Google Mail is coming - Page 6

oysterquartz · 2 Apr 2004, 06:17 AM

NY Time Article of Google's Email Service

Quote/

One internal Google study put the operational cost of maintaining e-mail storage at less than $2 a gigabyte, enough to preserve tens of thousands of messages of typical length.

/Quote

Goryus · 2 Apr 2004, 06:28 AM

Quote:

Lastly, how do you all know that you "prefer" fastmail? You haven't even tried the GMail service yet? Who's to say that a power offering (for pay) can't compete on feature sets with any service. Google certainly has the financial resources, engineering talent, and tens of thousands of servers at the ready.

The features they list, of course. Until they tell us otherwise, we're going to assume that signing up is going to provide the benefits of which they inform us, and that there will not be a bunch of secret hidden benefits that only members get access to and is kept carefully underwraps.

http://www.google.com/gmail/help/about.html

Moreover, saying that I am quite content with my FastMail service and unlikely to switch is not the same as saying that I have compared all arbitrary services, and have found my current one to be better than even those that do not yet exist. It is a perfectly reasonable statement that I freely repeat to you:

I am quite content with my FastMail service, and I am unlikely to switch.

2 Apr 2004, 06:38 AM

Hey I have tested search engines. GOOGLE is the best. I expect that to be true for GMAIL. I am anxious to sign up. Yes I agree How can one compare without trying? I am ready to try.

fhapgood · 2 Apr 2004, 06:42 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by oysterquartz
If email wasn't commodified before this announcement, it certainly is now

If by commodified you mean a service that competes on price only, like bushels of wheat or rolls of tin stock, then not remotely. All you have to do is let your thoughts stray out along the dimension of social computing or networking, file sharing, and collaborative communications. The whole world of many-to-many. Fastmail has for reasons totally inscrutable to me decided to ignore this dimension of development, but it is far from done. (Just photo sharing is far from done. ) This is where the fastmails of the future will be found.

room222 · 2 Apr 2004, 07:19 AM

email is turning into a loss leader...a free service attached to a monthly subscription. email is changing..the question then is: is your present service built on a platform that can scale the way yahoo msn aol and google obviously can?...I love the competiton in search and now I love it in email...email has been CRYING out for better search and google is just the one to change the game PERMANENTLY. Privacy? A red herring. Every service provider can rifle through your mail. A big provider has the eyes of the world on them, however. btw, when was the last time Google was DOWN because of a bad chip in THE server? ;-)

schmoe · 2 Apr 2004, 07:34 AM

also just comes down to your faith in the administrators and their judgement about how to balance your privacy with safety concerns and law enforcement requests.

Google for the most part, has been a good samaritan to the web user. They clearly delineate paid ads from real search results, their ads are as non instrusive as possible, they don't do pop ups, pop unders, x-10 , flash ads, etc. They don't partner with double click. I certainly can't say that for yahoo.

sjk · 2 Apr 2004, 07:45 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by aha
Anyhow, I still believe that the best way to organize emails is categorize them as they arrive using some thing like "vFolders". A web search engine isn't really the tool for the job.

Virtual folders could be implemented using search criteria applied in "realtime" to the message store and/or index. These "smart mailboxes" would be similar to smart playlists/albums in Apple's iTunes/iPhoto apps. If Gmail offers that functionality, with a decent UI(!), they'll have a very interesting and distinctive webmail service.

***Edwin*** · 2 Apr 2004, 08:00 AM

I think the main change is that email providers won't be able to compete on storage space ALONE. Of course all the other features and factors still come into play, but it will be pretty pointless comparing e.g. a provider's 100MB of storage with Hotmail or Yahoo! Mail when Google is very visibly offering up to 10x that anyway.

I am not saying "all providers will need to match Google" - of course not - but they may want to delete the "storage space" line from any comparison tables they've put together comparing themselves with Hotmail/Yahoo Mail...

DJF · 2 Apr 2004, 08:02 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Goryus

I am quite content with my FastMail service, and I am unlikely to switch.

Same here. I am very happy with the service I receive with my FastMail account, and I won't be switching. Sure, I will take a look at it and see just what GMail has to offer; but as far as i'm concerned, my mail belongs at FM.

--
DJF

Madiver · 2 Apr 2004, 08:18 AM

The interesting thing to me is that I get the feeling from the media and some of the threads on various message boards that the 1GB of storage space is the real “blow-your-socks-off” differentiator that Gmail is offering. Certainly there is excited talk about the search and cataloging technology, but much of the fanfare seems to center around the storage capabilities.

Now, the reason I find that interesting is that I’ve seen a number of informal surveys conducted in this forum and on other message boards where users were asked what they look for in a service provider – the amount of storage space provided was generally not at the top of the list.

When talking about making a choice between using a free service and a paid service, I imagine there is a tipping point for some people where the additional storage starts to become a larger factor, but my own experience is that people who buy paid e-mail services are satisfying a broader set of needs than what is provided by free services – even a free services with a lot of storage space

Those needs typically go beyond the normal “good customer service” and “reliability”, which is almost a given for any decent service provider. One of the questions is, can Gmail satisfy that broader set of needs at no cost and would it make economic sense for them to do so?

Cheers!
Mark

Goryus · 2 Apr 2004, 08:23 AM

I don't believe that your average email user is aware that there can actually BE features to email beyond storage space and the ability to send/recieve messages.

***Edwin*** · 2 Apr 2004, 08:27 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Goryus
I don't believe that your average email user is aware that there can actually BE features to email beyond storage space and the ability to send/recieve messages.

I think that's very accurate. That's why other providers beyond the big 2 all face such an uphill struggle. You've got to re-educate people AND convince them that your particular solution is best.

Madiver · 2 Apr 2004, 09:08 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Edwin
I think that's very accurate. That's why other providers beyond the big 2 all face such an uphill struggle. You've got to re-educate people AND convince them that your particular solution is best.

I think that's very true. It also means that smaller providers can target the more sophisticated e-mail users at the same time as they try to tap into the broader market. I think it requires multiple approaches to marketing.

sjk · 2 Apr 2004, 09:12 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Edwin
You've got to re-educate people AND convince them that your particular solution is best.

Many users of the "big two" providers seem lacking much education in the first place. It's almost like there's some "impatient expectation" certain people have that they'll be able to use software/services without actually learning (or understanding) them.

***Edwin*** · 2 Apr 2004, 09:14 AM

The upside (the downside is clearly the additional competition) is that not since the original Hotmail launch has email been so "cool" - just about every discussion board (and over 500 news sites) are talking about it... This will have repercussions since once people make the huge mental "jump" that they're getting ready to change their email address (that they've maybe had for months/years) then they'll be more likely to shop around.

Implicitly, there may be disproportionate benefits in offering users of an email service the chance to "rescue" their email from Hotmail/Yahoo by offering an interface mechanism of some kind.

2 Apr 2004, 06:38 AM	#78
Guest Posts: n/a	GMAIL Hey I have tested search engines. GOOGLE is the best. I expect that to be true for GMAIL. I am anxious to sign up. Yes I agree How can one compare without trying? I am ready to try.

2 Apr 2004, 06:17 AM	#76
oysterquartz The "e" in e-mail Join Date: Feb 2002 Location: Athens Posts: 2,402	NY Time Article of Google's Email Service Quote/ One internal Google study put the operational cost of maintaining e-mail storage at less than $2 a gigabyte, enough to preserve tens of thousands of messages of typical length. /Quote

2 Apr 2004, 07:19 AM	#80
room222 Essential Contributor Join Date: Aug 2003 Location: New York City Posts: 231	email is turning into a loss leader...a free service attached to a monthly subscription. email is changing..the question then is: is your present service built on a platform that can scale the way yahoo msn aol and google obviously can?...I love the competiton in search and now I love it in email...email has been CRYING out for better search and google is just the one to change the game PERMANENTLY. Privacy? A red herring. Every service provider can rifle through your mail. A big provider has the eyes of the world on them, however. btw, when was the last time Google was DOWN because of a bad chip in THE server? ;-)

2 Apr 2004, 07:34 AM	#81
schmoe Essential Contributor Join Date: Oct 2003 Posts: 385	also just comes down to your faith in the administrators and their judgement about how to balance your privacy with safety concerns and law enforcement requests. Google for the most part, has been a good samaritan to the web user. They clearly delineate paid ads from real search results, their ads are as non instrusive as possible, they don't do pop ups, pop unders, x-10 , flash ads, etc. They don't partner with double click. I certainly can't say that for yahoo.

2 Apr 2004, 08:00 AM	#83
*Edwin* Administrator Join Date: Aug 2001 Location: UK Posts: 3,118	I think the main change is that email providers won't be able to compete on storage space ALONE. Of course all the other features and factors still come into play, but it will be pretty pointless comparing e.g. a provider's 100MB of storage with Hotmail or Yahoo! Mail when Google is very visibly offering up to 10x that anyway. I am not saying "all providers will need to match Google" - of course not - but they may want to delete the "storage space" line from any comparison tables they've put together comparing themselves with Hotmail/Yahoo Mail...

2 Apr 2004, 08:18 AM	#85
Madiver Senior Member Join Date: Apr 2002 Posts: 160 Representative of: MailSnare.net	The interesting thing to me is that I get the feeling from the media and some of the threads on various message boards that the 1GB of storage space is the real “blow-your-socks-off” differentiator that Gmail is offering. Certainly there is excited talk about the search and cataloging technology, but much of the fanfare seems to center around the storage capabilities. Now, the reason I find that interesting is that I’ve seen a number of informal surveys conducted in this forum and on other message boards where users were asked what they look for in a service provider – the amount of storage space provided was generally not at the top of the list. When talking about making a choice between using a free service and a paid service, I imagine there is a tipping point for some people where the additional storage starts to become a larger factor, but my own experience is that people who buy paid e-mail services are satisfying a broader set of needs than what is provided by free services – even a free services with a lot of storage space Those needs typically go beyond the normal “good customer service” and “reliability”, which is almost a given for any decent service provider. One of the questions is, can Gmail satisfy that broader set of needs at no cost and would it make economic sense for them to do so? Cheers! Mark

2 Apr 2004, 08:23 AM	#86
Goryus Member Join Date: Mar 2004 Posts: 81	I don't believe that your average email user is aware that there can actually BE features to email beyond storage space and the ability to send/recieve messages.

2 Apr 2004, 09:14 AM	#90
*Edwin* Administrator Join Date: Aug 2001 Location: UK Posts: 3,118	The upside (the downside is clearly the additional competition) is that not since the original Hotmail launch has email been so "cool" - just about every discussion board (and over 500 news sites) are talking about it... This will have repercussions since once people make the huge mental "jump" that they're getting ready to change their email address (that they've maybe had for months/years) then they'll be more likely to shop around. Implicitly, there may be disproportionate benefits in offering users of an email service the chance to "rescue" their email from Hotmail/Yahoo by offering an interface mechanism of some kind.