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Google trials 1 GB e-mail archive

MasterAkumaMatata - Apr 5, 2004

		MasterAkumaMatata	Apr 5, 2004
		Originally posted by http://news.com.com/2100-1032-5182805.html?tag=nefd_hed+--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(http://news.com.com/2100-1032-5182805.html?tag=nef...)</div><div class='quotemain'>Hotmail currently offers 2MB of free e-mail storage. Yahoo offers 4MB. Gmail will dwarf those offerings with a 1GB storage limit.[/b] <!--QuoteBegin-h ttp://gmail.google.c om/gmail/help/about. html [color=00ff00]1. What makes Gmail different?[/color] Gmail uses Google search technology to automatically organize and find messages. And because Gmail includes 1,000 megabytes of storage, a typical user won't ever have to worry about deleting mail. Everything just gets archived so it can be found again if needed. There are other differences in the way Gmail provides access to your email. For example, Gmail automatically groups an email and the replies to it as a conversation. That means you always see a message in its proper context. And there are no pop-ups or banner ads in Gmail, just relevant text ads and links to related pages. Gmail's other distinctive features include a labeling system, a spam reporter and a system for filtering your mail as it comes into your inbox. [color=00ff00]2. How much does Gmail cost?[/color] Gmail is a free service and includes 1,000 megabytes of storage with each account. However, Gmail is still in preview mode as we test it to work out the kinks. So for now, it's not generally available. [color=00ff00]3. How do I sign up? When can I get a Gmail account?[/color] We're currently only offering Gmail as part of a preview release and limited test. We don't have details on when Gmail will be made more widely available, as that depends in part on the results of the test. If you're interested in receiving updates on Gmail, submit your email address using the form at the bottom of this page. [color=00ff00]4. Is Gmail available in other languages?[/color] During this testing period, the Gmail interface is only available in English. However, we're committed to making Gmail available to as many people in as many languages as possible. And Gmail accounts can already be used to read and send email in most languages (even Klingon).[/quote] Sounds like an April Fools prank to me, but wouldn't it be cool if it was real? :lol:

		ExCyber	Apr 5, 2004
		There actually is a de-facto standard for Unicode-compatible encoding of Klingon, so that part could be true. The rest sounds quite feasible to me, assuming that they do have certain limitations that are not disclosed. Consider: - The vast majority of email would probably be English text, which is highly compressible. - Most people using the service would probably still stay well under the 1GB limit - Google can use it to feed eyeballs to Adwords/Adsense (of course) - Gmail would almost certainly double as a research project for Google; the privacy policy specifically mentions analysis for the purposes of spam filtering and ad targeting, and does not preclude other types of automated analysis:     Originally posted by "Gmail Privacy Policy" Email contents and usage. The contents of your Gmail account also are stored and maintained on Google servers in order to provide the service. Google's computers process the information in your email for various purposes, including formatting and displaying the information to you, delivering targeted related information (such as advertisements and related links), preventing unsolicited bulk email (spam), backing up your email, and other purposes relating to offering you Gmail. Residual copies of email may remain on our systems, even after you have deleted them from your mailbox or after the termination of your account. Google employees do not access the content of any mailboxes unless you specifically request them to do so (for example, if you are having technical difficulties accessing your account) or if required by law, to maintain our system, or to protect Google or the public. (Notice that it says that Google employees will not make accesses to mail contents) - Hard drives are down to about 60 cents / GB at the mid-range of ATA capacities. Even if you assume a degree of redundancy, that's exceptionally cheap. - Some basic limits like a message size limit and limiting the number of messages sent/received per hour could curb the obvious problem of Gmail as a general-purpose file archive.

		mal	Apr 5, 2004
		Originally posted by ExCyber@Apr 6, 2004 @ 08:24 AM There actually is a de-facto standard for Unicode-compatible encoding of Klingon, so that part could be true. That's just too scary. mg:     Residual copies of email may remain on our systems, even after you have deleted them from your mailbox or after the termination of your account. That doesn't surprise me one bit.

		racketboy	Apr 5, 2004
		I don't think I'd sign up for it. I don't even use more than a few megs. If I accumulated too much more, I'd never find anything -- even with search. But I think it might be fun to search other people's email

		ExCyber	Apr 6, 2004
		That's just too scary. It's not an official standard; Klingon was apparently proposed and rejected for Unicode as "unsuitable for encoding" (though I couldn't find the reason). However, there is a subset of the Unicode tables reserved for "private use", and there is a convention for encoding Klingon within that area. edit: got curious; couldn't find an official source but apparently the major reason for rejecting Klingon is that virtually everyone who writes Klingon text (online or otherwise) uses the Latin transcription anyway. The residual copies thing makes perfect sense when you consider how much work it would be for any large-scale distributed storage system to seek out every backup copy of a file and annihilate it (especially if some of it is read-only). Hell, most consumer systems can't do that either. Most likely the same thing is true of Hotmail, Yahoo, etc.

		MasterAkumaMatata	Jun 15, 2004
		Originally posted by http://news.com.com/2100-1032-5182805.html?tag=nef... Hotmail currently offers 2MB of free e-mail storage. Yahoo offers 4MB. Gmail will dwarf those offerings with a 1GB storage limit. Just logged in to my free Yahoo email account and noticed some changes. First is the cosmetic change. Second and more important is the 100 MB quota. Any other Yahoo email users notice this? :lol:

		racketboy	Jun 15, 2004
		yup -- they've been rumoring it. I just signed up for a new Yahoo account (my old one was too spammed). Also nice that My Yahoo is beta testing RSS support for us blog fans!