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anybody out there have Gmail?
Posted by chadbrewer in
21 Sep 2005 — 12:40pm
21 Sep 2005 — 12:40pm
Hello all,
I'm fed up with my current internet mail accout (spymac) and would like to try out Gmail, but I don't know anybody who has an account, and it's an invitation only sorta thing.
So — if any kind person out there has a Gmail, and would like to send me an invite, I'd really really appreciate it!
Cheers!
[since spymac rarely works I can be contacted at chadpbrewer(at)hotmail.com]
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21 Sep 2005 — 1:12pm
Sure.. Let me know and Ill invite you.. ( formlos#gmail.com )
Edit-A-Bit.: I have just sent you an invitation..
( If anyone else is interested, let me know.. I noticed I still have 99 invites left.. :)
Dav, formlos
21 Sep 2005 — 4:05pm
If anyone is interested, I have about 100 GMail invites I need to get rid of. Let me knkow if someone wants one. Anyone know of a place where I can donate them? I know they were doing that for some time for US soldiers.
21 Sep 2005 — 4:30pm
Gmail's invite-only format is the best viral marketing ploy ever devised.
21 Sep 2005 — 7:21pm
I have a 100 Gmail invites as well... there are several sites that collect donated Gmail invites and distribute them accordingly. I'm not endorsing any of these sites, just passing along the information. Read the information on the sites and make your own decision. I've used the Highwayman site myself.
http://www.highwayman.org/gmail/
http://www.gmail4troops.com/
http://b10m.swal.org/cgi-bin/gmail_invites.cgi
http://www.neoscrib.com/default.aspx?&page=gmail
g.
21 Sep 2005 — 7:48pm
I've got plenty available as well, so contact me if interested.
I remember when you had to pay to get an invite, but that was over a year ago. I ended up doing some graphic design work for an invite, but I was able to nab some really good addresses... like my last name for example.
21 Sep 2005 — 7:59pm
"Gmail’s invite-only format is the best viral marketing ploy ever devised."
I only wish that was my idea.
Would somone invite me?
21 Sep 2005 — 8:21pm
Is there a consensus about how "permanent" a gmail address will be?
Also: Any known limitations/drawbacks?
hhp
22 Sep 2005 — 4:08pm
Probably as permanent as Google itself. Google has been around for a long time and it doesn't look like it is going away anytime soon (they raised 4 billion US$ recently in a stock offering).
Gmail is extremely fast, user-friendly, intuitive and un-cluttered when compared with services provided by competitors such as Hotmail.
22 Sep 2005 — 5:41pm
What about attachment limits (incoming & outgoing), spam control, etc.?
hhp
22 Sep 2005 — 6:58pm
Hrant,
Incoming and outgoing limit is 10MB. Spam control seems to work similarly to Hotmail. And you get around 2.5 GB of storage.
22 Sep 2005 — 7:00pm
Maximum attachment size could range from around 6 mb - 10 mb, depending on what type of attachment it is (total message size including encodes cannot exceed 10 mb). I believe that goes for both upstream and downstream.
Anything larger would take forever for the recipient to receive anyway, especially if they are on a slower connection.
Also a very generous 2,500 megabytes (2,5 gig)of total storage space. When Gmail first rolled around, it had a then-unheard-of one gigabyte storage allotment, five hundred times (!) more than Hotmail had at the time (Hotmail later increased that limit to remain competitive.. but so did Google!).
From the official FAQ regarding spam:
"We are committed to keeping unwanted messages out of your inbox. Gmail includes a sophisticated spam filter that we're continuing to improve. The Report Spam button in Gmail is a way for users to help with this effort. It removes spam from the inbox and sends valuable data to the Gmail team working on spam blocking."
Not sure what that translates to in practice, but considering their keen attention to detail and service, I'm sure they are probably at the top of the game regarding spam prevention. Of course much spam can be attributed to users simply not exercising proper e-mail care and leaving it in the wrong places online, thus making it vulnerable to be indexed by web-crawling spam bots.
Personally I've had my Gmail account for well over a year and had 0 spam messages that I cannot attribute to my own carelessnes (I get periodical e-mails that I consider spam from a forum I signed up for a few years ago and unfortunately their unsubscribe address isn't working).
I do not usually adopt the role of being an unwitting viral marketing vector for companies, but I'll make an exception for Gmail since it's served me so well. If anyone needs an invite, give me a shout--I also have 100 available. :-P
They actually seem to refresh after a while, I gave a bunch away already but it's back at 100. Clever to keep the invites going even as a mere formality, because it keeps people talking about it. I have seen many topics like this one on various forums.
22 Sep 2005 — 7:20pm
OK, I'm 90% sold - thanks for the details.
The last 10%: does a gmail account get closed down due to inactivity?
hhp
22 Sep 2005 — 7:29pm
From the Gmail help:
If you don't log in to your account for an extended period of time, we'll mark it 'dormant.' After nine months, Google will delete all messages in the account, close it, and recycle the username. (Other free web-based email providers delete dormant accounts after as few as 30 days.)
If your dormant account is deleted, we can't guarantee that you'll be able to use your previous username again once it has been recycled. Make sure to log in to Gmail regularly!
22 Sep 2005 — 7:38pm
I have had a hotmail account for 8 years and I wouldn't like to abandon it since many people find me trough it and I have given this email to many people I haven't seen in long time.
But on the other hand I dislike the name of the accoun I got.
¿Is there a way to use hotmail trough Gmail? jajaja, maybe that's too much to ask.
Héctor
23 Sep 2005 — 12:23am
Héctor,
Hotmail are funny about accessing it except via the web interface, I think you have to pay to use the POP features.
You could try a third party solution such as this to forward your Hotmail messages to Gmail.
Ed.
23 Sep 2005 — 9:13am
Ed,
I've been using my Hotmail account with Outlook Express for ages and I'm not paying a dime. But that might be the only e-mail client that does that since they're both owned by Microsoft.
23 Sep 2005 — 12:23pm
I love my gmail account.
As far as filesize and limits, check this out:
http://www.softpedia.com/get/Internet/E-mail/Mail-Utilities/GMail-Drive-...
Windows only unfortunately, so I don't use it. Apparently it creates a virtual drive that is attached to your gmail account giving you 2GB (now 2.5GB and climbing) of online storage. I think it somehow circumnavigates the 10MB limit.
I heard that someone had actually run applications from the virtual drive, but that's just too geeky for me :)
pd
23 Sep 2005 — 12:26pm
Very useful - especially for remote access to large files.
Like X-Drive, which I used to use until it became a pay service.
hhp
24 Sep 2005 — 5:57am
I've had great use from my Fastmail account. It's a nice clean interface and from member-level upwards, you have various levels of online file storage which allow public access (ie. a website).
Not as free as a gmail account, but reliable and adaptable.
Dan
3 Oct 2005 — 9:37am
So is there a way I can hook up Gmail direcly into Thunderbird?
hhp
3 Oct 2005 — 9:46am
Hrant, if you go into the "settings" area in GMail, there are options for enabling mail forwarding and POP. You can also follow this link directly for instructions on how to configure your mail client to receive GMail.
3 Oct 2005 — 9:52am
Thank you, Zed!
hhp
9 Sep 2006 — 7:23am
If this is collossaly inappropriate, please let me know, but I'd be grateful for a gmail invite. The SMS-invite service seems to have bypassed Canada altogether for some reason. What, subsidized health-care and Celine Dion weren't good enough? ;-)
Acct info: oc63bc@hotmail.com
Cheers
9 Sep 2006 — 7:27am
Done. :^)
9 Sep 2006 — 7:39am
Tiff beat me to it!
Just one thing though: don't write out an email
in a public forum like that - major spam magnet.
hhp
9 Sep 2006 — 7:52am
Thanks Tiff!
Hrant, thanks to you as well. It's alright, too late on my hotmail account, anyway. I tried to keep it as secure as possible at first, but it's become a depository for offers for various sexual aids from all over Asia. Hotmail's junk filter catches quite a bit of it, but not all.