What's The Big Deal With Gmail

2. Joel LaTondress said:

I’d like to know too. Some people act as if it’s open season on the Ashley twins (wait, it is, isn’t it?). I have an account and I have yet to discover the source of people’s infatuation.

Posted on June 23, 2004 11:08 AM | #

4. Keith said:

Dave – Shit, really?!? So all those invites I was offered we’re just some people’s way of putting me in my place! ;)

Joel – They like to be called “sisters”, not “twins”…sheesh, get it straight. ;)

Posted on June 23, 2004 11:12 AM | #

6. Derek said:

‘Cause you have to be “invited” to get one. It’s like a secret club. It is far better than hotmail or yahoo mail.

I use it ‘cause it’s better than the webmail on my server, and doesn’t take up room on the server that I could use for html files, etc.

The interface is the best of any webmail app, etc.

But basically it’s just that you can’t have one. So you want one.

Posted on June 23, 2004 11:16 AM | #

8. Josh S said:

Google is smart. They’ve created an “elite membership” club that everyone wants to be a part of. I really commend them for thinking that through and understanding the human psyche enough to make this work as well as it has.

Posted on June 23, 2004 11:25 AM | #

10. Jay Jones said:

“Hi, My name is Jay, and I have a gmail account.”

There… Confession is the first step, right?

Actually, though, I’m not addicted. In fact… I’m at the extreme polar opposite of addicted to Gmail. I signed up because a friend ‘invited me’, and I was curious, too, at the hype. After poking around and sending a few test mails out, I came to the conclusion that Gmail can gladly face the same demise as my old, suspended Hotmail account.

I just feel kind of duped… like I was a sucker for some multi-level-marketing campaign or something. There’s probably people snickering at my folly right now. ;)

Posted on June 23, 2004 11:28 AM | #

12. JC said:

This echoes Michael, but here’s user friendly’s take on it.

Myself, I think it could be useful to have a reliable email address that’s not tied to either a domain I own (letting email recipients look up my address and phone number via whois) or an ISP. Granted, yahoo or hotmail could do that, but they’re not google. Being able to search my email with the google engine is almost enough to get me to forward all my email there. The gig… is just window dressing. I have about 2 gigs of email on my PC as it is, not even counting spam, so assuming I used gmail alot, I’d run out of space eventually.

But still, I don’t really get the hype.

Posted on June 23, 2004 11:55 AM | #

14. Thomas Baekdal said:

why, exactly, do I have your attention?

What? - sorry I wasn’t listening… And I do not have a clue about why Gmail is cool.

I secured me own domain name a long time ago to have a digital identity. Gmail cannot help me with that. My name @ another company name is not my idea of good self-branding. My name @ my own name/company is.

So for me Gmail is for those people who would does not yet see the need for a digital identity, or for people who would like an address to give to spammers (like I use a hotmail account for registration forms).

They’ve created an “elite membership” club that everyone wants to be a part of.

Sorry for saying this, but is this not 10-year-old stuff? Secret clubs, tree houses, secret passwords.

Let’s compare:

- 1gig space (I got 60gig)

- targeted ads (I got none already)

- search instead of put-in-folder (I got both already)

- Grouped messages (got it already)

- No pop-up ads (no-one has pop-ups - every browser blocks them)

If you get invited you can get

myname@gmail.com (I got myname@mylastname.com)

Posted on June 23, 2004 12:09 PM | #

16. Gabe said:

Frankly I’m amazed that the audience here doesn’t get it.

It’s the interface!

Maybe I am not using the right web apps, but Gmail combines all the nice little things that you see here and there in different apps and puts it all into a very clean interface. Mandatory bullet-point list:

* Use of Javascript to pop-up additional options instantly.

* Full-featured keyboard controls (gotta turn them on in prefs)

* Spell check is the most usable I’ve seen on the Web.

* Auto-complete Recipient field from Contacts.

* Threaded email conversations with auto-quote hiding.

* Paradigm shift to searching email rather than filing (can’t get Google search in any other email).

* Auto-refresh

Now you can certainly pick apart that list, but the bottom line is that Gmail has the best webmail interface; it works on IE, Moz, and Safari; and with their mad clustering skills it’s guaranteed to always have reasonable performance.

I will continue to use by IMAP and Groupwise email for business purposes, but as far as personal email is concerned I’ve already switched to Gmail.

Posted on June 23, 2004 12:12 PM | #

18. Drew McLellan said:

My name is Drew and I do not want a Gmail account. I’ve not wanted one for several years, in fact, so I think I can go on not wanting one for a little longer.

Web mail sucks. Even really good web mail sucks. I’ve written my own sucky web mail app and even that sucked. In fact, mine sucks more than the rest of them. So yeah.

If you’re in the market for a new web mail account, then I guess Gmail is about the best bet. As far as the hype goes, you can keep it.

Did I mention how much web mail sucks?

Posted on June 23, 2004 12:21 PM | #

20. Ian Gordon said:

Free File Storage :-D

Thats what I thought….i don’t need the email address I have like 8 of them :-p, I just wanted the online file space….for…files…yeah thats right…files…

Posted on June 23, 2004 12:52 PM | #

22. Graham said:

The thing that first got me excited about Gmail was the 1GB of storage. Then I realized that I have immensely more on my computer. In fact, probably everything that can be done with Gmail can be done better with Mail and my POP3 email account. Search? Check. Spam filtering? Check. Message threading? Check. Lots of storage? Check. I rarely need to check my mail away from my computer, but if I did, my account has a webmail interface (A pretty bad one, but still).

I’ve really been trying to get excited about Gmail, but I just can’t. I just want it because everyone else has it, and I’m “missing out” or something. Plus the whole exclusiveness factor. It seems like Google has been using this exclusiveness factor to build hype for some of their other sites, like Orkut. I just don’t think Gmail can live up to its hype. Come on people, it’s only webmail!

Posted on June 23, 2004 01:03 PM | #

24. Scott said:

John Gruber says it’s so popular ‘cause

Google’s Gmail has turned the competition up a notch by providing a few features that actually do compare well against desktop email clients — fast, accurate search (of course), and a very nice threaded display for discussions. Gmail also offers a bunch of keyboard shortcuts, implemented in JavaScript.

And the reason it would be preferable to a rich-client app is:

Gmail’s threading and searching are indeed nice, but its overall look-and-feel is far inferior to that of a real desktop mail client. What it has going for it is what all webmail apps have — zero installation, zero maintenance, access from any computer, anywhere (including from work, a major factor for personal email).

But yea, I use it for the status, like everyone else.

Posted on June 23, 2004 01:08 PM | #

26. johan said:

Hi, longtime reader, first time commentator.. :P

I’m amazed that someone who regularly blogs about UI and interaction design doesn’t at least attempt to try and focus a little on the actual interface. don’t think gmail will eliminate all other forms of email (clients), because it wont, but you should at least be insightful enough to realize that gmail does at least try to create a better UI for a webmail system, compared to everything else out there (yahoo/hotmail/squirelmail/horde/etc).

Don’t jump on the hype wagon, I’m surprised it took 17 comments for anyone to not focus on that part, and I’m surprised that this particular blog jumps on the bandwagon as well… :/

Posted on June 23, 2004 01:27 PM | #

28. Keith said:

johan – Hold the phone. I should “be insightful enough to realize gmail does at least try to create a better UI for a webmail system???”

‘scuse me, but why should I? Not to sound too defensive or combative, but…what if I don’t use Webmail? Shocking, I know, ahem, but true.

Even if I did – I can’t look at, and comment on, every new interface that comes out, especially when I’ve got no real need for something like Gmail. The only reason I even hooked it up was just to take a quick look.

I suppose, if I have time (and if Google were to pay me) I could look and comment on the interface. From a quick glance it didn’t look to be anything special, however, like I just mentioned, I’ve never really used Web-based mail, so I’ve got nothing to compare it to.

The Web’s a big place. I can’t keep track of everything. ;)

Posted on June 23, 2004 01:37 PM | #

30. Josh Bryant said:

Dave Shea hit the nail on the head. I am just going to chime in with something.

GMail would have less than half the population they have now if they would have just made it public. By making it elite, everyone wants it. Sooooo smart.

Posted on June 23, 2004 01:54 PM | #

32. David Barrett said:

Yeah, I don’t know what the buzz is either.

I have a GMail account, and it does seem pretty sweet. It’s the best webmail app I’ve ever used, but it’s still just a webmail app.

I had a few invites to give away, so as I’d already given one to any of my friends who wanted one, I offered them up on my blog.

I’ve given away 11 invites so far, and I don’t have any more. Yet I expect that people will keep asking and begging and pleading for a GMail account in the comments.

I think it’s definitely the “cool kid” factor.

By the way, I think it’s interesting that Google are using an invite system, primarily as they know have a much better “social networking” model than Orkut could ever have provided.

Posted on June 23, 2004 02:23 PM | #

34. DarkBlue said:

Well Keith, your article did nothing to diminish the demand: I just got rid of 6 invitations in just 16 minutes!

Posted on June 23, 2004 02:45 PM | #

36. Sage said:

I did it for the reason Michael said:

Because if you don’t get it NOW, you’re gonna be named keithrobinson492@gmail.com :)

For whatever reason, “sageolson” has been taken at all of the major free email outlets, so I made sure to get an invite and snatch it up quickly for gmail. :-) I was actually hoping to pick up “sage@gmail.com”, but then I found the 6 character minimum rule. Stinky poo-poo.

Posted on June 23, 2004 03:15 PM | #

38. beerzie yoink said:

Well, gee. I was just going to post the same thing on my blog. GMail looks about the same as the rest to me…except that I have it and a lot of other losers don’t! Nyahh Nyahh!

Posted on June 23, 2004 03:44 PM | #

40. Brian Andersen said:

Why it’s a big thing?

First of all, a lot of the people who are posting here aren’t meant to get a Gmail account. I’ve got a domain with my own name as well, and use it for everything I mail seriously.

It’s the people that, right now, are stuck with hotmails and yahoo accounts - those are definetly going to enjoy this offiering.

If you’ve tried to use the “new and improved” hotmail on a regular basis, you’re screaming for improvement.

Moreso, it’s also a glimpse into what’s coming from google in the future. I should probably feel safer storing files on google’s serverpark (the safest place of any, I imagine), than on my own PC. It wouldn’t surprise me if they started offering something similar to the .Mac accounts iDisk in the near future, with the whole “webapp” thing going crazy.

Posted on June 23, 2004 04:24 PM | #

42. Keith said:

Brian (#40) – I can see that, thanks for the thoughts. The thing is you talk about people on this list wouldn’t use it, etc. But those are the people I see flaunting their damn invites! ;)

Posted on June 23, 2004 05:02 PM | #

44. Yvonne Adams said:

I don’t get it either. Reality is probably that the people who are the early invitees don’t need it, as they have other means of processing mail.

gmail4troops is probably a good use for gMail, as soldiers might need to receive audio and video files from friends/family, choosing to save messages and attachments for when they return home.

Of course, I may be blasé because I’ve never received any invites for gMail, Orkut, Friendster etc. Didn’t worry too much about it, since I’d one of very few in New Mexico with social networking. We still rely on horse and buggy and meetings at the local saloon.

Posted on June 23, 2004 06:14 PM | #

46. Alex said:

Because it’s from Google!

Posted on June 23, 2004 09:12 PM | #

48. Ryan Latham said:

For a lot of people all it is about is having something that someone doesn’t. Along with having a choice over an account name before the mass majority.

It seems like sometimes people think that people are judging by them by their email address. They feel if you have ryan@gmail.com over ryan1452@gmail.com, people will respect you more.

It’s a very fascinating way of being shallow. And they better check their zipper when they do this, because their moron is showing.

Posted on June 23, 2004 10:33 PM | #

50. steve said:

What I don’t get is how GMail has acquired this “l33t” reputation. I mean, all you need to do is set up a free Blogger based blog and they pretty much try and force it on you each time you log on.

I’ve never gotten the point of web-mail even for personal mail. If you’re paying by the minute for connectivity e.g. dial-up in a telecoms regime that meters local calls, web-mail doesn’t cut it compared with slurping it all down and signing off for later reading/composing. And after a while, being away from e-mail becomes a luxury (see e.g. Knuth’s comment

15 Years is Enough for Email — a sentiment I am growing to share).

Posted on June 24, 2004 01:35 AM | #

52. PatrickMedina said:

Could anyone invite me to use gmail?

My e-mail is patrickmedina .at msn.com.

Thanks

Posted on June 24, 2004 03:11 AM | #

54. Tom said:

Like it or not, Gmail is decidedly cool at the moment. Maybe that’ll wear off when it’s finally ‘released’, maybe not, but the fact that it comes from everyone’s favourite search engine really install confidence in people.

Although Hotmail are going to up storage to 250MB, the Hotmail spam filter is a waste of time, while the Gmail one really has been excellent for me in the couple of weeks I’ve had it.

Posted on June 24, 2004 03:50 AM | #

56. Jonathan said:

IPO to come.

Gmail creates yet more hype.

It’s still just webmail.

Posted on June 24, 2004 06:05 AM | #

58. Dave said:

I think for many people in the “well-connected-blog-community”, Gmail is “no big deal” because it is easy for them to get invites (and I mean this in a general sense, not a keith-specific sense). They have already gotten invites, and if they haven’t, they know how they could easily get one.

For “the rest of us”, we are simply the lurkers in the blog-munity. Interested bystanders with our little noses pressed up against the glass– looking in on the action (but, but– we can post comments!) yet so far from being “in” the actual community.

Even bloggers that decry Gmail (and again Keith, i don’t mean you specifically) has still *all tried it*. They are the “haves”, not the “have nots”, so it’s easy to say “it’s not big deal” after you have tried it. That’s all people are after– a chance “to try it out” before some/all of their friends have.

No, it doesn’t make your life better in the long-term. No, it’s not the greatest thing since sliced bread. It’s just a day or two’s worth of coinage at the coffee table. “Hey, did you see CSI last night.” “No” … “So, anyone *else* had a chance to try out Gmail…?”

Of course, purporting this view point could make one sound desperate, but i’m just going to pretend it doesn’t.

Posted on June 24, 2004 06:51 AM | #

60. Sharif said:

Patrick (or anyone interested),

I’m propogating the hype by giving out an extra invitation on my site. If you still need one, stop by.

I was going to do first come-first served, but since I only have one to give out, I’m keeping comments open until tomorrow morning.

Posted on June 24, 2004 07:46 AM | #

62. waylman said:

I just got my invite yesterday (thus no comments till today) and although it is a little different (the ads are not big, flashy and distracting) I didn’t find what was so special either. However Skyzyx just pointed out some interesting possable side benefits.

On a side note, I recently discovered my hotmail account had been canceled for lack of use, so now I’ll be using my gmail account for accessing restricted web content and other such spam inducing silliness. With 1GB of storage I shouldn’t have to go and empty the inbox quite so often. So I guess it is usefull after all.

Posted on June 24, 2004 08:49 AM | #

64. Anton said:

Heh… methinks it’s just a scam to get people to comment.

66 at the time of this writing, in what? Less than an hour?

Kudos to you (and just kidding, if you can’t tell).

I do have one small reason for using a webmail service though…

Not anyone else’s webmail mind you, just one that is on my server that I have pop3 access to, so that when I can’t use my e-mail client, like when I’m at work behind a firewall - or I’m at a friends house, I can still catch up on what few messages I get.

Posted on June 24, 2004 09:43 AM | #

66. Seth Thomas Rasmussen said:

From Comment #15:

oh c’mon… gmail is great. it’s a fast, highly responsive webapp with minimal clutter. the hype over the storage is the least impressive part about it. from an interface design standpoint, it’s a big step forward - sure, some of the advances have already been implemented in lesser known client-side apps or research projects, but gmail is the first web-deployed app that substantially rethinks the way email is handled. this is why it should be exciting for interface designers.

for the general public, the huge amount of storage is definitely a big deal. a lot of people who aren’t “internet professionals” far prefer webmail, and the amount of storage is a big issue - less so now that yahoo mail has upped it’s storage, but that wouldn’t have happened without gmail, would it? the interface is also far simpler and more usable than yahoo/microsoft’s bloated offerings. this is what interface design is about - not pretty textured backgrounds for your blog.

look, what i’m trying to say is.. don’t be a snooty indie kid. very rarely, but sometimes, something is hyped because it is actually good. gmail is one of those things, whether you choose to use it or not.

And there you have it. Yet, what? 50 more comments???

Ha.

Posted on June 24, 2004 10:30 AM | #

68. jimmyd said:

see seth godin’s www.ideavirus.com …google has it made.

Posted on June 24, 2004 12:40 PM | #

70. Seth Thomas Rasmussen said:

I assume that’s because that one opinion isn’t voiced by everyone.

You really think so??

:|

Honestly, this much is clearly obvious. Everybody has an opinion. The point I see though is that there are in fact situations in which it is nothing but treading water and blowing hot air to voice it. Like people whining about how Gmail isn’t that great for them when IT’S NOT INTENDED TO APPEAL TO THEM!

:O

It’s crazy stuff. And as I noted, it’s rather amusing to look at sometimes.

*shrug*

Have fun.

Posted on June 25, 2004 11:01 AM | #

72. Jon Kennedy said:

Little late to the game, but here it goes…

The very moment I set up my gmail acct, I installed Pop Goes the GMail [1] and had it set up alongside Mr. Postman [2] to access both my GMail and Hotmail accounts from within Opera’s M2 client. I’ve now got 5 different POP/IMAP accounts set up, 23 RSS feeds, and 4 low volume USENET subscriptions, all accessible from a single “Unread” or “Recieved” view… I couldn’t be happier.

Reasons I support GMail:

M2 users will recognize the methodology behind GMail’s “access point” interface, and feel right at home. Threading and active searches are a thing of antiquity for M2. That’s why I love GMail’s popularity. I hope it’ll continue indefinately so many other users can go about managing their email the M2 way.

Now, in a fitting battle of irony, Opera 7.5 is told that it’s not supported… even with the UA changed. Anyone know if this is the factual case, and Opera has no chance of compatibility? Or is this another case of “well it doesn’t look exactly right, therefore we don’t support Opera”

I heard that GMail uses ActiveX controls… is this true? If so, I understand why the O isn’t supported.

[1] : PGtGM is dependent on the Microsoft .NET Runtime libraries. Win/32 only…. so far.

[2] : Mr Postman is a Java based client with a nice GUI and the ability to run as a java wrapper, eliminating the need for the GUI to run.

Posted on June 26, 2004 07:35 AM | #

74. Steven Woods said:

I’m using it as a backup too… I automatically BCC my gmail address with every message I send, and have a rule to forward every message I receive (from a whitelist ;) ) to gmail too :) It’ll be my ‘last resort’ thing if my hard disk ever decides to crash and burn…

Posted on June 27, 2004 07:10 PM | #

76. sTEVEN sTREIGHT said:

It’s not “cool” to follow a trend that a marketing department proclaims is “cool”–when that designation of “cool” was cooked up to counteract serious flaws and questionable aspects of a product.

I’m not certain about all the “positive” aspects of gmail, but I certainly don’t want to receive emails from people that have advertisements attached to the message.

That would be crass, annoying, and unprofessional in my view.

Posted on June 28, 2004 11:28 AM | #

78. Scott Johnson said:

Not only is Gmail a status symbol that people are willing to pay for, it’s a kickass web application like no other. You’ve got to experience it to understand. Trust me, you will like it once you have used it. Except for those times when it is down and your trusty old POP3/IMAP server is responding just as fast as ever.

Posted on June 30, 2004 10:59 PM | #

80. Vinny said:

I read many of the messages on this thread. I hate hotmail…I’d like to evaluate gmail.

Can someone please fwd me an invite? Many thanks. (e-mail is vinnygoongootz@hotmail.com)

I’ll leave my take on Gmail after evaluating.

Posted on July 2, 2004 07:03 AM | #

82. Jos said:

Pls send me a gmail invite at tom_ato22@mailbolt.com!

Posted on July 8, 2004 02:31 AM | #

84. Kristi said:

The reason for everyone talking about Gmail is simply this: It’s first thing that has come around in a long time that is going to give Yahoo and Homtail a run for their money. G-Mail is awesome. But I quite agree that Gmail is nothing special. It’s the way web e-mail should have been from the very start.

Posted on March 8, 2005 04:55 PM | #

86. BB Tony said:

Why does everyone want to either say they like or dislike Gmail? Gmail has lots of space, and unlike hotmail, you don’t have to log in once a month… which is nice if you are somewhere you can not access the internet, or don’t have a computer…

I know people who hacked into peoples hotmail accounts using timestamps, and therefore I don’t trust it anymore… and I only use hotmail for MSN messenger which I use TRILLIAN for… get Trillian… its the best… It has a Wikipedia Search built in!

I use Gmail for secure mail, things like receipts for my orders from the Canadian Mint, Online Music Stores, and Crucial.com’s Memory.

Gmail is great… its what I have been waiting for… and it wasn’t hard to do… just give me a no nonsense browser based email service with nice storage and no reqired “log in every 30 days or everything in your account is deleted” clause, and I’m happy as a clam… however happy they are.

Everyone enjoy gmail, hate it, love it, you all know about it… and if you need an invite, please, just email the address I provided and I will send one maybe… if your nice. You CAN always go on eBay and BUY AN INVITE… but you need some way to pay it…

Posted on July 23, 2005 02:14 AM | #

88. jazmine cole said:

i think gmail is cool cause you get all sorts of space and you get to sign up for the free ebay account for kids.
by the way it does get you advertisments because that is how i found out about kids ebay.
to cindy smith- they do not delete your stuff because if you have……150 emails in your inbox then some of it would go somewhere else but if you were to delete some of the stuff to make room for the rest then you would get your old email back.

Posted on August 3, 2005 07:08 AM | #