The continuing GoogleMail saga
p2pnet.net News:- It’s April 2, but there are a lot of people out there who still think the Google Mail announcement was an April 1 put-on.
It weren’t and it ain’t. Although the mistake is understandable given the lengths to which the Google Guys went with their Pigeon Post.
Anyhow, for those doubters, check this out from Kevin Fox – “A dotcom veteran who refuses to lay down his arms” and who’s “currently a user interface designer at Google Inc”.
Now read on >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
I am nothing if not well – crafty.
By Kevin Fox
No, really.
Real real real. Not “I have a friend who reads this guy’s blog who claims to know for a fact” real. Not even “I read this guy’s blog and he says it’s not an April Fool’s joke” real. Well, maybe for you, gentle reader, it’s exactly that real, but for me it’s “I came to work for Google and got handed a dream assignment to design the UI for a product that’s going to change the world” real, and now I’m thrilled that my best kept secret was kept so well that even my close friends took the “it’s gotta be a joke” path yesterday.
Nearly two months ago my Mom sent me an email, saying she read a piece in the newspaper speculating that Google was working on an email product.
“Really, Mom? That’s interesting. It’s funny how they press makes all kinds of speculations. First we’re going IPO, then we’re not, then we are, then we’re waiting. We never said anything but the press likes to make stuff up.”
Then I sent her email around to the team. Today several of them asked me if I’d come clean to my own Mom yet. I did. This morning. 
Where was I? Oh yeah. Free email, a gig of it. If you’ve been reading the paper or the blogs today, you’ve read about it, spun either as an April fools joke (though if it were only that it would be a pretty short-sighted jest: “Here’s this great product! Ha-ha, fooled you!”), or a piece of ill-timed PR. In truth, as guessed by a few of the more circumspect bloggers, it was both and neither. A double-April-fools joke. Metapranking, if you will. Google-style fun with a big pot of gold at the end.
To me it’s showing the world the wider viability of the Google aesthetic. Clean design, unobtrusive yet useful ads, a fast, powerful product that will literally change the way you “do email.” Oh yeah, and a gig of space, too.
I’m reminded of a quote from Scott Adams:
“I say we should listen to the customers and give them what they want.”
“What they want is better products for free.”
Only here that kind of thinking isn’t a Dilbert punchline.
Yay, Google.
(oh, and this screenshot, though cute, is totally fake)
April 2nd, 2004 at 10:20 pm
Man Google’s getting a tonne of mileage out of this one press release…perhaps even more than if it was never considered an April Fools joke, hmmmmmmmmm….maybe they’re not so naive as everyone thinks?
April 3rd, 2004 at 12:10 am
Alas, a quick search of google will let you know that the name “gmail” is already taken by another program Considering the inherent wit in things Google’d, they have again hornswaggled the world.
1GB mail storage online… ya, sure.
April 3rd, 2004 at 12:57 am
feed it some more brother, this’ll never die!!
April 3rd, 2004 at 4:24 pm
You might want to check out WebmasterWorld’s forum. It’s talked up ad nauseum. I sure don’t want it. Read the TOS and privacy agreement. Only FOOLS will go for this. I didn’t say April, either.
No it is not a joke, https://gmail.google.com/ .
Google is a new player on the email market, and the 1GB is maybe for some users a very very good feature to transfer from the 2MB Hotmail to Google.
* How is Google going to pay for 1GB for every user?
Not everyone uses 1GB, most users will in short term only use a few 10MB’s I think. Trying to use your account as a warez storage place won’t work, this is illigal and Google will find some way to trace this. A spamfilter also takes care of less email = less space needed.
And not to forget: They earn money with the Adsense like ads which are displayed in every email! Google has found another goldmine
http://gmail.google.com/gmail/help/about.html#interest