Google Opens Gmail To All

Reader Russian Art Buyer lets us know that GMail is now open for all ("Google Mail" in the UK). The service is no longer by invitation only. This welcome page shows an ever-increasing amount of storage available per user, currently about 2,815 MB.

Capacity drop?

[Short Circuit]

I wonder if we'll see a drop in storage capacity with the increased number of users.

Also, my GMail account still says I only have 73 invites left. If it's open, why don't they drop the limited number of invites?

Not really

[Monty845]

Maybe the submitter has a different definition of all than I, but Gmail still requires either an invation or the ability to receive text messages. While the number of people who can't get text messages may be small, there are still many people who cannot sign up.

Re:Fastmail

[jrwr00]

as you can tell i show my email address on /.
and the spame filter work well, i get some 5K in spam and MAYBE 1 email will get past

Playing the same game MS played

[140Mandak262Jamuna]

First get all the data of the users into its servers, relatively easily, cheaply and painlessly. Like Word5' importing WordPerfect or Excel importing Lotus123 without any hitch. Once all the data is safely collected MS increased the switching costs and made it nearly impossible to get back to the competitors. Till date it keeps changing file formats, macro language, APIS, look and feel and tries enshrine even the bugs in Word5 as the new "standard" "open" document format!!!

In the case of Google, it will find increasing the switching costs to get out of gmail not very easy. Reason are:

1. It uses a simple browser as its interface and it does not have the same level of control over http protocols and XML protocols MS enjoyed over Windows platform.

2. Users have become more aware of these issues. The resurgence of OpenOffice and fandom of Firefox shows that.

3. Google says its motto is "dont do evil" and atleast part of its fan base is taking it at face value.

Overall, IMHO, if google wrests significant portion of the data from the clutches of MS and shows how advantageous it could be for companies and users to keep their data in a format with eye on the switching costs it would benefit the consumers.

Re:Surge in users?

[Red_Foreman]

Not only does GMail have a much better spam filter, but Google will proabbly do what MS won't - aggressively delete spammer email addresses.

Besides, most spam is generated from zombie windows boxes in South Korea, anyways.

Still, if you don't want spam, don't publish your email address and only give it to competent people.

Re:Capacity drop?

[Short Circuit]

Most people I meet on campus have never even heard of GMail.

With Google holding the top search engine spot, they need only add a link to GMail to the search page, and they'll get millions more users.

Re:It's about time...

[jsight]

It's a major weakness that I have to use a client for S/MIME capability, but they don't support the best protocol for doing this (IMAP).

With regards to SSL, my issues there mostly apply to Google for domains. As far as I know, they don't allow you to mandate SSL for that either, and that is a weakness in an environment where you can't always trust your users to access with optional security every time.

Tongue, meet cheek.

[Anonymous Coward]

This is a 3 year old dupe [slashdot.org]!

Selective quoting of discussion follows:

Prepare to be underhwelmed [slashdot.org]

What is left in webmail? The best Google can do is offermore default space than Yahoo and Hotmail. This will cost them money - Yahoo currently soaks $19 a year out of anyone wanting more than 4 MB. Maybe they can do filtering better, but I don't see them outdoing spamassassin etc. Ultimately its just another email address. The geek cachet will wear off quick after everyone you despise starts using googlemail.

Bad move [slashdot.org]

it's a bad bad move on google's part. The infrastructure needed (and the sysadmin) to provide a robust, spam-free , web based email system is of a sheer magnitude greater than just being pure search.
For starters , the tech support will ramp up ,and add to google's costs. And Googlemail will become the numero uno target for spammers.
If I were the Google founders, I quite honestly wouldn't bother - it's to much hassle and dilutes the Google "brand".
But then again, the IPO is coming up, so having a "webmail" component is an easy sell to "analysts" in Five Points ...ahem... Wall Street I mean.

I really can't see it catching on guys!

Gmail doesn't work with tabs

[Pigeon451]

My biggest gripe is Gmail doesn't work with tabs. When using webmail, I open email into tabs I want to read, and by the time I've finished clicking say 5 or so emails, they have finished loading into my browser and I can switch tabs to view them. Gmail doesn't allow tabbed browsing. Also I find Gmail's interface a bit clunky and limiting, much like Microsoft's products are.

Re:Capacity drop?

[ubergenius]

Seriously. No offense to wherever you go, but I know of no one... Literally, not a single person... who does not have a Gmail account, much less heard of Gmail.