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Google Businesses The Internet Communications

GMail Sign-Ups Via Mobile 427

Posted by Zonk from the finally dept.
jm.one writes "In the wake of recent releases releases Google Desktop 2.0 Beta and Google Talk 1.0 Beta, Gmail (known as Google Mail for legal reasons in some areas) is finally open to everyone. Learn more in the Google Blog entry and register at the Gmail website. Please take note that sign-up occurs via mobile phone at the moment, and only U.S. citizens can register for now. Plans to add more countries are on the way."
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GMail Sign-Ups Via Mobile More

GMail Sign-Ups Via Mobile

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  • Invitations Still Work (Score:5, Informative)

    by under_score ( 65824 ) <mishkin@be[ ]ig.com ['rte' in gap]> on Thursday August 25, 2005 @09:11AM (#13396631) Homepage
    So a person can still get on even if they aren't in the US.

  • A New Feature (Score:5, Interesting)

    by voodoo_bluesman ( 255725 ) on Thursday August 25, 2005 @09:13AM (#13396639) Homepage
    I just noticed that I'm now able to send email out with addresses other than my gmail account.

    VERY cool from a business standpoint.

    • Re:A New Feature (Score:5, Informative)

      by brajesh ( 847246 ) <brajesh DOT sachan AT gmail DOT com> on Thursday August 25, 2005 @09:22AM (#13396720) Homepage
      Yeah! I guess Google added this [google.com] recently.
    • This is actually a huge help for me. My gmail address name is quite dumb, and I have my own email address at my own domain that I have forwarded to gmail. But when I respond, they see my stupid gmail account name. Now I can make it look like the mail is sent from my domain! Plus, I can also add my companies' email address and make it look like I'm sending mail from work!

  • Not yet, it isn't (Score:5, Insightful)

    by GauteL ( 29207 ) on Thursday August 25, 2005 @09:13AM (#13396640)
    It is still clearly marked "Beta" and no links to registration is found on the gmail.com website.

  • Huh? (Score:4, Informative)

    by Richard_at_work ( 517087 ) on Thursday August 25, 2005 @09:13AM (#13396641)
    Gmail is out of beta is it? News to me, still says 'beta' in the logo and nowhere in the blog entry does it say Gmails out of beta, just that you can sign up for it without an invite in the US.

    • Re:Huh? (Score:2)

      by cduffy ( 652 )
      It didn't say it was out of beta, it said it was "open to everyone". RTFP.

      • Re:Huh? (Score:5, Informative)

        by Richard_at_work ( 517087 ) on Thursday August 25, 2005 @09:32AM (#13396787)
        Nope, they just changed the post, it origionally said Gmail was out of Beta. You see this is the type of confusion editors promote when they make POST PUBLICATION edits without marking that they have done so. If someone had checked the blog and gmail.com before the post was put live, they could have caught it then, but they waited until it was pointed out in the comments, and now you have 5 or 6 comments that are seemingly meaningless because of a silent editorial change.

  • Aha... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by irn_bru ( 209849 ) on Thursday August 25, 2005 @09:14AM (#13396645)
    So they want your mobile phone number as well

    **Strokes chin...**

    • Not that Google is evil now, but... (Score:4, Insightful)

      by typical ( 886006 ) on Thursday August 25, 2005 @09:26AM (#13396743) Journal
      Not that Google is evil now, but their ability to get *really* evil if they ever go evil has been steadily increasing...

      One notable hole in Google's research lineup has been privacy. If all Google wants is aggregate data, why no clever solutions to provide the individual with guarantees that Google can't get useful individual data but can get useful aggregate data?

    • Consider me nuts... (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward
      but wanting my mobile number is insane. Google, in my estimation, is not only a profitable corporate company, but with their recent hiring of top secret cleared engineers from the governemnt, I think they could be a part of echelon. Laugh all you want. Tell me I have a tinfoil hat all you want. What better way for the government to be able to spy on people without the legality of a wiretap, or breakin to look at your computer. Now they don't have to. Google is becoming far more powerful than even Microsoft.
      • but with their recent hiring of top secret cleared engineers from the governemnt

        Can you give a source for this?
      • "Google is becoming far more powerful than even Microsoft. Microsoft isn't hording near the personal information as Google is collecting from people." Just what info do you think Google is gathering about me? I have a gmail account...so now they have my first/last name and my email address. Just like every spam company out there who trashed my last email account. And access to my emails...who cares? It's the same no matter what email service you use...unless you host your own server. But in that case,

        • Re:Consider me nuts... (Score:4, Interesting)

          by Momoru ( 837801 ) on Thursday August 25, 2005 @10:49AM (#13397377) Homepage Journal
          And access to my emails...who cares? It's the same no matter what email service you use...unless you host your own server.

          No...regular internet companies don't save any of your mail. Especially once you download it off your POP3 server. Google is the only one that ENCOURAGES you not to delete it....it's the only one whose servers READ your email to give you targeted ads. Because of your Google cookie, Google in theory knows exactly what you search for, what you shop for, who you IM, and your entire email records. I don't think Google actually cares, but the GP was pointing out that if you are suddenly suspected of being a terrorist under the patriot act or whatever, the Gov can find out your entire life from one court order to google. Microsoft, Apple, etc... know nothing about your personal life.
      • [Google] wanting my mobile number is insane.

        Why is this insane? Anyone you call or text-message knows your number and very well may keep it indefinitely. All privacy paranoia aside; maybe Google is working on an interface for simplified text-messaging that links all your contacts from your email, IM, and mobile phone accounts. They are becoming heavy in communications apps, so maybe they want to track usage patterns of the Gmail users, who sign up by mobile phone, to see if there are any significant diff
  • ...is open to everyone...Please take note that sign-up occurs via mobile phone at the moment, and only U.S. citizens can register for now.

    So its not open to everyone..yet?

    Anyone know the reasoning behind this? Previously, I could invite my friends from France or Swaziland and they could sign up no problem. Why not let them register now? And without using a phone ?!
  • ...that Google is now going to start to associate a Gmail account with their mobile number? This can be abused...
    • So can cars, computers, airplanes, etc. Are you suggesting we forget about using anything that might possibly have a chance of being abused? Seriously, the paranoid people around here on /. need to return to reality. Do you people enjoy living in fear of everything and everybody around you?

    • Theory of the Day (Score:3, Interesting)

      by TheRaven64 ( 641858 )
      GMail accounts can also be used for Google Talk. Google Talk supports voice chat. I wonder if they are planning on partnering with some of the mobile telephone companies to allow mobile 'phones to work as endpoints for Google Talk conversations (or even provide an SMSIM gateway - there are a couple for XMPP but they require you to have some way of sending SMS, which costs money). This would be much easier to do in the US where you need to pay to receive mobile 'phone calls, since the cost to Google would

  • mobile phones? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by grasshoppa ( 657393 ) on Thursday August 25, 2005 @09:15AM (#13396660) Homepage
    Please take note that sign-up occurs via mobile phone at the moment

    Let me be the first to say, huh?

    Is this odd to anybody else?

  • Google officially evil (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Henry V .009 ( 518000 ) on Thursday August 25, 2005 @09:17AM (#13396674) Journal
    Give Google your phone number to get free email? Whoa, if Microsoft tried this, they'd have a mob with pitchforks and torches descending on Redmond.

  • no longer compelling? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Dink Paisy ( 823325 ) on Thursday August 25, 2005 @09:17AM (#13396676) Homepage
    The most visible feature of GMail is the extra storage, but with Hotmail, Yahoo and others offering more storage now, will many people who haven't already switched to GMail want to? Acquiring a new email address is a pretty heavy operation, since you have to inform everyone who has the old one (well, everyone that you still want to communicate with via email...) about the new one. I have a Hotmail account, and despite the search features (that most people won't even bother learning about) I didn't switch when I got GMail invites, just because it would be more effort than it is worth.

    My personal opinion is that Google waited to long to release this service to the general public, and they have lost their edge in web mail.

    • Re:no longer compelling? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by arudloff ( 564805 ) * on Thursday August 25, 2005 @09:23AM (#13396726) Homepage
      The most visible feature of GMail is the extra storage

      I think it's safe to say that 99.9% of the people who use GMail will tell you it's the interface, not the storage.
      • I know that the interface is superior, but someone who hasn't used it isn't going to see the interface. The most visible feature to someone who is considering switching is the storage.

        In my own case, I usually read Hotmail with Outlook on my laptop, so the interface isn't that big a deal. I guess that was another reason for my sticking with what I've got.

        • I switched from all email clients to Gmail a year ago, and I've never looked back.

          Conversation view is marvellous. I am not talking about threading, I'm talking about about conversations. Seeing what I said, seeing what they said in response, hiding the quoted text... Searching email is also a pleasure. Why standard email clients show you a relevant snippet of text when you search for something when GMail has been doing it for at least a year just defies reasonable explanation. If I search for an email from
    • GMail has much more than large storage. As has been pointed out elsewhere, it has a clean interface and excellent spam filtering.

      If the switch to a different e-mail address worries you, just have your mail forwarded to your GMail account and slowly phase out the old one.

    • Re:no longer compelling? (Score:5, Interesting)

      by justforaday ( 560408 ) on Thursday August 25, 2005 @09:32AM (#13396788)
      I work for a journal that sells PDF copies of our articles to customers. I still get bounced messages from Hotmail accounts saying that our 1.5-2MB attachments exceed their per message limit, even though it was supposedly bumped up to 10MB over a year ago...
    • Very good point.

      I have a friend that I tried to switch over to GMail, but there were two reasons that she didn't.

      Reason one was that she liked the Hotmail domain (WTF?)

      Reason two? Hotmail went to 250MB storage. They've also extended the deadlines for checking your account, last I've heard.

      (And had I been more upfront that it was Google, she'd have run from me as if I were holding a dead badger... I swear, if she ever finds google-watch, she'll go NUTS... what I don't get, though, is that she doesn't trust G
  • Still says beta under every Gmail logo.
    still have invites.
    So they added the phone thingy a few days ago ... nothing realy changed

  • Orkut..... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by idiotnot ( 302133 ) <sean@757.org> on Thursday August 25, 2005 @09:18AM (#13396682) Homepage Journal
    Google's social networking project, sadly, I don't think will ever get out of beta.

  • Misleading post! (Score:3, Insightful)

    by francisew ( 611090 ) on Thursday August 25, 2005 @09:18AM (#13396686) Homepage
    As serveral people have pointed out, Gmail is still in beta, they have just opened the sign-up model slightly.

  • GMAIL NOT out of beta (Score:3, Informative)

    by Chanc_Gorkon ( 94133 ) <<moc.liamg> <ta> <nokrog>> on Thursday August 25, 2005 @09:18AM (#13396688)
    I am on the gmail site now and it's not out of beta. Not yet. I bet it will be in a few months though. This IS the first time anyoen who goes to the site can register and for now only via the SMS text message. If you ask me, it's a ingenious way to implement a captcha. Still has issue with handicap users (unless one has a phone that can text to speech the SMS). This will only prevent spam for a short time. All the spammer needs is a pocket pc phone and a program that can read the SMS, and go to the web page and authenticate it. Easy peasy and all they have to use is a smartphone.
    • Ingenious my ass. CBV [callback verification] was COMMON back in the 80s as a method of user account verification [e.g. prevent people from making multiple accounts].

      Of course back then it wasn't spam it was time. You had to limit users to [say] 30-60 mins per day online so that others could use it. So you limit them to one account per phone number.

      Tom

  • Does sign-up by mobile phone prevent spam? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by yeremein ( 678037 ) on Thursday August 25, 2005 @09:19AM (#13396693)
    Google says they're sending invitation codes by SMS to prevent spammers from obtaining Gmail accounts.

    I call shenanigans. What good is a Gmail account in comparison to a zombie?

  • Mobiles and US only (Score:3, Informative)

    by Zouden ( 232738 ) on Thursday August 25, 2005 @09:23AM (#13396722)
    For all those saying "huh?"
    From the Google blog:
    Why use mobile phones? It's a way to help us verify that an account is being created by a real person, and that one person isn't creating thousands of accounts. We want to keep our system as spam-free as possible, and making sure accounts are used by real people is one way to do that.
    Right now, sign-ups only work with U.S. mobile phone numbers, but we're eager to support others.

    Honestly, it would have been useful to have that in the /. writeup...
  • they make the assumption that everyone who would want a gmail account already has a cell phone and sms?

    probably just cut a huge chunk of potential users out there..

    • probably just cut a huge chunk of potential users out there..

      Not really, no. Prior to this, you could only get invites from other GMail users. At least now people can get invites through their cellphone in addition to that. Its not as open as something like Hotmail, but its still adding people who can sign up.

      I'm actually glad to see they didn't just open it up. This allows more people to sign up (and I'm sorry, but a huge portion of people interested in a Gmail account WILL have a cellphone with SM

  • People say the voip stuff is not so featureful. Does google have something up their sleeves? Or is this just a way to tweak M$?

    Also, how do you pronounce GMail? gu-male? GM-ail?

  • You are all sheepole... (Score:3, Funny)

    by Z-Knight ( 862716 ) on Thursday August 25, 2005 @09:28AM (#13396760)
    or lemmings or whatever you want to call it. Geez, can we stop with the Google love fest.

    Ever since Goolge had its IPO, I can't seem to trust this company. Personally, I will never sign up for any Google product....though I do use the search engine. I hate the fact that they want/have so much control over various services ... their practice of "Do no evil" is dying...I personally believe they are trying to assimilate us all!

  • OH NO! (Score:5, Funny)

    by museumpeace ( 735109 ) on Thursday August 25, 2005 @09:32AM (#13396791) Journal
    I was planning on using my 150 GMAIL invitations as christmas presents! Now they won't be very valuable.

  • RE: GMAIL NOT out of beta (Score:4, Insightful)

    by paithuk ( 766069 ) on Thursday August 25, 2005 @09:37AM (#13396823) Homepage

    All the spammer needs is a pocket pc phone and a program that can read the SMS, and go to the web page and authenticate it. Easy peasy and all they have to use is a smartphone.

    Since Google will inevitably store it, they would no longer allow other users to register with the same phone number. The purpose is not really that of a Turing test, but instead a way of limiting the demands on their resources.

    • Anyone who THINKS captcha's are a true Turing is well, not right! :D Did we not just have the article about PWNctha(sp)?? Captcha is just a way to make sure you have a human on the other side. Some humans can barely pass that sometimes with especially messed up captcha images or if your blind.
  • So Google has all of Usenet under their (practical) control (as the only source I know of with the full archive), they have a lock on geek email, they dominate retain (non-corporate) 'net ads, and are the premier aggregator of 'net data for their wildly popular search engine. Oh, and they have killer mapping tools.

    Now they want to keep and store mobile numbers. I understand why they're doing it, but couldn't another approach be used to limit account generation? (linking to a valid, non-GMail account for

  • I want them to do more... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Lumpy ( 12016 ) on Thursday August 25, 2005 @09:44AM (#13396871) Homepage
    I really want google to do something like MSN direct. that watch was really cool and I was happy to pay $50.00 a year to get im messages on it as well as the other info and calendar data.

    Problem is that MSN sucks. they changed their protocols so my home automation system can no longer send IM's to my watch from it's linux server. Also they have not been attracting any more FM broadcast stations to carry their data signal so there has been no expansion in coverage. coupled with the fact that their biggest watch maker fossil has dropped them, things look bleak for this really neat idea.

    Google has the chutzpa to do it right, and hell I'm tickled to pay for the service as well as many others seem to be.

  • RE: What part of "Don't be evil" is this? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by paithuk ( 766069 ) on Thursday August 25, 2005 @09:45AM (#13396875) Homepage

    Now they want to keep and store mobile numbers. I understand why they're doing it, but couldn't another approach be used to limit account generation? (linking to a valid, non-GMail account for example)

    So your proposed technique would allow a spammer to register, by providing a valid email account on his own mail server? The phone network is a good choice on Google's part, but not a new idea.
    • I didn't want this to be a thread on proposed alternatives (after all, THEY'RE the ones with lots of bright people and $4B US in the bank). There's a substantial amount of trust going on in this new transaction. Being inflammatory, perhaps the new slogan should be "Don't be Evil, but plan for it."

      The catch is it's such a tempting offer - they've implemented a really good webmail service here. The addition of rewriting your "From" address is just perfect. I'm just glad I already had my account before th

  • Google earth + mobile = teh win? (Score:4, Funny)

    by Netsensei ( 838071 ) on Thursday August 25, 2005 @09:48AM (#13396901) Homepage

    So they want our mobile numbers? I'm guessing that they are going to try to triangulate our positions. So they can put your position in Google Earth. Can you picture all those red dots in Google Earth? Can you picture the accompanying tooltips?

    "CowboyNeal is currently in Club Blue Oyster and has unchecked mail"

  • Can't anyone RTFA?? (Score:2, Informative)

    by Se7enLC ( 714730 )
    Instead of everyone saying "Huh? The logo says Beta..." and "OMFG, why does google want my phone number?", why don't you READ their FAQs?

    One of the reasons we are offering this new way to sign up for Gmail is to help protect our users and combat abuse. Spam and abuse protection are two things we take very seriously, and our users have been very happy with the small amount of spam they've received in their Gmail accounts. We take many measures to ensure that spammers have a difficult time sending their sp
  • I didn't think a major company like google would let themselves be slashdotted, but they did.

    I just got this message from gmail...

    Server Error

    Gmail is temporarily unavailable. Cross your fingers and try again in a few minutes. We're sorry for the inconvenience.
  • Gmail (known as Google Mail for legal reasons in some areas) is finally open to everyone

    AND

    Please take note that sign-up occurs via mobile phone at the moment, and only U.S. citizens can register for now.

    Is this some new and US-centric use of 'everyone' that I am not yet aware of, or does _anyone_ else in the states see an apparent contradiction?

  • Can only US citizens own a mobile? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by huwtj ( 620443 ) on Thursday August 25, 2005 @10:22AM (#13397166)
    I'm confused as to how "sign-ups only work with U.S. mobile phone numbers" became "only U.S. citizens can register for now". Do you have to prove you're a US citizen to buy a mobile phone in the US now?!

  • Gmail now most expensive "Free" service (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Momoru ( 837801 ) on Thursday August 25, 2005 @10:33AM (#13397259) Homepage Journal
    Just joking...though this would cost me $.05 cents a pop in text messaging to sign up. A small cost to pay for a decent free email service. It does keep people who do not have cell phones from getting free email (yes those people exist, and are probably one of the people that NEED free email the most). And I worry about them storing mobile phone numbers by default (they say you can remove them manually). It would just really suck if someone hacked google and got a bunch of mobile numbers, but all in all a novel way to stop spammers.

  • Where is the USA border ? (Score:3, Informative)

    by BlueMan0025 ( 741942 ) on Thursday August 25, 2005 @10:40AM (#13397301)
    Never trust what they say, you can sign-up with a canadian cell phone number.

  • you don't need an invite at all (Score:5, Informative)

    by cjasonm ( 778725 ) on Thursday August 25, 2005 @10:49AM (#13397376)
    If you sign up for a Google account, it comes with GMail. All you need is a valid email address to confirm with. All this fuss is silly considering that such an easy backdoor exists.

    https://www.google.com/accounts/NewAccount/ [google.com]
    • Of course, it might be out of date, but...

      2. Does creating a Google Account give me a Gmail account?

      Unfortunately not. Gmail is currently in a limited release, so you need to get invited by another Gmail user in order to sign up. If you're interested in Gmail, you may want to check the About Gmail page periodically for updates. If, on the other hand, you already have a Gmail account, you can use your Gmail username and password to sign in to your Google Account.

      http://www.google.com/help/faq_accounts.html [google.com]

  • People who don't want to sign up... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by SilentReallySilentUs ( 908879 ) on Thursday August 25, 2005 @11:51AM (#13397941) Homepage
    Can simply wait for hotmail and yahoo(well, it is pretty good already) to wake up and introduce smooth AJAX and WYSYIG interface, add more memory, clean up their advertising and spam filters. For a company like Microsoft with billions in cash, it should not be a big deal. So, my guess is if one waits for about 6 months, one does not have to abandon his 9 year old Hotmail account.. Is Microsoft listening? Providing a good interface is a matter of willingness to think about the user and innovate rather than hire rocket scientists. I recently worked on http://www.collaze.com/ [collaze.com] and found that any feature I want to give to the user can indeed be implemented in DHTML/Javascript, if you are passionate enough to research and experiment.

  • GMail WAP?? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by TheSync ( 5291 ) on Thursday August 25, 2005 @11:54AM (#13397987) Journal
    So where is GMail's WAP? It is kind of sad that I can use Yahoo Mail via WAP, but not GMail.

    I realize there are WAP gateways to GMail one could set up on your own server, but why can't they just offer it natively???

  • Works in Canada (Score:3, Informative)

    by hchaput ( 544841 ) on Thursday August 25, 2005 @01:02PM (#13398739)
    I just signed up with a Canadian mobile phone, so the whole "US Only" thing isn't strictly true.

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