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April 30, 2004 11:51 AM PDT
Gmail accounts go up for bid
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Beta testers invited by Google to take part in its new free e-mail service also received invitations to give to another person, but many are being auctioned on eBay, so far fetching bids as high as $61.
"Gmail is still in beta testing, so Google is strictly limiting how many people are using the service at this time," wrote one seller, who has five days left on the auction and six interested bidders. "This is an opportunity to get in 'on the ground floor' with this interesting new e-mail service."
Currently, 42 testers have listed their invitations on eBay, with one offering to sell an additional invitation outright--for a mere $199.
Google, which last month announced it was testing a new e-mail system, invited 1,000 people to join the trial. Gmail offers 1 gigabyte of storage and includes a news aggregation page and newsgroup interface, and allows users to search through their e-mail. The service has generated excitement, but not as much as Google's upcoming IPO.
But the service has also generated criticism before even rolling out to the masses. Gmail is under fire for inserting advertisements into messages based, in part, on contents. That controversy has led to one legislator calling for its ban.
That doesn't seem to be stopping folks from jumping into the bidding process to snatch up a Gmail account during this three-to-six-month beta test, however.
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Why would I pay for a GMail account that they send more advertisement to me, based on the type of email I receive? The Spam mail I receive would create a false profile on me, and anywhere I would go on Google or associated sites, I would be haunted with ads for Vigra, Breast Enlargement, Manhood Enlargement, Weight Loss, Weight Gain, Blind Dating Services, Sexy Women with Webcams, 419 Scams, Green Card Lawyers, etc.
Not to meantion that the Spam mail will create email searches just as relevant as Google web searches anyway, which is not very relevant at all. Why, you may ask? Because many people and groups flood Google with websites using key words that are not relevant to the content of the page. The same with emails. I consider those type of web pages to be Web Spams, when they are included in the web search and are not relevant to what I am searching. It just wastes my time.
http://www.dmoz.org/ is a much better web page searcher, human editors determine what is relevant and what is not. Less web Spam, and more revelant web searches.
skeptical im all emails are the same right??? no way. gmail
has some really great unique features that make it a must
have, the spell checker function is so intuitive, you only
spell check the words you want, and it works with pull
down menues, you kind of have to see it but its really cool,
plus the way it organizes the emails as conversations is so
intuiive its amazing it wasnt done sooner, plus since i got
in early i got exactly the screen name i wanted!!! the ads
business is really nt even noticable, there are no picture
ads or pop ups just some discreet advertisements along the
side, i havent even gotten that many of them. anyways
when this goes public people are gonn abe clamoring for
accounts and the chances of getting the address you want
will be zero. The only way you may be able to get a decent
address is through ebay i would totally recommend it. I got
mine from this seller who has a couple more postings,
heres a link
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/
eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=4291&item=3675366495
&rd=1