GMail

Ever wondered if you could have a giga-mailbox to receive mega-mail and share mega-files with? Well, now you don't have to do all the wondering. GMail's here. It's so here. Oh I forgot, I mean not really here. Google stopped processing signups as of the moment. No idea when it's gonna be opened to the public, but since it's already in its beta stage, it should be any time soon.

Signed up for a mailbox like weeks back and I see the service is great. You get to send and receive lots of email, and you never have to delete your mail (imagine how much mail it takes to fill up a gig of mailbox space). And if, after years of use, your mailbox gets full, sign up for another account. Maybe that's one thing the Google people didn't look into, because I've been looking at all the options and settings and stuff, and I've never found a DELETE button since.

There are a lot of people whose principles and ideals and other political crap are against GMail's Privacy Policy, though. A legislator from California even plans on getting a bill banning the service passed. But Tim O'Reilly pointed out some few real good points that should clear this mess up.

CNET News has also reported that GMail accounts are up for bidding on eBay.

Gmail accounts go up for bid
Last modified: April 30, 2004, 11:51 AM PDT
By Dawn Kawamoto
Staff Writer, CNET News.com


Google's initial stock offering isn't the only piece of the search engine company that's up for bid.

Beta testers invited by Google to take part in its new free e-mail service also received invitations to give to another person, but many are being auctioned on eBay, so far fetching bids as high as $61.

"Gmail is still in beta testing, so Google is strictly limiting how many people are using the service at this time," wrote one seller, who has five days left on the auction and six interested bidders. "This is an opportunity to get in 'on the ground floor' with this interesting new e-mail service."

Currently, 42 testers have listed their invitations on eBay, with one offering to sell an additional invitation outright--for a mere $199.

Google, which last month announced it was testing a new e-mail system, invited 1,000 people to join the trial. Gmail offers 1 gigabyte of storage and includes a news aggregation page and newsgroup interface, and allows users to search through their e-mail. The service has generated excitement, but not as much as Google's upcoming IPO.

But the service has also generated criticism before even rolling out to the masses. Gmail is under fire for inserting advertisements into messages based, in part, on contents. That controversy has led to one legislator calling for its ban.

That doesn't seem to be stopping folks from jumping into the bidding process to snatch up a Gmail account during this three-to-six-month beta test, however.