gmail invite offers

[yesthattom]

Is anyone else sick and tired of receiving email from people saying that they have a large number of gmail invites to give out?

Soon I’ll need to get a gmail account just so that I have a place big enough to store all the offers I’ve received.

Comments

[grail76.livejournal.com]

interestingly enough, when the new group of invites were handed out, I found three people who'd never heard of gmail. Now to just find 3 more people to give the rest to...

[xeger.livejournal.com]

Heh. I haven't gotten email from folks offering invites, although I have gotten (recent) email from people boasting about being the first person they know to get a gmail account ...

[awfief.livejournal.com]

*shrug* I see it, and I don't quite understand it. I have 6 gmail invites. The 2 or 3 I've given away were to people who heard me talk about gmail, or saw me check my e-mail, and asked me for them. I really kind of feel like the people offering gmail accounts are saying, "I'm way cool; wanna be like me?"

I figure if someone wants one they'll ask.

[stitchinthyme.livejournal.com]

I haven't even bothered to offer my 6 invites to anyone since everyone I know who wants a gmail account has one.

[lediva.livejournal.com]

http://isnoop.net/gmailomatic.php

Need an invite? Take an invite.
Have an invite? Leave an invite.

I like this solution so much more than any begging on anyone's part. Gmail4Troops is a great idea, but the UI of both implementations I saw sucked horribly.

[ceo]

Am I the only one who completely fails to see the appeal of gmail?

[kazmat.livejournal.com]

Certainly not. I see them as another yahoo or hotmail or aol. Some site I'd probably really like to block but can't for the one or two people who I'd want to talk to that have email accounts there.

[jss]

Ditto what kazmat said.

[quietann.livejournal.com]

It's better than other web-based email WRT security issues. Other than that, I doubt there is much difference.

Then again, I have a yahoo account, so I'm obviously just one of those ignorant (l)users...

[yidrae.livejournal.com]

Okay, I'm just gonna risk looking like a total idiot and ask: what the hell is gmail? I read about it all over LJ, and I have no damn clue what it is and why everyone's so het up about it. 'Splain it to me using small, simple words?

[kazmat.livejournal.com]

Gmail is google's entry into the mass storage webmail market. They're giving away X number of invites per existing members so they can drag other people in (I think of it being like the borg). The upshot is that you get a really huge webmail account for free.

[yidrae.livejournal.com]

Oooookay. So is it radically different and/or cooler than, say, Hotmail or Geocities or some such thing? Or is this just yet another way for Google to worm its way into the global technologies market?

[kazmat.livejournal.com]

Personally, I think the latter (they hit you with "targeted" advertising), but...

They give you a gig of storage space so you never have to delete mail. They have (supposedly) a fairly decent sorting and searching method to search through your gig of mail. And (probably most important for the sheep mentality I've seen), it's still in beta right now, so you have to have an invite to join. This last bit makes it seem like you're one of the cool kids if you have an account.

[yidrae.livejournal.com]

Well, then I should get on board, because I am without a doubt one of the coolest of the cool kids. Maybe I'm too cool for Gmail. I wonder if I can start my own e-mail whatnot. Then I could be coolestkid@yidrae.com. Hmmm.... ;)

Ah, well. Maybe in the meantime I'll just look into Gmail. Gotta crawl before you can walk and all that nonsense.

[grendelgongon.livejournal.com]

I have to differ. Having recently looked into all the alternatives I could, I think Gmail is much better than the competitors.

The Gig is a major draw, as is the competent handling of large attachments (sadly this means my gig won't last "forever" they way they are suggesting. The interface is far better than hotmail/yahoo/etc, conversations have threading (which is slightly annoying till you get used to it, then is really useful), the search function works really well, and the interface generally is very simple and just works. It has a few annoying problems, but all the ones I've noted are in the "working on it" FAQ.

It's a shame they don't offer a more storage/no ad pay option, but the ads aren't at all intrusive.

Admittedly the invites thing is pretty damn lame, esp since it's been in beta for a while now.

The synopsis: It's the first web-based system that tempted me away from my beloved pine, first on a limited and soon on a more general basis. And after 11 years of pine that's saying something :)

[yidrae.livejournal.com]

Hmmm. Interesting. I ought to look into it. I'm a dinosaur who hooked into AOL in the mid-'90s and haven't changed since. Perhaps now is a good time to start examining more user-friendly options. Thanks for the clarification :)