Monday, May 31, 2004


I've noticed from the Google alerts I receive for the keyword Gmail have slowed down. In fact, no new articles have come in since May 25, which is almost a week. Could this be the first sign of the fever-pitched interest of Gmail slowing down? Of course all Gmail has to do is issue some more invitations and the fever will start anew.
TD 9:06 AM | 2 comments |

Sunday, May 30, 2004

[ screenshot ] Gmail 'all' link for checking many boxes at one time


By checking the "all" link, you can easily drop all the spam on a page by basis. The only problem is you still have to look through all the subject lines to separate the good mail so you don't mark that as spam.
TD 8:45 AM | 0 comments |

Friday, May 28, 2004

Books about Gmail

I'm wondering how long it will be before someone writes a book about Gmail. It would be odd for this to happen while it is still in beta, because so much could change, but I wouldn't be surprised if at least one book is written and published before the end of the year.

Perhaps Gmail for Dummies ???
TD 4:42 PM | 0 comments |

Thursday, May 27, 2004

[ screenshot ] successful Gmail signup top half


This is the upper part of the success screen after signing up for Gmail
TD 11:21 AM | 0 comments |

[ screenshot ] successful Gmail signup bottom half


After signing up for Gmail, this tease splash screen comes up.
TD 11:20 AM | 0 comments |

Wednesday, May 26, 2004

[ screenshot ] Gmail thread display (24 messages)


Here's an example of what it looks like when you have a threaded message with Gmail. In this case there are 24 messages in the thread.
TD 9:29 AM | 0 comments |

Tuesday, May 25, 2004


Comstar is wondering when somebody will send some email to his shiny new Gmail address. Anybody want to help him out? He also asks about spam, but I don't think he really wants to receive any spam. I am going to send him a quick hello note.
TD 7:10 AM | 0 comments |

Monday, May 24, 2004

[ screenshot ] no mail in Gmail box message


When you have no email in your Gmail inbox, Google encourages you to check out the outstanding Google News Now, if only we could get Google to add an RSS (or Atom) feed (wish, wish, hope, hope)
TD 8:50 AM | 2 comments |

Delete the spams, get nine more


By the time I mark as spam, I've got 9 more spams telling me:

- I should submit to search engines (duh!)
- I can make $100,000 per year on eBay
- Windows azlsv NT 4.0 and Windows rtno 2000 server? Are these new OS?
- how I can get the best prices on OEM software
- I received email from Nitwi M. Sigh (nice name!)
- About the email advertising that I'm not doing and my "inquiry x" that I never made
- But hey, there's effective weight loss now available

Don't you just love scanning email subject lines? These are so obviously spam that I would never click through to any of them.
TD 8:42 AM | 0 comments |

Sunday, May 23, 2004

One week equals 5 percent space used on GMail

Ok, well, 4% as of the screenshot below ... but I'm guessing later today it will be 5%.


So here is where I'm at on Gmail space, just 4 hours shy of one week. I'm sure when the 4 hours is up, I'll be at 40MB which will be 5% of my Gmail allotment. Remember, this is my normal email inflow from a couple domains, this isn't me encouraging spam or signing up for special accounts. Here's my original blog entry last week when I turned on the switch.

At this rate, basic math tells me I'll have roughly 20 weeks or 4 months before I burn up the 1 gig allotment and need to start deleting. I'll continue to monitor this and update this until the space is gone.
TD 9:01 AM | 2 comments |

The blogger, Maritime Girl really wants a Gmail account and is listing the top 100 reasons she should be getting one.
TD 8:46 AM | 0 comments |

[ screenshot ] Gmail vs. The Other Guys


Gmail vs. the other free email services
TD 8:35 AM | 0 comments |

[ screenshot ] Gmail advertising that intrusive?


Reading Gmail - is the advertising really that intrusive? I don't think so. Check it out along the right hand side. You can hardly tell it's there. Compare that to logging into Yahoo Groups and, well, there is no comparison.
TD 8:30 AM | 0 comments |

[ screenshot ] creating a Gmail account


Create a GMail account screenshot
TD 8:22 AM | 0 comments |

Sleeping Monkey Blog rants about Gmail

Sleeping Monkey Blog:
"You know what the difference between Gmail, and Yahoo, and Hotmail is? (besides the fact you get 1GB of storage in Gmail). NOT A DAMN THING. It's not like it's going to spit out dollar bills through your CD ROM drive every time you log in. Why are people so excited about this?"
It's the search, mon, the seeeearrrch. It is that magic, mystical component that Yahoo and MSN have yet to be able to emulate as successfully. Fast, accurate search. The 1 GB is a gimmick, because yes it is true that setting up a POP box with multiple gigabytes of space is not that big of a deal.
TD 6:46 AM | 0 comments |

Saturday, May 22, 2004

User asks of Gmail: Do I really need yet another email address?

bookofjoe asks:
"I mean, do I really need yet another email address? I've already got five. "


But you don't have one like Gmail! Gmail is different than "just another email account" ... is it better or worse? Time will tell.
TD 9:42 PM | 0 comments |

Friday, May 21, 2004

Atom 0.3 to RSS 1.0 converter

If your RSS reader cannot read Atom feeds (yet) then this service could be helpful: Atom 0.3 to RSS 1.0: "a simple Web service to convert Atom 0.3 XML feeds into RSS 1.0 ones" (I need to b-roll this as well)

The atom feed for this blog is located here: http://gmailtalk.blogspot.com/atom.xml
TD 7:38 AM | 0 comments |

Thursday, May 20, 2004

Gmail Gems

Gmail Gems - tips and tricks for using Gmail (I need to b-roll this one)
TD 1:41 PM | 0 comments |

Inside my Gmail: something I've never done before ...

I did something I don't remember ever doing before a couple days ago: I actually responded to spam received to my Gmail account asking for more information. I was showing a spammer interest! This is virtual sacrilege.

The result? No response yet!

I thought the whole point with spam was to get people that were interested. So, here I respond to some spam with interest and I get ignored? What's up with that? No, I'm not going to run down the spammer and send a follow-up email. I do wonder, though ... here I'm getting 1000+ spams a day on average and the one time, the one time I respond, I get no response.

Amazing.

BTW, I just noticed when I went to post, this blog was listed first so I didn't have to choose from the dropdown menu. Very cool, thanks Google!
TD 11:12 AM | 3 comments |

Wednesday, May 19, 2004

Gmail: from gigabyte to terabyte?

Things that ... make you go hmm - Google flirting with terabyte e-mail limit for Gmail?:
"Google must just have hard disk space to burn or something if they are contemplating offering folks a terabyte of storage ... could this be a reality?"
TD 8:02 AM | 0 comments |

Tuesday, May 18, 2004

gmail swap

gmail swap: "tells the people with Gmail about the people without."
TD 9:37 AM | 1 comments |

Google lists (some) Gmail Reviews - news and blogposts

Google lists some of their reviews that Gmail has received on their Gmail site.

Gmail News Reviews
Blog Posts

Darn, too bad this page is a PR0! I would have thought a link off of most any Google page is PR8, 9 or 10, although I guess Orkut is PR7.
TD 7:45 AM | 0 comments |

Uster takes Gmail to limit and beyond: Gmail Stress Test

One enterprising Gmail user wrote a program to bomb his own account with "heavy emails" just to see what would happen when the 1000 MB quota was reached: What if... Google Would Be Evil? (Part 4 of 10) | Gmail Stress Test | Attaching Keyword...
However, incoming mails still still got through, even at "1021 MB (102%) of my 1000 MB".
Could it be Gmail storage is in fact unlimited?
My current mailbox stats: You are currently using 14 MB (1%) of your 1000 MB:
4022 spam
74 legitimate
TD 7:17 AM | 0 comments |

Monday, May 17, 2004

Gmail to bend to lawmaker pressure?

What changes are lawmakers proposing with Gmail? Google hints at modifications to Gmail:
"According to the Oakland Tribune, Google had been locked in behind-the-scenes discussions with senators, one of whom said that Google has been 'very cooperative'. "
It will be interesting to see how this one shakes out.
TD 4:17 PM | 0 comments |

So is it GMail or Gmail

I have been using GMail and Gmail interchangeably when writing in this blog. Think I probably should be using the lowercase Gmail as that seems to be the most popular, although if you look at the Gmail logo, the M in mail is capitalized. This is a stupid little detail, or is it ... I like to be consistent. In the title of this blog I didn't use the capital M, but pretty much since that time I've used it.

So it will be Gmail from now on unless somebody comes along in the comments section and convinces me that it should indeed be as the "GMail" logo suggests.
TD 7:11 AM | 0 comments |

Sunday, May 16, 2004

My own, non-doctored, spam flow chewed up 5MB in one day

Yesterday I started diverting an email address since 1998 to GMail and also several of our domains through GMail. It's not all of my email but it's a good chunk of what I receive daily. This is sort of my own internal test like prattboy is running.

Spam received for first day, Saturday 5/14/04: 1446
GMail informs me: You are currently using 5 MB (1%) of your 1000 MB.

Guess this means at this rate I'll have about 100 days before I'm out of space, doesn't it? I'm not going to track it every day or spend much time analyzing the spam (Prattboy is already doing that), but I'll come back from time to time and give you an update with where I'm at with my own email.

It should be noted that he artificially requested an increase in spam delivery to his GMail box and I am just using the normal email that I receive every day, with one of those email addresses being active for over 6 years (1998-2004). I haven't published my GMail address anywhere, including here.

I'll have more to say about the spam and how to deal with it in GMail in future entries.
TD 12:00 PM | 0 comments |

Saturday, May 15, 2004

Grimms Fairy Tale comic on GMail at OK/Cancel

The GMail Fairy? LOL! I love it: OK/Cancel
TD 10:04 AM | 0 comments |

Let the onslaught begin

Time to be deluged at GMail by the spam! I have now went in and set forwarders for several domains to start testing how good -- or bad -- the GMail filters are for spam detection.
TD 9:12 AM | 0 comments |

Friday, May 14, 2004

90% of free email webmasters scammers and cheaters?

During the Script School radio show today the discussion amon listeners came up in the chat about how several webmasters are blocking link submissions from free email using webmasters because of deceptive business practices. Things like once they get their site listed they take down the reciprocal link, redirecting the submitted URL, changing the site, etc. I suggested to the listeners that at least at this moment when GMail is not available to the masses it would be a good idea not to block submissions from GMail users.

This also got me wondering about the validity of these claims. It is true that if someone wants a free email address they are available easily. When I signed up for Yahoo I opted not to receive the email address. We also do not use our cable email address at this time. We never used the DSL one either for our office or home.

I do use GMail though. At least now I'm using it as a way to better manage some of my email. Will I go away from it once it becomes available to the masses? Perhaps for regular usage, but I still like the search aspect of it and I think it is easily better than Yahoo or Hotmail. I'm still getting used to it though and I still have a bunch of screenshots to share when I get to it.

Now if only I can figure out how to change the default dropdown option in Blogger so that it goes to this blog and not my other one whenever I make a post. Guess I need to search the knowledge base ...
TD 8:30 PM | 0 comments |

GMail influence? Yahoo free email storage to increase to 100MB

With all due respect to Yahoo, it is somewhat disingenuous to suggest that this move to increase their free email storage to 100 MB doesn't have anything to do with GMail offering users in beta 1GB of storage. Things that ... make you go hmm Yahoo free email storage to increase to 100MB
100MB = "virtually unlimited"? That's a nice spin. But hey, it's cool for Yahoo users that they get that much more space. Do Yahoo free email users have GMail to thank or is this just an odd coincidence?
TD 8:17 AM | 0 comments |

Thursday, May 13, 2004

GMail filtering Yahoo Groups verification as spam

This should be helpful to those who have switched their Yahoo Groups email address to a GMail one and are not getting the verification emails through their GMail account: Mixing Google GMail and Yahoo Groups Search Engine News Journal:
"Google, while testing its new GMail email, has issued trial accounts to many Blogger owners and search/email opinion leaders and journalists. Recently there has been a discussion on the Blogger User Support group about GMail not mixing with Yahoo email addresses. When switching Yahoo Groups addresses from previous emails to Google GMail addresses, the GMail spam filter automatically filed the Yahoo Verification Emails as spam."
TD 11:22 AM | 0 comments |

Wednesday, May 12, 2004

How long to fill up a Gmail account with spam?

It seems Prattboy wants to find out and is blogging his results: Spam My Gmail Account (prattboy@gmail.com):
"How long does it take to fill up 1 Gig of storage with spam? How well do Gmail's junk filters work? Let's find out! Spam my shiny new G-mail account at prattboy@gmail.com Give my address to spammers, newsletters, annoying people, whatever, and let's see how long it takes!"
I could redirect some of my spam to him but I'm guessing he wouldn't like that too well ... I currently receive 1000-2000 emails per day with 98% of it being spam.
TD 9:00 AM | 0 comments |

Tuesday, May 11, 2004

Rumor mill: Google Building Enterprise Gmail

A rumor is circulating about GMail in: Google Building Enterprise Gmail:
"A Google employee revealed to someone attending the Toronto Search Engine Strategies conference that Google has plans to launch an email product for the enterprise."
TD 4:03 PM | 0 comments |

Monday, May 10, 2004

Feedster Search: gmailtalk.blogspot.com

Took a little bit, but this blog is finally listed at Feedster:
Feedster Search: gmailtalk.blogspot.com

If your RSS reader isn't ATOM-friendly, then you can use this: Feedster RSS feed for Gmail Talk Blog
TD 9:08 PM | 0 comments |

Check GMail Address Availability

Is your name still available at GMail? Check GMail Address Availability Saw this ryanschultz blog entry. Cool!
TD 12:00 PM | 0 comments |

Google's Brin Talks on Gmail Future - how long before GMail leaves beta?

Sergey Brin says POP3 capability is coming to GMail: Google's Brin Talks on Gmail Future: "No, I think that's an important question. And in fact, as we're working on providing forwarding [and] POP3, that's an important consideration there as well. I don't have a great answer; we're still brainstorming. "

Also Brin suggests that the beta period will be "3 to 6 months":
How long do you think this beta feedback process is going to be?

I think it'll take three to six months or so. We're getting a lot of good feedback; we've already made a number of changes. Probably the big ones are feature requests that we need to deal with, and there are some significant ones there. I don't know how many of those we'll be able to get in prior to making it more broadly available.
TD 9:52 AM | 0 comments |

Sunday, May 09, 2004

Blogger upgrades - adds comments

Blogger updated today and added a fresh coat of paint and comments functionality. I think they are still working on it because comments aren't showing up even after I edited the template and enabled inside the admin area. I'll give it a day or so and then re-enable Haloscan if they don't get it sorted out.
TD 8:24 PM | 1 comments |

Win GMail invite for mom contest

Over at our parent blog, Things that ... Make You Go Hmm, my wife is running a contest to give away a GMail invite today: Things that ... make you go hmm - GMail invitation for Mother's Day - win GMail invite for mom - contest here! -- If you have a special mom or you are a special mom then enter this contest and good luck to you!
TD 10:44 AM | 0 comments |

6 new articles on GMail and Blogger changes

Sounds like there is going to be some new goodies today for Mother's Day for blogger: BLOGGER - News Archive

Plus 6 new articles on the GMail front:

CAN technology can spam Spiked - London,UK - ... is also encouraging that Google, the innovative company behind the world's most popular search engine, proposes to tackle spam with its new email service, Gmail ...

GOOGLE To Soon Offer Gmail KXAN-TV - Austin,TX,USA ... go public. Perhaps the biggest news for the average Internet user is Google's new soon-to-be public e-mail program: Gmail. It's ...

WHAT will Google do with its IPO billions? USA Today - USA ... So far, it has produced Gmail, a free service that makes it easier for users to organize and find e-mail; Froogle, a comparison shopping service; and Orkut, a ...

PRIVACY debate aside, Gmail has strong points Philadelphia Inquirer (subscription) - Philadelphia,PA,USA ... I have been playing with Gmail for more than a week now, and while it has its pitfalls, Gmail has significantly raised the bar for Web mail ...

TO preserve clean image, Google should rethink Gmail MLive.com - MI,USA ... But Google is risking its reputation for honesty, and for putting the user first, with a new e-mail service it is currently developing, called Gmail. ...

THE Google Supercomputer Newsweek - New York,NY,USA
... It's a free e-mail service called Gmail. ... Gmail delivers ads based on automated analysis of the actual subject matter of your mail. ...
TD 8:55 AM | 0 comments |

Saturday, May 08, 2004

Gmail Talk Forum (not affiliated with this blog)

Looks I should have done a domain search before naming this blog. A gmailtalk.com already exists: Gmail Talk Forum: "Discussions About Google Gmail" -- I'm happy to link to it, but there is no affiliation with this blog.
TD 9:05 AM | 0 comments |

Friday, May 07, 2004

Clickz Review: This is Your E-Mail on Gmail

Here's a luke warm review of GMail: This Is Your E-Mail; This is Your E-Mail on Gmail: "Meantime, you'd do well to be skeptical, if not downright suspicious, of service providers who promise to get your e-mail through whatever hurdles Gmail may erect down the road. I know a few dozen people who have Gmail accounts, and I know pretty much all the major players in the e-mail delivery space. To date, there's zero intersection."
TD 10:58 PM | 0 comments |

O'Reilly Network: Why GMail Matters (Really!) [May. 04, 2004]

O'Reilly Network: Why GMail Matters (Really!) [May. 04, 2004]: "For the last two weeks I've been testing out Google's new GMail service, and I'm impressed. This is going to turn out to be a very important piece of software, and for a number of reasons. The Google team has made real advances in the state of the art in at least two areas, and while the result isn't quite perfect, it sets the bar a lot higher for both their competition and developers everywhere. "
TD 6:56 PM | 0 comments |

Thursday, May 06, 2004

eBay item 3675155988: $262 USD for GMail invite

Amazing! eBay item 3675155988 (Ends Apr-30-04 15:00:17 PDT) - Google's GMAIL 1 GB Free Email Account LIMITED TIME: "Winning bid: US $262.00 "
TD 10:20 PM | 0 comments |

Do you have a GMail related website or blog?

I'm making a list for this site. Please trackback or use the comments in this thread and share your GMail-related website or blog. You can also leave your comments in any of the other threads or trackback and I'll check out your blog.

Just because a site has the name "GMail" in it doesn't mean it has anything to do with GMail. If you are submitting another site that isn't yours for the list, please tell me if you didn't check it out.

I noticed that somebody already has gmail.blogspot.com but that person hasn't updated their blog since March 2002 and it doesn't have anything to do with GMail. Instead it is described as "A newsletter for those that want to learn about the web and computers. Lots of entertaining sites, and answers to common frequently asked questions."

I am working on the screenshots for GMail ... I have taken dozens of them and will be publishing them soon, so keep your eyes peeled and GMail Talk in your favorites!
TD 1:00 PM | 0 comments |

Weblog Commenting and Trackback courtesy of Haloscan

Took less than 5 minutes to add HaloScan.com - Weblog Commenting and Trackback -- a cool, free service. Please, no non-GMail related spam in the comment area, but I'd love it if folks with GMail-related info and yes even GMail-related spam, use this.
TD 8:17 AM | 0 comments |

Wednesday, May 05, 2004

LOOSE wire: Hotmail, Yahoo Deny Scanning Emails

This blog entry: LOOSE wire: Hotmail, Yahoo Deny Scanning Emails generated this response from me:

"What GMail is doing is simply filtering for keywords on the assembled mail and if they are 'saving' this to build TiVo-style advertising profiles then this could be problematic without receiving advance permission. I would definitely have a problem with that if there wasn't an opt-out option.
They should consider offering a pay option with no ads and shut up the detractors for good. Those who don't want the ads could then pay for it."
TD 3:07 PM | 0 comments |

GMail-related bill expected to go to full senate for vote

DAILY DIGEST: "Figueroa's bill would require Google to get permission from everyone who uses the service, in addition to those who use outside services to send messages to Gmail users. "
TD 11:05 AM | 0 comments |

Tuesday, May 04, 2004

Gmail = wiretap?

This is a stretch, to say the least:

Does Gmail breach wiretap laws? | CNET News.com: "In a letter sent to California Attorney General Bill Lockyer on Monday, the Electronic Privacy Information Center argued that Gmail must be shut down because it 'represents an unprecedented invasion into the sanctity of private communications.' Gmail provides one gigabyte of Web-based mail storage in exchange for context-sensitive advertising that appears on the right side of the screen. "
TD 3:59 PM | 0 comments |

Monday, May 03, 2004

$200 for hackers@gmail.com?

Slashdot | Gmail Addresses For Sale: "The account for hackers@gmail.com is asking 200 dollars"

So in addition to selling GMail invites on eBay someone is buying up accounts with names and selling those. This reminds me a little bit of those selling low ICQ number accounts.

And there are people on Wall Street saying to go cautiously on Google stock? People are frenzying over just one of their beta products!
TD 10:46 AM | 0 comments |

Cat from TechTV on GMail

TechTV | Cat's Clicks: Gmail Mania: "Overall this service is pretty sweet. The only downsides were the whack color scheme in the conversation view and the whole ad thing. And of course getting everyone in your life to start using another email address for you is always fun!"
TD 9:14 AM | 0 comments |

Sunday, May 02, 2004

5 GMail articles: eBay bidding buzz!

Friday -

GMAIL accounts go up for bid CNET News.com - USA ... Gmail is ... Gmail offers 1 gigabyte of storage and includes a news aggregation page and newsgroup interface, and allows users to search through their e-mail ...

INVESTORS May Not Dig Google's Quirks
Reuters - USA ... Google's charm would best serve its communication with consumers as it rolls out new services, like a promised free e-mail service called Gmail, which will ...

FREEDOM to Choose Google's 'Gmail' CATO Institute - Washington,DC,USA ... The latest debate has arisen over the potential privacy hazards of Google's new email service, "Gmail". ... So Gmail is not exactly an invasion of privacy. ...

Today -

GOOGLE GMail Accounts Being Auctioned on eBay Search Engine Journal - USA Google has been issuing limited testing of its GMail web based email program to certain industry insiders and active users of Google’s blog platform - Blogger ...

GOOGLE'S Gmail moves e-mail further down road Seattle Times - Seattle,WA,USA ... Google's new Gmail probably won't convert anyone to Web mail if they hate the concept. ... Gmail's current test version isn't completely baked ...
TD 11:57 AM | 0 comments |

Saturday, May 01, 2004

Randy Meech: free GMail invites to the first 57 who reply

Looking for a GMail invite? First 57 to email Randy will get one: Randy Meech - Blog

Update: he's out already. I'll keep my eyes peeled for other GMail invite offers and post when I see them.
TD 3:42 PM | 0 comments |

GMail feedback: "The search capabilities are great - just what I expected from Google"

[[ MemeStreams ]] MemeStreams Discussion: "Many times I might be passed some interesting tidbit of data, some new exploit, tool, or fact that I know I will eventually want to reference again. With some information of this nature it might be up for a day or two and then removed. Its happened many times. What I've been doing is copying that information and emailing it to myself via G-Mail. Now I can search for this stuff no matter where I am at or what computer I am using. I am also emailing contact information there that I might need.

So far I am having a great experience with Gmail. The user interface is very intuitive, the inbox refreshes automatically, and it has excellent labeling and search capabilities. "
TD 10:41 AM | 0 comments |