May 27, 2004 1:19 PM PDT

The fellowship of the 1GB storage lockers

By Evan Hansen
Staff Writer, CNET News

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Related Stories: Google to offer gigabyte of free e-mail
April 1, 2004

Move over Google, here comes Middle Earth.

British-based Planet-Tolkien.com is the latest company to offer a Web-based e-mail product with 1 gigabyte of storage--a trend that kicked off in late March with the test release of Google's Gmail service.

Since then, a number of copycats have come forward, including Web portal Lycos. Meanwhile, Google rival Yahoo has boosted storage for its Web-based e-mail service from 10 megabytes to 100MB.

Planet-Tolkien founder Tarrant Costelloe said the site's service launched on Wednesday and that it has signed up 1,800 customers for the $7-a-month offering.

"We're trying to build up features to start charging for services, and we had a good idea people were interested in e-mail," he said. "We originally thought about providing 10MB service, but we knew Google was going to do 1GB, so thought we'd try to get in there first."

Planet-Tolkien is a themed Web portal offering resources on "Lord of the Rings" author J.R.R. Tolkien. The site lets members inhabit a virtual world based on the enormously popular books, as well as choose a virtual character that can interact with other members within the spirit of the novels.

Costelloe said he plans to launch an online role-playing game within the site shortly.

He said he had considered the danger that some customers might put 1GB of storage to unauthorized use, such as hosting pirated software and media files, but decided that the risk was worth it.

"It was discussed what people might use that amount of space for," he said. "If people use it for 'warez' or put us in a position where we don't want to be, we can shut them down on a case-by-case basis."

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Add a Comment (Log in or register) 8 comments

Great headline
by pencoyd May 27, 2004 8:46 PM PDT: But why not...

1GB to rule them all

Apologies to Tolkien.; Reply to this comment

Where's the link!?
by May 27, 2004 9:24 PM PDT: Just wondering why there is no link to the LOTR's fan site
offering this service.

Could somebody post it?

Thanks!; Reply to this comment View reply
Processing

What?
by peartree May 28, 2004 10:09 AM PDT: I'm still trying to figure out this story. I fail to see how a site charging $7 a month is the same as a site charging $0 for the same service. Same goes for Yahoo. Google is STILL the ONLY company giving anyone a gig of mail storage for FREE.; Reply to this comment

Cheaper & Better solution with Sentinare
by May 30, 2004 11:59 AM PDT: Ya Gmail is free, but you don't get POP or IMAP access. Then you have this new comer Planet-Tolkien... I wont trust my email to some newbie, especially when you can get the same 1GB storage for less then half the price and also get some of the BEST spam filtering around with Sentinare www.sentinare.com. It's a no brainer.; Reply to this comment

1 Gb Email Services
by djysrv May 30, 2004 3:42 PM PDT: This is a rant about computer trade press reporters who don't check their facts. As a paid subscriber to Yahoo Plus email I can tell you the firm has done no such thing like offering its PAYING customers 1 Gb of email storage.; Reply to this comment

why only 1gb of storage?
by himitch52 June 1, 2004 1:25 AM PDT: why only i 1gb of storage on google and what the lord of the rings e-mail offers.I found a new service called aventuremail and they give you 2gb of storage and it,s free.; Reply to this comment

Gmail datamining and spyware tool for Google
by anthonycea June 12, 2004 10:10 PM PDT: Gmail will become like instand messaging, Gmail user to Gmail user since others will not send an email to a Gmail account, nor will they want to receive a Gmail, they will use blocking software to keep Gmail out.

See http://www.searchwars.squarespace.com/display/ShowPage?moduleId=24901 if you want to read more on Gmail; Reply to this comment

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