The Web: What's the appeal of free e-mail?

United Press International ^ | June 8, 2005 | Gene Koprowski

[Writer1]

Chicago, IL, Jun. 8 (UPI) -- America Online introduced free e-mail for the Web this week, aiming to vie with existing offerings from Microsoft's Hotmail, Yahoo! Mail and Google's Gmail, but experts told UPI's The Web the free e-mail concept's time already may have passed. Only a small portion of Internet users take advantage of free e-mail accounts, with most preferring to use e-mail provided by commercial services or their own companies.

"Coca-Cola does not do business with a free e-mail account, and neither do most small businesses," said Mike Neumeier, a spokesman for Interland, a Web-hosting company in Atlanta. "Even small businesses want a domain name that identifies who they are." By Gene Koprowski

[Dont Mention the War]

Actually, it's up to 2.2 GB and counting per account. I'm thinking of storing all my music files there.

A couple of people have written programs that allow you to automate/simplify the process of using Gmail accounts for file storage.

http://www.gmailharddrive.com/

http://www.techspot.com/download297.html

[ErnBatavia]

GMail. OK, rdb3 - you're an acknowledged expert in such stuff here....

Can you bring us lightweights up to speed as to the negative connotations? I recall a lot of commentary when it first came out - all suggesting a "I wouldn't do her with your ten foot pole" scenario.

[rdb3]

Can you bring us lightweights up to speed as to the negative connotations? I recall a lot of commentary when it first came out - all suggesting a "I wouldn't do her with your ten foot pole" scenario.

The main concern is over privacy, according to civil libertarians. But that's a bunch of hooey.

Google uses AdSense, which is their program for delivering relevant ads to your email message. I think it is cool how it works.

GMail is email and chat all rolled into one. A long series of emails can be expanded where everything between all parties can be read and commented upon. Google's algorithm takes text from these emails and delivers links from advertisers about what was in the messages.

Talk about New York City. Boom. NYC links appear on the right. Talk about the NFL. NFL links appear. This is no conspiracy. They possibly wrote a simple Perl script to pull this off. I'm just mad that I didn't think of it first. Why else could they offer 1 gigabye of storage for nothing? That loss leader is delivering a profit to Google. No doubt about it.

I would advise anyone who has sensitive materials to transmit stick to their ISP's email. Don't use any free service.

[ErnBatavia]

Thanks very much for the in-depth reply.

[rdb3]

Thanks very much for the in-depth reply.

Fuhgedaboudit.

[afraidfortherepublic]

What is Gmail?

[expatguy]

web based email - you want an account?

[rwfromkansas]

I can send you an invite. I have something like 45 left.

[rwfromkansas]

The sad thing is I rarely use my Gmail despite how cool it is. I don't want to fully switch over from yahoo because of how much work that would involve.

[rwfromkansas]

Online e-mail is great.

I used to have POP3 e-mail but don't feel like I am missing a thing with online e-mail. Same features basically...can search, make folders etc. Drafts folder. Lots and lots and lots of storage.

The only downside is no return receipts if you want one. But, ReadNotify is much better anyway and they don't know you are tracking if they read your e-mail or not.

I don't need e-mail stored on my computer cluttering it up.

Online e-mail is just fine. I can use a work e-mail for work and official business or just fake out people by changing my yahoo address to make it look like it has another domain (real easy...just change the name to make it look like an address). Unless people are smart enough to look at the headers, they won't know the difference.

Free e-mail rocks. I have accounts with 4 different accounts, and it is helpful when you want to join something as a free trial and you have run out with your other account...lol.

Of course, you could create an account...doesn't even take 2 seconds...with mailinator.com for those quickie joins.

[rwfromkansas]

You can check online e-mail from anywhere as well, which is great.

Now, you COULD do that with some online sites to POP3 e-mail, but it is more of a hassle.

[ASA Vet]

What you got against us newbies?

[rwfromkansas]

Did you all know you can use GMAIL as a free online storage server?

With this plugin, you can use it to store as much stuff....mp3 files, documents or whatever up to the amount you have left in your mailbox (probably 2 GIG since that is how much Gmail has and if your e-mail takes up even 10 MB, that is a ton of e-mail, so you would have lots and lots of space to use it as your storage place). It is organized in one folder so it is not confusing and you can access it from My Computer I think IIRC.

It is really sweet.

Think about it. 2 Gigs of storage online for files or whatever FOR FREE that looks in My Computer like another drive.

Check it out: http://www.viksoe.dk/code/gmail.htm

You have to use that tool for it to work, and when Google updates the e-mail system, it sometimes causes the tool to stop working, so make sure you check for updates if it stops working.

Oh, the wonders of Gmail.

[rwfromkansas]

There are places online where people will share invites.

Also, here is another solution. Put google.com as the start page in IE.

Every couple times you use it...just click refresh a couple time...it will offer you in the middle a Gmail account. You just click the link and sign up.

[afraidfortherepublic]

Is that like yahoo?

[umbagi]

What you got against us newbies?

Uh...

That is, uhhh...

[Doffs hat, respectfully]

Nothing, Sir. Would you like a Gmail invite :-)?

[rwfromkansas]

Yeah, but more storage and an innovative conversation string format for replies etc.

Plus, there is a plugin that lets you drag and drop files to a drive in your My Computer folder that acts as an online storage place via Gmail. It is really cool.

[streetpreacher]

Just read a short descrip. from your link and apparently those files are also mobile meaning you can access them from another computer through your e-mail account. No need for carrying storage devices around if so.

[rwfromkansas]

That is my understanding as well. I downloaded the program a month ago but haven't intalled it yet.

It would be wise to store them on your hard drive somewhere else as well just to ensure you don't lose them if something goes wrong with the Gmail storage.

[ASA Vet]

No thanks. I've got email accounts thru yahoo, hotmail, SBC DSL, the US government, and my own website. I think thats enough. But Thanks for the offer.