more on Gmail: Google's free Webmail service, 1 gigabyte storage

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

Delivered-To: dfarber+ () ux13 sp cs cmu edu
Date: Thu, 01 Apr 2004 09:31:36 -0500 (EST)
From: Rich Wiggins <wiggins () msu edu>
Subject: Gmail: Google's free Webmail service, 1 gigabyte storage
To: dave () farber net


Dave,

The press is full of stories about Gmail, Google's new Webmail service.
Google promises 1 gig of mail storage.  In exchange, they will sell
you ads targeted to the content of your inbox.  (They claim they
won't reveal personal information.)

At first, taking note of April 1 and the whimsical tone of the Google
press release, I was skeptical.  But the media are taking it as real,
a way for Google to enter Hotmail and Yahoo Mail's market.

The impact will be much larger than stealing customers from Hotmail.
This will lead to a massive migration of personal content from
far-flung providers to Google's server farms.  It could be the
largest migration of personal information in history.  A
searchable 1 gig mailbox will be so incredibly useful that people
will abandon other alternatives.

Google will capture untold terabytes of content which it will
then mine and analyze.

ISPs and smaller Webmail providers will lose customers by the
millions.  Many will fail.

Those paltry 50 meg mailboxes that universities give their faculty
and students just won't cut it any more.  (University IT providers
are already adjusting their storage budgets.  They're also wondering
if the campus mail service is even relevant any more.)

/rich 

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