Gmail's Birthday Presents 387
Jicksta writes "Since today marks the first birthday of Google's online email service, Gmail, the Gmail team is rolling out some great new features. Every user's email account storage has been doubled to an astounding 2GB and users now have the ability to use some new snazzy rich text formatting features including fonts, bullets, colors, and highlighting. Happy birthday, Gmail!"
Schweet (Score:2)
Re:Schweet (Score:4, Insightful)
Apparently it increases at the same rate than the javascript counter they put in the main page
Re:Schweet (Score:3, Funny)
I call foul, an Actual story on slashdot on 4/1?
How cruel.
Re:Schweet (Score:4, Insightful)
Geez...just what we need. Email should be plain text...you are just wasting bandwith with all the rich text crap.
Geez...thought it was bad enough with trying to get idiots using MS Outlook to quit putting crappy wallpaper on their emails...not to mention the other stuff. You get a 2 line email, that is like 1.5MB+ in size with all the formatting crap, dancing images....etc.
Re:Schweet (Score:3, Informative)
[1] You can only select sans-serif, serif and monospace fonts.
Re:Schweet (Score:4, Insightful)
Unfortunatly, you can't rely on ASCII art 'cause retarded MUAs (like gmail) won't display messages in a mono-spaced font. That is a feature I've been requesting for ages.
And your argument of using style for structured communication is bunk. What does colors and fonts have to do with your message, and how are they going to render in pine [washington.edu]? Bullet points? What's wrong with an asterik?
If you want to sell me something, send me the URL of a webpage. If you want to effectivly communcate with me, send me a plain ASCII email. If you need back up images, send links to web page, but for the love of god don't email them to me.
Re:Schweet (Score:5, Insightful)
That doesn't add a significant amount of size, particularly in light of the 2GB you get for mail. Even slashdot supports some level of message formatting. It makes it much easier to add emphasis. If someone overuses it, blame the writer, not the application...
Re:Schweet (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Schweet (Score:4, Informative)
So what are you really complaining about, the extra 1k that the e-mail has because it has good formatting?
Re:Schweet (Score:3, Informative)
It assumes that the recipient is using a graphical/HTML client.
Yes, it assumes the recipient is participating in 2005 with the rest of us, not stuck in 1994 with you. For $DIETY's sake, even pine will read HTML email these days.
Re:Schweet (Score:5, Insightful)
The format is irrelevant; the point is that you're sending something that's not plain text. As the person to whom you responded points out, this is only okay "...if you absolutely know how your recipient is going to read the message...".
More specifically related to Gmail:
Re:Schweet (Score:3, Insightful)
You contradicted yourself in that sentence =]
Besides, thats a straw man: all I said its not really comparable to sending doc attachments, which it isn't.
And, btw, you never "absolutely know how the recipient is going to read the message."
ASCII and Unicode are agreed upon formats, just like HTML. The important thing is that they are open and standards based.
I'm not sure what the big deal is anyway, I use Opera m
Re:Schweet (Score:2)
Re:Schweet (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Schweet (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Schweet (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Schweet (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Schweet (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Schweet (Score:2)
Re:Schweet (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Schweet (Score:4, Funny)
Infinity plus One (Score:3, Funny)
Just look at:
http://www.google.com/search?q=(1/0)+1 [google.com]
Re:Schweet (Score:3, Funny)
===========
You are currently using 0 MB (0%) of your 1433 MB.
===========
Re:Schweet (Score:2)
April 1st? (Score:5, Informative)
My gmail account has slowly been growing today (it's at 1440MB capacity now) and have noticed the rainbow features being integrated.
Will this last till tomorrow? Who knows. I'm liking it as is. I wouldn't think that Google would offer a service only to rip it away. If I had to speculate I would say that this is their answer to Yahoo!'s recent 1GB offer of e-mail. And as for those of you who keep complaining about gmail being in Beta still, I think Google answered it best regarding their "Gulp" product in their FAQ: [google.com]
11. When will you take Google Gulp out of beta?
Man, if you pressure us, you just drive us away. We'll commit when we're ready, okay? Besides, what's so great about taking things out of beta? It ruins all the romance, the challenge, the possibilities, the right to explore. Carpe diem, ya know? Maybe we're jaded, but we've seen all these other companies leap headlong into 1.0, thinking their product is exactly what they've been dreaming of all their lives, that everything is perfect and hunky-dory - and the next thing you know some vanilla copycat release from Redmond is kicking their butt, the Board is holding emergency meetings and the CEO is on CNBC blathering sweatily about "a new direction" and "getting back to basics." No thanks, man. We like our freedom.
Re:April 1st? (Score:2, Informative)
Re:April 1st? (Score:4, Funny)
On April Fools' Day your GMail storage will double and the funniness of Slashdot jokes will be halved.
Re:April 1st? (Score:5, Interesting)
Just log out of Gmail. Then you will see the "joke" about the Infinity+1 Email account. Then at the end, they say "April Fool" and link to the new features mentioned in this article. Hence, the two GB is real, it will just take until tomorrow until it is there. (Or at least that's my analysis.)
The question remains of whether the submitter saw the joke, realized that it needn't be submitted, given the glut of them, and then found the new features, or just clicked on that glowing red "New Features" link at the top of his logged-in page.
Re:April 1st? (Score:2, Informative)
But why stop the party there? Our plan is to continue growing your storage beyond 2GBs by giving you more space as we are able
They discovered that a gigabyte is great, but 99% of all users aren't using more than a megabyte a year. Therefore, they really don't need to worry about limits. They just add on more disk space for the few users who actually need it.
Re:April 1st? (Score:5, Insightful)
Funny, that's the mentality broadband ISPs used when pricing their plans...then when everyone had a killer app that actually used what they were sold, backpedaling and AUP-juggling ensued.
I don't think the Google will do this, but FWIW.
GTRacer
- Has ONE message in GMail inbox
Re:April 1st? (Score:3, Interesting)
var START = 1112331600000;
var END = 1112439600000;
var quota;
function OnLoad() {
el("gaia_loginform").onsubmit = lg;
gaia_setFocus();
LogRoundtripTime();
if (!quota) {
quota = el("quota");
updateQuota();
}
}
function updateQuota() {
if (!quota) {
return;
}
var now = (new Date()).getTime();
if (now < START) {
setTimeout(updateQuota, 1000);
} else if (now > END) {
quota.innerHTML = 'Over
Re:April 1st? (Score:4, Interesting)
Copy/paste 1112331600 and 1112439600 into the above site to test. (I guess the last 3 digits are milliseconds)
Apparently, it looks like it depends on your system clock! If you want 2GB now, set your date to the future!
Re:April 1st? (Score:2)
Re:April 1st? (Score:2)
"Gmail turns 1 today. And we've always loved a good joke. We know we won't reach infinity, but check out what we will do [google.com]
You will see that they are very serious about increasing to 2 GB of storage. The counter on the Gmail page seems to be increasing from 1000 Mb to 2000 Mb at a rate that will reach the goal by the time the day
More google news :) (Score:4, Funny)
My favorite part (Score:2, Funny)
True story! (Score:2, Redundant)
Thats Great (Score:2, Redundant)
Re:Thats Great (Score:2)
No Joke (Score:2, Informative)
I have to say (Score:2)
Oh yeah? Infinity plus 1! (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Oh yeah? Infinity plus 1! (Score:5, Informative)
Re: (Score:2)
Sweet... (Score:5, Funny)
How long until 2gb? (Score:2)
Re:How long until 2gb? (Score:2)
okay back it'll reach 2GB at 12am EST.
Re:How long until 2gb? (Score:2)
Re:How long until 2gb? (Score:3, Interesting)
I thought this was a 1/04 thing... (Score:2)
timer (Score:5, Informative)
ag
Re:timer (Score:4, Informative)
Re:timer (Score:5, Informative)
var START = 1112331600000;
var END = 1112439600000;
1112439600 (extra 000s?) is Sat, 02 Apr 2005 11:00:00 GMT
Re:timer (Score:3, Informative)
Whereas the disk space is actually increasing gradually, independent of the display, but matching very closely (only by 2 or 3 MB)
Competitoin? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Competitoin? (Score:2, Informative)
"
250MB inbox available only in the 50 United States, District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. Eligible Hotmail users will first receive 25MB at sign-up. Please allow at least 30 days for activation of your 250MB storage to verify your e-mail account and help prevent abuse. Microsoft Corporation reserves the right to provide 250MB inbox to free Hotmai
I hate April Fools (Score:5, Funny)
Re:I hate April Fools (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:I hate April Fools (Score:5, Funny)
Best april fools joke all day!
Anyone noticed... (Score:2, Informative)
Drive Extension (Score:5, Interesting)
2GB? (Score:2)
Re:2GB? (Score:2)
Re:2GB? (Score:2)
Not a prank! (Score:2)
My only fear is that Google can't resist the draw to become evil forever. If they start making some of these new toys for-pay-features. *shakes fist*
Gmail is 1337 (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Gmail is 1337 (Score:2)
No joke! (Score:2)
You are currently using 57 MB (4%) of your 1414 MB.
Nice! Thanks Google!
Just the meta physical tags please (Score:2)
Not an April Fools Joke (Score:2)
Go to your Gmail account for more info...
Why can't this be a joke? (Score:3, Interesting)
Props for the increased space, though.
Re:Why can't this be a joke? (Score:3, Informative)
Sincerely,
Grumpy Old Geek
Re:Why can't this be a joke? (Score:3, Interesting)
Check out GMail Loader (GML). I think this takes care of what you're looking for.
(http://www.marklyon.org/gmail/download.htm [marklyon.org]
Is it real or is it slashdot (Score:2)
Gmail ups to 2Gigs may be real or it may be a dumb attempt at a joke. Don't care enough to click the 12th might-be-a-joke/might-be-real link of the day.
My pledge: boycot slashdot on April Fools day. Next: hit submit then close slasdot window till tomorrow.
Richemail formatting in PURE JS (Score:4, Insightful)
For a long time now I've been thinking of making a rich-text editor in pure Javascript, so that it works in any browser, unlike past offerings from Hotmail. And now, it looks like that idea wasn't that crazy after all. Of course, I missed the boat to fame, pretty badly, now that Google made it so public. Yeah, I know, someone else probably did it before, but those efforts were obviously pretty obscure.
Most importantly, though, I think this shows the tidings of the new application: built entirely using the browser as a client interface, and the server as the app-logic/storage. Don't buy Microsoft Office, get a free consumer version from Google. Of course, business-features are also rentable, for a small pay-as-you-go rate of $.05 per minute. The customer is happy - all they need is a browser on ANY PC with teh intarweb; the vendor is happy - no more piracy issues, EVER. Plus, the software "seller" doesn't need to bother with tech support nearly as much - only need to answer the occasional "my JavaScript is turned off/I use Lynx" call.
I'd like to hear what you folks think of this vision of the future. And of course, links to existing examples that prove that these sentiments are soooo 1999.
All i can say is .. (Score:2)
Picked Up By The AP (Score:2)
I don't know which is funnier, that Google felt that people actually needed 2GB, or that Slashdot thought it was a April Fool's joke.
counting up (Score:2)
var START = 1112331600000;
var END = 1112439600000;
function updateQuota() {
if (!quota) {
return;
}
var now = (new Date()).getTime();
if (now END) {
quota.innerHTML = 'Over 2000';
} else {
quota.innerHTML = format(((now - START)/(END - START)*1025) + 1025);
setTimeout(updateQuota, 50);
}
}
It looks like it's counting from 1000 to 2000 over t
good and bad (Score:2)
Second, ooo free space...
Personally I don't care if they read my emails or send them off to spammers or what not. It's a quality service, works well and is realible.
Tom
Rich format rocks (Score:2)
2GB doesn't excite me, I'm using less than 100MB right now. The rich text? It knocked my socks of this morning.
-Pete
Google == Genius (Score:2)
Google has a very interesting sense of humour: first they launch Gmail on April 1st.
This had the effect of confusing people; lots of us expected it to be an April Fools joke and immediately dismissed it, so it effectively went under the radar initially.
Now on the anniversary of their landmark e-mail service, they are at it again!
Joke or reality? You figure it out.
Personally, I believe this is Google's way of remaining low-key while at the same time being (possibly) the biggest thing ever
Just increase the attachment size... (Score:2)
Yet still no calendar... (Score:5, Insightful)
No suitable name for Google calendar (Score:3, Funny)
Galendar doesn't sound quite snazzy enough.
Oh well. Then again I was the guy that suggested they use Go Ogle for their image search so maybe Go Date would work better for the calendar.
Seriously, I do agree with you. I just implemented a PHP calendar on my website for the family to use and a Google calendar would probably kick my attempt to pieces.
... And partial string searches still don't work. (Score:3, Insightful)
You can't do partial text searches (i.e. search for 'vacation*' (or variations thereof) to return e-mails with 'vacations'). It's highly vexing to be trying to find an e-mail that you KNOW exists, only to discover in the end that it wasn't getting returned because your search string was incomplete!
Why store all your e-mails if you can't search for them easily/intuitively? Very odd. Does anyone know why thi
And in Other News (Score:2, Funny)
A hidden bonus to Rich formatting... (Score:5, Informative)
This potentially positions Gmail to be a WebMail client for the masses, because what you receive is what you will reply to or forward. This was a hugely lacking feature that has now been added.
Kuddos to the Gmail developers!
-Jim
GmailTips.com [gmailtips.com]
The Rich Text Formatting is Nice....BUT.... (Score:3, Insightful)
Funny Image (Score:3, Funny)
Happy G-day (Score:3, Interesting)
Also, another thing I noticed this morning, after someone told me that they had 1399MBs of space, is that I was at 1400MBs, and now seems to be going up about 1MB per minute.
Now if only Gmail supported a normal list view of all emails, along with grouping conversations.
And in other news (Score:5, Interesting)
Yesterday my 1.7.6 install worked fine with gmail, but today I keep getting routed to the "Basic" view with none of the candy that made me like my gmail account in the first place (filters, selections, etc).
I hope this is some sort of practical joke...
Re:I am sick of this (Score:3, Interesting)
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=144539&cid=12
I have 1337 mb...Thought it was a joke... (Score:2)
In Other News... (Score:5, Funny)
Google replies, offering Infinity squared megabytes.
Re:Not a joke (Score:2)
Re:Ha! (Score:2)
Re:actually a real article (Score:3)
I take it you haven't seen Google Gulp yet?
Re:Yep... here it is... (Score:2)
Re:April Fools again (Score:2)
Re:HTML Formatting (Score:3)