Okay what the hell is so special about a Gmail account?

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Disengenuous in that I can see it has a variety of technical niceties and is free webmail and all, I realize. Still, I'm a bit baffled as to all this rush for an account. Is there really something interesting about it all?

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 16 June 2004 18:34 (twenty-one years ago)

It's the new nosering.

― David R. (popshots75`), Wednesday, 16 June 2004 18:36 (twenty-one years ago)

the invite system

― 0r4l R0b3rt5 (ex machina), Wednesday, 16 June 2004 18:36 (twenty-one years ago)

Mmm.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 16 June 2004 18:37 (twenty-one years ago)

1000MB

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Wednesday, 16 June 2004 18:38 (twenty-one years ago)

FREE

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Wednesday, 16 June 2004 18:38 (twenty-one years ago)

it is interesting, it's new, and until you have known the misery of a 6MB storage limit on emai you should not judge those that weep with happiness at the gmail storage bounty.

― teeny (teeny), Wednesday, 16 June 2004 18:38 (twenty-one years ago)

I think initially it was also the chance that you'd be able to get in early enough to get the username you wanted without having to take a "74" onto the end of it.

― martin m. (mushrush), Wednesday, 16 June 2004 18:40 (twenty-one years ago)

or you could get your own domain name and be jon williams at wizard is hungry dot com

― 0r4l R0b3rt5 (ex machina), Wednesday, 16 June 2004 18:42 (twenty-one years ago)

I just upload everything to my home computer, though, so needing to store e-mail somewhere is all sorta of an 'oh, okay' to me. And I forget the limit on my account but I think it's higher than 6 MB -- the advantage of being in thick with the KUCI machine gurus, I guess!

Free e-mail accounts themselves are neither interesting nor new. ;-)

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 16 June 2004 18:42 (twenty-one years ago)

new band name: coochie machine gurus.

― Je4nne ƒury (Jeanne Fury), Wednesday, 16 June 2004 18:42 (twenty-one years ago)

Gmail uses Google search technology to find messages so users don't have to create folders and file their individual emails. Many of Gmail's other features also incorporate search technology to improve their effectiveness. Used this way, search enhances the efficiency of email, so we believe it's a natural area for Google to offer a service.

― 0r4l R0b3rt5 (ex machina), Wednesday, 16 June 2004 18:43 (twenty-one years ago)

I think initially it was also the chance that you'd be able to get in early enough to get the username you wanted without having to take a "74" onto the end of it.

That was the appeal for me until I found out usernames had to be six characters long, which leaves out ALL of my names. Oh, unless Walker isn't taken. I should check.

The technical aspect things are pretty cool so far. I already have free email with no limit on storage space, and no one ever sends me huge files anyway except occasional proofs (I think it'd be the Large File Issue more than the Email Storage issue, vis-a-vis storage limits). But another free, nifty account won't kill me.

― Tep (ktepi), Wednesday, 16 June 2004 18:43 (twenty-one years ago)

Jon's been possessed by a PRbot!

― David R. (popshots75`), Wednesday, 16 June 2004 18:44 (twenty-one years ago)

Jeanne -- don't think we at the station don't know the associations. ;-)

The PR doesn't appeal to me there.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 16 June 2004 18:45 (twenty-one years ago)

I have my own domain as well, but I like having a free account on the side for a few reasons. I'd stopped using my yahoo account because the interface and reliability sucked a fat one, so when gmail came out I figured I'd try it and see if it was useful for me.

I mean it's free... It's not like I'll lose anything by trying it.

Ned, .org addresses are for pussies.

― martin m. (mushrush), Wednesday, 16 June 2004 18:45 (twenty-one years ago)

No, coochies.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 16 June 2004 18:46 (twenty-one years ago)

It's new! It's exciting! It's cool! It's what we've all been waiting for! Hurry!

― AdamL :') (nordicskilla), Wednesday, 16 June 2004 18:47 (twenty-one years ago)

It's better than microhouse!

― AdamL :') (nordicskilla), Wednesday, 16 June 2004 18:48 (twenty-one years ago)

Goped!

― AdamL :') (nordicskilla), Wednesday, 16 June 2004 18:48 (twenty-one years ago)

Martin, you'd best shut your yap re: .org addresses and pussydom, or I might (mush)rush you with all the foreign language spam my .org has blessed me with.

― David R. (popshots75`), Wednesday, 16 June 2004 19:01 (twenty-one years ago)

It's all about the Gig of storage.

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Wednesday, 16 June 2004 19:04 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm kind of tempted to email myself Night of the Living Dead, just because I can, and then save it.

― Tep (ktepi), Wednesday, 16 June 2004 19:05 (twenty-one years ago)

yahoo (as of yesterday) is offering 100MB + 10MB attachments now...

― mookieproof (mookieproof), Wednesday, 16 June 2004 19:05 (twenty-one years ago)

I love how yahoo's response to the competition is to up their service to a level that is still AN ORDER OF MAGNITUDE lower than google's.

― martin m. (mushrush), Wednesday, 16 June 2004 19:19 (twenty-one years ago)

"Way to go Yahoo! That'll teach Google to fuck with you!"

― martin m. (mushrush), Wednesday, 16 June 2004 19:19 (twenty-one years ago)

It's the Crystal Pepsi of their sad little cola wars.

― Tep (ktepi), Wednesday, 16 June 2004 19:21 (twenty-one years ago)

smart ass you really shouldn't be talking shit i have an A+ MCSE- AND -CCNA also c++ cert what do you have, i work at ITT TECH As an Teacher.

― deanomgwtf!!!p%3Fmsgid%3D4581997 (deangulberry), Wednesday, 16 June 2004 19:21 (twenty-one years ago)

― martin m. (mushrush), Wednesday, 16 June 2004 19:23 (twenty-one years ago)

― deanomgwtf!!!p%3Fmsgid%3D4581997 (deangulberry), Wednesday, 16 June 2004 19:23 (twenty-one years ago)

― martin m. (mushrush), Wednesday, 16 June 2004 19:24 (twenty-one years ago)

i'm annoyed it can't be forwarded on

― stevem (blueski), Wednesday, 16 June 2004 19:33 (twenty-one years ago)

dean, what's that from

― 0r4l R0b3rt5 (ex machina), Wednesday, 16 June 2004 19:50 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm right behind anything that will annoy Bill Gates.

― the music mole (colin s barrow), Wednesday, 16 June 2004 20:15 (twenty-one years ago)

I'll repeat, I pay 20 dollars a year for Yahoo's Mail Plus, which has no ads, invasive or otherwise, and now has 2 gigabytes of storage, which is a lot more then 1 gigabyte of storage.

― Dan Selzer (Dan Selzer), Wednesday, 16 June 2004 21:22 (twenty-one years ago)

How much more?

― deanomgwtf!!!p%3Fmsgid%3D4581997 (deangulberry), Wednesday, 16 June 2004 21:22 (twenty-one years ago)

almost the same again.

― RJG (RJG), Wednesday, 16 June 2004 21:23 (twenty-one years ago)

minus $20

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Wednesday, 16 June 2004 21:24 (twenty-one years ago)

i have 2 sbc accounts (2x2GB) and now 3 gmail accounts (3x1GB) = who needs a hard drive?

sbc = $30/month (dsl/telephone svc.)

― gygax! (gygax!), Wednesday, 16 June 2004 21:25 (twenty-one years ago)

2 gigabytes of storage is a TON more then 1 gigabye. Definately more then a bunch.

― Dan Selzer (Dan Selzer), Wednesday, 16 June 2004 21:36 (twenty-one years ago)

the mathematically inclined might might even deem it "twice as large".

― gygax! (gygax!), Wednesday, 16 June 2004 21:38 (twenty-one years ago)

I have this hard drive at home with 31 GB, see, and... *is beaten*

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 16 June 2004 21:39 (twenty-one years ago)

but can you access it from anywhere? (wait, isn't there something called virtual desktop that does this).

― gygax! (gygax!), Wednesday, 16 June 2004 21:40 (twenty-one years ago)

Ned, would you like an invite?

― the music mole (colin s barrow), Wednesday, 16 June 2004 21:43 (twenty-one years ago)

that's my problem, never very good with numbers.

― Dan Selzer (Dan Selzer), Wednesday, 16 June 2004 21:46 (twenty-one years ago)

Ned, would you like an invite?

I wouldn't use it. Give it to someone who asks.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 16 June 2004 21:48 (twenty-one years ago)

I have this hard drive at home with 31 GB

mine's 76 GB!

― stockholm cindy (Jody Beth Rosen), Wednesday, 16 June 2004 21:48 (twenty-one years ago)

Actually it's 40 in my case but I speak of what's currently free on it, blah blah wibble.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 16 June 2004 21:49 (twenty-one years ago)

but can you access it from anywhere? (wait, isn't there something called virtual desktop that does this).

This is one of those questions that honestly befuddles me in that I've never had or felt the need to do this, or it's been so rare that I don't remember same. I guess I envision computers and their uses differently.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 16 June 2004 21:51 (twenty-one years ago)

(soooo tempted to whip out size of hard drive in geeky pissing contest... must... resist...)

― martin m. (mushrush), Wednesday, 16 June 2004 21:51 (twenty-one years ago)

Skipping 237 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

what is a trollish characteristic?

― ken c, Monday, 17 March 2008 16:17 (seventeen years ago)

yes

― libcrypt, Monday, 17 March 2008 16:19 (seventeen years ago)

For Chu The Belle Trolls

― the pinefox, Monday, 17 March 2008 16:21 (seventeen years ago)

My Ken's Got Miraculous Pique-niques

― the pinefox, Monday, 17 March 2008 16:22 (seventeen years ago)

Tuomas has heard of PGP.

― stet, Monday, 17 March 2008 16:24 (seventeen years ago)

Is english the Pinefox's first language

― Catsupppppppppppppp dude 茄蕃, Monday, 17 March 2008 16:58 (seventeen years ago)

I've heard of IMAP and POP in relation to e-mail but don't know what they mean. Never heard of PGP or GPG or whatever. And I think I'm relatively computer-savvy for someone who's not a tech geek at all.

― jaymc, Monday, 17 March 2008 17:00 (seventeen years ago)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_dissonance

― Catsupppppppppppppp dude 茄蕃, Monday, 17 March 2008 17:25 (seventeen years ago)

James Joyce

― the pinefox, Monday, 17 March 2008 17:34 (seventeen years ago)

this thread is going to get more interesting when google's medical record shit gets released.

― Jordan, Monday, 17 March 2008 17:37 (seventeen years ago)

Only because people are stupid

― El Tomboto, Monday, 17 March 2008 17:40 (seventeen years ago)

Eh? I see the labelling system in gmail as prescicely like folders.
Same message can have multiple labels; can't nest labels.

― stet, Monday, 17 March 2008 17:51 (seventeen years ago)

Labels : Folders :: RDBMS : OOP

― libcrypt, Monday, 17 March 2008 17:55 (seventeen years ago)

Take that, jargon-haterz.

― libcrypt, Monday, 17 March 2008 17:55 (seventeen years ago)

Eh? I see the labelling system in gmail as prescicely like folders.

When you put something into a folder does it not generally disappear from view unless you are looking at the particular folder that it's been placed in? When you label messages in the Inbox or Archive they are all still visible, just with the labels added.

― krakow, Monday, 17 March 2008 19:44 (seventeen years ago)

pinefox: you are a treat

― chaki, Monday, 17 March 2008 19:47 (seventeen years ago)

FWIW, in my experience Yahoo's email is much more over-zealous than Google's at spam-filtering; when I used Yahoo mail, I turned the spam filtering off altogether because it was more trouble than it was worth.

You need a Yahoo account to use Flickr, but not a Yahoo *email* account.

― Forest Pines Mk2, Monday, 17 March 2008 20:32 (seventeen years ago)

two months pass...

Is anyone trying any of the new Google Mail Labs features?

I like the "Superstars" one, which gives you a bunch of additional star type icons to label mail with, and even after just a few minutes use, I would like to see that adopted as a normal feature.

The "Quick Links" one looks like it might be useful, though I'm not sure how personally as yet.

― krakow, Friday, 6 June 2008 19:16 (seventeen years ago)

four months pass...

New labs features added, including a custom colours for labels one, which looks like the perfect answer to one of my long-standing requests for more colours.

― krakow, Tuesday, 4 November 2008 11:17 (seventeen years ago)

four months pass...

Another new labs feature that sounds cool: Undo Send.

Looks like it holds your emails for 5 seconds, during which time you can hit undo to stop them being sent. I can think of a couple of instances in the last few weeks when this would have been useful. Will have to see how it goes.

― krakow, Friday, 20 March 2009 10:54 (sixteen years ago)

one year passes...

I've just activated the labs "Priority Inbox" feature. I'm hoping for good things from this, as I've been feeling increasingly swamped by emails lately.

― krakow, Friday, 3 September 2010 08:13 (fifteen years ago)

Look at me being the lonely saddo posting to the void about gmail features for the last 2 years. Bah.

― krakow, Friday, 3 September 2010 08:15 (fifteen years ago)

I watched the priority email video - I don't really need this feature but it was a 100% enjoyable video to watch!

― Gravel Puzzleworth, Friday, 3 September 2010 08:34 (fifteen years ago)

18 months late, but thx for the heads up on Undo Send, had no idea this existed.

― Bill A, Friday, 3 September 2010 09:01 (fifteen years ago)

someone cloned my gmail address and is now spamming my firends/contacts ten times a day, is there anything i can do about this beyond just close down the account and start another?

― Chaki doesn't have beef with unicorn (stevie), Friday, 3 September 2010 09:09 (fifteen years ago)

I use 'Undo Send' quite often - I seem to only notice spelling mistakes and the like in those few moments of scanning the email after pressing 'Send', so it's very useful there.

― krakow, Friday, 3 September 2010 19:44 (fifteen years ago)

stevie, i think changing your password might help? or maybe not?

― the parking garage has more facebook followers than my band (Jordan), Friday, 3 September 2010 19:54 (fifteen years ago)

thanks jordan, will give that a try

― Chaki doesn't have beef with unicorn (stevie), Saturday, 4 September 2010 10:35 (fifteen years ago)

Also, and again, idk if this will help, but if you go to the bottom and go to 'last account activity' then click on details, you can sign out of any other sessions you are logged in to.

― GamalielRatsey, Saturday, 4 September 2010 10:38 (fifteen years ago)

Priority inbox has been incredible with the gmail I set up for all my work emails -- genuinely is pulling out the do-now msgs.

― stet, Saturday, 4 September 2010 11:09 (fifteen years ago)

I had the option for priority inbox yesterday, but was too busy to look at it more closely. Today its gone.

― he's always been a bit of an anti-climb Max (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Saturday, 4 September 2010 15:42 (fifteen years ago)

lol didn't bother as i get about three emails per day MAX.

― Nathalie (stevienixed), Saturday, 4 September 2010 15:47 (fifteen years ago)

stevie I don't know exactly what you mean by "cloned" but a spammer can put any address he wants in the "from" field, it's called spoofing. so yeah other than ditching that account so your friends can block it there's not much you can do. I would think your friends' spam filters would catch those though..

― Kerm, Saturday, 4 September 2010 15:53 (fifteen years ago)

yeah i think that's what's happened, kerm. my friends' (and also editors') spam filters do catch the spams, but also my emails too, which has become problematic. i guess i'll have to ditch the address...

― Chaki doesn't have beef with unicorn (stevie), Saturday, 4 September 2010 16:05 (fifteen years ago)

it's possible your gmail has been hacked, change your password.

― Jarlrmai, Saturday, 4 September 2010 17:08 (fifteen years ago)

two years pass...

this new compose window is boss

― stet, Wednesday, 31 October 2012 09:23 (thirteen years ago)

I actually lolled the other day when I was sending a file to someone and forgot to include it. When I hit 'send' a window popped up saying "Your message contains the words 'attached is' but there are no attachments. Would you like to include some?" <3 u guyz

― itt: 'splaining men (ledge), Wednesday, 31 October 2012 09:28 (thirteen years ago)

god but i hate change

― but with socks instead of football (darraghmac), Wednesday, 31 October 2012 09:36 (thirteen years ago)

1000MB
― nickalicious (nickalicious), Mittwoch, 16. Juni 2004 20:38 (8 years ago)

― квас (☆), Wednesday, 31 October 2012 11:37 (thirteen years ago)

That Compose Window is really fucking useful. I hate having to flick between two tabs, both with Gmail open.

― Matt DC, Wednesday, 31 October 2012 11:41 (thirteen years ago)

the reply window makes inline replies even harder. damn top-posting

― stet, Wednesday, 31 October 2012 11:44 (thirteen years ago)

when i exceeded my initial storage limit a few years ago i paid what appeared to be a onetime fee for more storage, but at some point it because a monthly rolling $2.95 charge, which every few months happens when i have no money and then out of nowhere i'm not allowed to send or receive any new e-mails for a couple of days while i get that sorted out. really goddamn annoying. i wish it would let me just pay the monthly fee for the whole year or something.

― push iatee (some dude), Wednesday, 31 October 2012 11:48 (thirteen years ago)

I've had my account for eight years without deleting anything and I'm not even at 40% capacity yet. Is yours full of music or something?

― Matt DC, Wednesday, 31 October 2012 12:10 (thirteen years ago)

New compose isn't good with a maximised window on a large desktop, unless you enjoy staring at the corner of the screen.

I've found down arrow then tab sorts out the inline reply.

― toby, Wednesday, 31 October 2012 12:20 (thirteen years ago)

Ah, you can shift-click the compose button to get the old widget.

down-arrow tab does the trick, thanks!

― stet, Wednesday, 31 October 2012 12:30 (thirteen years ago)

its like a real big chat

― lag∞n, Wednesday, 31 October 2012 12:54 (thirteen years ago)

fat chat

― 乒乓, Wednesday, 31 October 2012 13:11 (thirteen years ago)

hay no blank subject warning alright!

― lag∞n, Wednesday, 31 October 2012 13:14 (thirteen years ago)

blank subject warning went a while back iirc? i haven't got one in a while.

― of course you end up shazaming yourself (c sharp major), Wednesday, 31 October 2012 13:27 (thirteen years ago)

my gmail sends emails and often receives replies, sometimes even completely new emails it's very good

― but with socks instead of football (darraghmac), Wednesday, 31 October 2012 13:41 (thirteen years ago)

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