooded, interested buyers have been more creative. Some are offering to call the account holders' mom and say "I love you."

"I thought it was kind of silly," said Scott Secrest, an early Gmail account holder. "But hey, if they're going to pay for it, someone's going to sell it, so it may as well be me."

Secrest, 24, of Dallas, received his Gmail accounts in April because he writes an online Web log using Blogger.com, which Google owns. Many bloggers in the Metroplex have received accounts from Google through the same affiliation.

Not sure what to do with his two invitations, Secrest visited gmailswap.com, a popular Web site where people have been trading invitations for just about anything.

Secrest was delighted to swap his invites for two $25 Amazon.com gift certificates, he said. When Google offered him three more Gmail invitations last week, he gave them to friends.

Much of the frenzy about Gmail has to do with the amount of free space Google is offering: 1,000 megabytes. It's enough so that the average computer user could probably never delete an e-mail message again. The thought of that much space being offered at no cost had e-mailers worldwide drooling.

On gmailswap.com, items as prized as advertising space on a Formula One race car and a rosary blessed by the pope were being offered in exchanged for an invitation.

When Google gave many -- if not all -- of its Gmail users extra invitations last week, the demand dropped. Now a Gmail invitation can be bought on eBay for as little as 99 cents.

In response to the account's depreciation, some account holders have become more generous. A gmailswap user created a Web site using the "pay it forward" model. Gmail4u.blogspot.com encourages users to donate an invitation with the understanding that the receiver would also donate an invitation.

But even if the novelty of a Gmail account has begun to wear off, the service is still changing the playing field for other Web-based e-mail services.

On Tuesday, Yahoo enhanced its free e-mail service with expanded storage.

Since Yahoo's announcement, some Gmail users reported receiving three more invites, further diluting the market.

But Boswell, the Web designer from Dallas, didn't mind.

While the e-mail accounts no longer fetch hundreds of dollars, Boswell just wanted a story to tell.

He visited gmailswap.com last week to see what was the wackiest item he could get in trade for one of his invitations.

"One woman was offering homemade chocolate chip cookies she'd ship for free," Boswell said. "Someone got to that woman before me."

Boswell swapped with a musician who offered to write a song about the person giving him a Gmail invitation.

"I said I want an anthem for the country of Micah," Boswell said.

Four hours later, he received a one-minute instrumental. Boswell said he couldn't be happier with the transaction.

After getting over the excitement of being one of the first with a Gmail account, users have given the service generally positive reviews, especially for its slick design and search capability.

Some, however, have been disappointed with Gmail, saying its spam filter is not nearly as effective as those on other e-mail services.

And some industry watchers have complained that Google scans account holders' messages for keywords and then delivers text-based ads relevant to the keywords detected. However, most Gmail users said they're not bothered by it.

Regardless, Gmail has the distinction of being one of the few online services to garner such intense interest that someone recently offered to insert a written prayer in Israel's Western Wall for it.

AT A GLANCE

Google began offering Gmail to a select number of clients in April.

The free e-mail service is known for its storage space -- 1,000 megabytes -- enough that the average computer user would probably never have to delete an e-mail message again.

Google has not indicated when it will make Gmail available to the public.
ONLINE: gmail.google.com
www.gmailswap.com
www.gmail4u.blogspot.com

[IamTheKing9]

Great information!!! Where did you get it?

[Lupine1647]

Originally Posted by IamTheKing9

Great information!!! Where did you get it?

Have you tried Googling the title of the article?

[Fahhem]

thats an interesting search "gmail elite"

now what was randy looking for? an article or a website about a cult?

Oh wait, this was posted in JUNE. Are we revisiting oooold posts already? I got the email from elliot only a lil while ago...

[IamTheKing9]

Well, yeah, it is a really old post. When I was just going through the GMail forum (the last page of it), I saw this topic and thought it might be good. When I read it, I found that it was good. So I posted a message.

[Fahhem]

The last page???
there are 7 already. looks like 50 a page, so less than 350 posts to look through to reach the end. And its going to jump since that email elliot sent.

Good marketing technique btw elliot, if you ever read this.

[IamTheKing9]

I started from the last page and ended my "going through" on the first.

[Fahhem]

thats one way to know everything about gmail!

[mondine]

Originally Posted by IamTheKing9

Well, yeah, it is a really old post. When I was just going through the GMail forum (the last page of it), I saw this topic and thought it might be good. When I read it, I found that it was good. So I posted a message.

Yes, often 'interesting' results from this method of sorting posts by 'last reply'. It can be sometimes confusing, but sometimes it's worth bumping up an old post that new members might otherwise not have seen.

Although that mention of $200 invitations definitely dates that post. It's pretty funny when you still see people trying to sell them at all, these days.

[IamTheKing9]

Yeah. Nobody actually sells GMail accounts now, and $200 for one GMail account is amazing. And there's also another thing in that post (you may have read it) - it says that a woman was offering homemade chocolate chip cookies she'd ship for free for one (just one) GMail account. That's really amusing.

So, as you can see, there are many reasons why I wanted to bring this topic up again.