# G-Mail from Google



## larry2161941 (Apr 1, 2004)

Hello All

Is this legit or an April Fools Joke?? Tech TV is doing an article tonight at 5 or so .


LarryD


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## brianleahy (Apr 1, 2004)

Yahoo says it's real: 

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=581&e=3&u=/nm/20040401/tc_nm/tech_google_dc


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## larry2161941 (Apr 1, 2004)

brianleahy said:
			
		

> Yahoo says it's real:
> 
> http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=581&e=3&u=/nm/20040401/tc_nm/tech_google_dc


Thanks Brian
LarryD


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## fryke (Apr 1, 2004)

yes, but not Apple news, rumours or general discussion, though. ;-) moving...


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## ScottW (Apr 1, 2004)

SpyMac is offering 1gig of email space. ::rollingeyes::


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## mdnky (Apr 1, 2004)

That could shut them down pretty fast...spam would take a major toll on it.  I think the yahoo addy I have gets around 40mb of spam every 4 or 5 days.  I never even use it anymore because of that, really never have.


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## Randman (Apr 2, 2004)

Google is taking a major pr hit that it will have computers read each e-mail (there goes privacy) and add adds to it. Say you're e-mailing someone about a romantic interlude and you'll have ads for viagra. No thanks, I prefer to keep what little privacy already exists out there.


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## Ricky (Apr 2, 2004)

It's theoretically possible.

Computers can compress text to really small sizes, and if Google does this on the fly, they really wouldn't need much space.  Plus, only a select few would actually fill up their inboxes.


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## Cat (Apr 2, 2004)

If it is a hoax, then it is a very elaborate one and they haven't taken it down yet ... mmmh ... good PR stunt if it is true: release a ludicrous statement on 1 April, make everyone laugh and then start laughing yourself when it appears to be true ... lot's of publicity of the "who'd have thought ..."-kind.


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## ScottW (Apr 2, 2004)

All these people concerned over Google "reading" your emails to match advertisements.... GET A LIFE! I SWEAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A computer reads it... not humans.... bla bla bla!

It's the idiot parade!


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## Randman (Apr 2, 2004)

Fine. Thank you for clarifying that.


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## ScottW (Apr 2, 2004)

Actually, my post was in response not to you Randman, but to various news articles going around on the net about this. I didn't really read the thread. ha!

The thing is, I am not sure what type of privacy is being lost by having viagra ads on a romantic email. That is no different than reading an article about cameras in Macworld and seeing an ad for cameras on the other page. Google isn't "reading" your emails, all they are doing is matching keywords. It's the same thing they do for ads on this site or any other site carrying ads.


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## Ricky (Apr 2, 2004)

Agreed.


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## 033 (Apr 2, 2004)

it's real.. my friend works there and already got her email.. employees will get to invite a few people for the start.... from there i dunno when its goin public..


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## larry2161941 (Apr 2, 2004)

033 said:
			
		

> it's real.. my friend works there and already got her email.. employees will get to invite a few people for the start.... from there i dunno when its goin public..


Well, I'll tell you one thing . My mailbox was inudated with spam since I left an e-mail to try thr G-mail . Big Mistake on my part . I have a decent filter but mein Gut .

LarryD


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## JetwingX (Apr 2, 2004)

and if you are worried about privacy, you have a few options
1) don't use it
2) don't use it for stuff you wouldn't want other people to read
3) use fake info


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## JetwingX (Apr 4, 2004)

well... i am guessing that this isn't a prank because now there is a sign-in box for the test users... but it is still in early beta so no sign-ups yet

the one bad thing is that they don't support safari right now :'(


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## larry2161941 (Apr 5, 2004)

Yes
I noticed that but I thought ,just maybe it was an oversight . Anyhow I did sign up . I still have IE-5 loaded .

LarryD


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## rbuenger (Apr 5, 2004)

Just a short note about your concerns about privicy:

If you (and 99.9% still do it) use a normal SMTP, POP3 or IMAP mailservice you have absolutly no privacy. Doesn't matter where your service is located. If you send or receive your mails from their servers they will pass through many other routers and/or computersystems until they reache their destination. And normal mails are send in plain ASCII so EVERYBODY on that way could read or scan it.

And to make it even more worse: EVERY PERSON ON THIS PLANET with some advanced networking knowledge could read your mails if he does a "man in the middle" attack.

So, if you want privacy you have to crypth every mail. Prefered is PGP. But due to most people doesn't use PGP this is still not a very good option.

But you can for example use a mailserver with SSL enabled. So at least part of the way (and most important the part through your ISP) is secured.

I'm using both technics combined for important mails. Secured/Authentificated mailservers and PGP.

If you know what's possible and how it works maybe you never would use the net again. And if you fear cookies or "trace-pictures"  leave the net as fast as possible because every think you write, click or read could be monitored


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## brianleahy (Apr 5, 2004)

And in a similar vein:

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=581&e=5&u=/nm/20040405/tc_nm/tech_google_email_dc


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## Ricky (Apr 5, 2004)

...You have got to be kidding me.

Every email service would be in hot water if that went through.


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## Giaguara (May 11, 2004)

.. I'm back to this thread, as I just don't want to open a new thread for spymac email.

So, I opened an account there to abuse the 1 GB email service. It's been about 40 days now. I am not very impressed with it. I have never received an email in less than 4-5 hours in spymac, not even my own test emails. Many emails plain don't arrive, and many arrive *slightly* delayed. Yesterday I could not log in, and today I had some messages that were sent 26 April. At this point, I am willing to give more stars even to hotmail rantl


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## dlloyd (May 11, 2004)

I think that Spymac didn't think through what would happen if they announced something like that, because they obviously weren't ready for the 'deluge'. I have had similar problems with my account


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