Google Eyes New Email Service, Expansion

GillBates0 writes "According to a CNN/Reuters story, Google is developing a service to attach its lucrative keyword-based advertising to email: ''I'm sure Google is getting more and more concerned about locking in users. It wouldn't surprise me if they did something very sophisticated with e-mail,' said Danny Sullivan, editor of SearchEngineWatch.com, who tracks the industry.' Apparently, Google has purchased an e-mail management software maker and registered the domain name googlemail.com. The article also speculates that Google is slowly on the way to becoming a full-fledged portal, with the gradual addition of more and more portal-like features like Froogle."

Google AdSense and e-mail

[glinden]

Google's AdSense [google.com] program, which allows you to get paid for ads on your website, explicitly prohibits [google.com] using it in e-mail, but it may not be a big deal to start allowing that. Seems like just releasing that restriction and a little work for targeting of ads to e-mails instead of websites would mean that Google's advertising system could be applied to e-mail.

Groups

[FooAtWFU]

However, since it opened in 1998, Google has added portal-style discussion groups and is testing a comparison shopping site called Froogle, as well as a news site.

Is that really a "discussion groups" section as much as Google's newsgroup browser? It's not really a Google service as much as a Google interface to a web-wide service.

Re:Froogle

[RocketScientist]

They seem to do a good job with non-computer bits. Look for a set of 6L6 or EL84 tubes, or a Traxxas Nitro Rustler, or an inflatable christmas tree on Techbargains or Pricewatch and you're very likely to be disappointed.

Re:Google needs help

[gl4ss]

well doing one for own use wouldn't be that hard.. with googleapi it would be quite easy to do a page for your own use that only did that(just showed the domain names). that's one nice thing about google..

Re:Interesting things at google.

[Anonymous Coward]

take a look at Overture -- they sell a service that does exactly what you are looking for. It's easy to get keyword directed text adds included into your html dynamically from an overture server.

it's not expensive either.

[e-mail]

[shubert1966]

I found a cool List of Google Features [freepint.com] that you may or may no be aware of. Check it out.

I have never had anything but praise for Google. The "Less is More" design was an oasis compared to other yahoos. However, I have always had a Yahoo account because it is free. I'll jump to google in a heartbeat ~ as long as it's free.

Google has created more innovative search features than anyone. And they just keep doing it. People have discussed the impending or eventual doom because of new offerings from MS and Yahoo, but the mindshare is with Google and the service just rocks/folks!

I have only 1 suggestiong for Google, and that is to let me up the number results returned to 250 or 500. Other than that, I'm on the bandwagon!

Re:This Does Not Mean Google Is Becoming A Portal

[Anonymous Coward]

perhaps you'd prefer this [yahoo.com]

Googlemail.com

[NemosomeN]

http://www.arb-forum.com/domains/decisions/114712. htm Possibly the REAL reason they registered it... --Proudly not RTFA'ing since 1999

Re:Interesting things at google.

[poulbailey]

> Back a few months ago I was developing software [...] I emailed Google about whether or not their AdWords
> could be used in a software environment and they said not at the current moment

That's odd since the Opera browser has Google ads [opera.com].

Re:Froogle

[Anonymous Coward]

As several others have pointed out, it's a little bit tough for a general-purpose search engine like froogle to compete with a very specialized tech page like pricewatch. Try using it for something else - I used it to look for places that would send cheese to my apartment, and was quite pleased with the result.

Re:I would like a Journal tab in Google.

[Aniquel]

that's what site: is for. ie, google for "site: citeseer.nj.nec.com search_text"

Well Actually

[Brainiac252]

I really think that there is a lot left in webmail besides additional space. I started using a service called Shadango.com [shadango.com] 6 months ago and it easily has more features then my old hotmail account. First of all I can check all my pop/imap accounts there from one easy interface. They provide you with a file manager, disposable addresses, and I have like 20MB of space. It's frickin' great. Yes a lot has been done in email, but there are still a lot of avenues that google can explore.

I keep seeing tunnels at the end of all these lights
Brian

Free Shadango Account?

[Gorillaka]

I was a alpha tester on Shadango about a year ago actually. When I signed up I used "alphatest" in the promotional code box and I got a free paid account. It might still work, definitely a great service.

Cheers,

Alan Steele

Re:Interesting things at google.

[Electrum]

Nice repost of comment #7034877 [slashdot.org].

Re:Interesting things at google.

[Anonymous Coward]

No, the ?-key of the person he copied the post word for word [slashdot.org] from must have been jammed.

Re:Froogle

[The Clockwork Troll]

why don't you try buying something other than computer hardware or software? Froogle has much more than computer stuff.

Because it still sucks!

froogle is generations behind Yahoo! Shopping, pricewatch, shopper.com etc.'s ability to distinguish actual items for sale from reviews, previews, and other non-merchandising content.

Yet froogle insists on attaching a price to every result returned on a search, often an incorrect one.

Often times a froogle search will turn up pages of "results," but when you go to sort by price, all of the sudden you wind up with only a handful of listings. In effect their software is saying, "well, I wasn't too sure about some of these."

Re:Froogle

[forevermore]

Yet froogle insists on attaching a price to every result returned on a search, often an incorrect one.

The prices listed for the actual froogle results are as as correct as the vendors say they are, since they come from vendor-supplied feeds (I know, I had to write a script to do this for my company). As for the other results, did you miss the little qualifier that the put above them? "The results below were automatically extracted from web pages. Price and category information are uncertain." None of the other listings that you mentioned do this - in fact, I don't know of any other price-search service that does this.

Of course, the annoying thing about this is that the price filters don't affect these items, either. On the other hand, froogle is still listed as beta, so it can only get better.

Re:If google sucks, what search engine should we u

[CZInterruptus]

Teoma [teoma.com] has an algorithm which is not as susceptible to link/link text spam as Google. Its results are used by Ask Jeeves but adulterated with sponsored listings and trusted feed results. AllTheWeb [alltheweb.com] has a big index and a pretty good algorithm, although it's been neglected somewhat by its new owner Yahoo. I'd love to see a serious open-source effort take on Mammon, but the server farms and bandwidth required seem prohibitive.

Re:Real world example of Google suckage

[Walterk]

Note, that famous little mp3 [easystreet.com] is not [google.com] made by Monty Python.