Gmail

[francis]

Google email service (http://home.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/index.jsp?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20040331005958&newsLang=en). I'm always a bit wary of things on the Web on 1st April, but have a look at this article on Google's new email thing (http://gmail.google.com/). The best part of that article is:

The idea that there could be a better way to handle email caught the attention of a Google engineer who thought it might be a good "20 percent time" project. (Google requires engineers to spend a day a week on projects that interest them, unrelated to their day jobs).

What a fantastic idea.

[Tom]

Danny Sullivan takes us to the heart of the matter (http://searchenginewatch.com/searchday/article.php/3334241) 'Google has no immediate plans to charge for the system. Rather, it hopes to monetize through the placement of its AdSense contextual ads near the system's mail viewing window. For example, someone reading an email about a particular movie might also see nearby ads pitching the movie's DVD or soundtrack.'

This gives us a foretaste of the lines Bill must be thinking along with his plan to build search into Longhorn.

The Gmail idea could turn to farce. 'My Granny died last night' would, presumably, result in adverts for funeral services. 'I can't love you as much as I used to' would produce Viagra adverts. 'I failed the exam' would give links to tutorial services. I can't help being a little sceptical. [Would this remark produce adverts for the Humanist Society]. Ah well - I suppose there will be more fun in the world. See my previous post about Belle de Jour monteizing her content.

Another interesting thought is that Google may have something Microsoft lacks is expertise in server farming. If they are going to offer a free Gig of storage to each customer ... they must have a good deal with their hard drive supplier.

[francis]

Whoops! (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/04/07/google_trademark/) As the article says, you think they would have at least used their own search engine to check the name out.

I have to agree with Tom, it's going to be very interesting to see how they cope with giving adverts that in no-way offend people. Germany is already saying "nein" and others have lodged complaints and sent open letters (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/04/08/gmail_germany/). There's also other European laws (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/04/07/eu_foul_gmail/) and issues to consider.

There have also been comments on certain sites about the fact that the Google bar is allegedly spyware (http://www.google.com/search?q=google+bar+spyware&sourceid=mozilla-search&start=0&start=0&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8), and now that they're going to start scanning email, where does that leave the "private" individual. Google-watch (http://www.google-watch.org/) will probably have the answer.