And now for something completely different!

My bestest Google buddy (Kenny) has just allowed me to be one of those on the cuttingest edge of e-mail technology services... G-mail, offered by Google.com.

This is a free service akin to those offered by Yahoo! and Hotmail, however it's rather a bit better than those, because:

1) Google gives you a GIGABYTE of free storage for all your e-mail (see fun facts below),

2) you never need to sort any of your messages because you just use their search technology to find what you want, so no more wasted time deciding which mailbox something should go in and then looking for it in the wrong box later, and

3) no more stupid huge banner ads (just nice polite modest targeted text links to one side).


Many people thought the announcement of this service was a joke, because news of it broke on April 1. But it's for real.

Despite knowing this, I thought "surely I'll outgrow 1GB of storage pretty soon" but I went back to my local machine, where I've kept practically ALL e-mail I've received and sent over the last ten years... and amazed myself.

ALL my e-mail -- from jobs, my on-line game, personal, etc., etc. -- comes to a mere 250 MB. And HALF of that is large attachment files: Word docs, images people sent, funny movie clips, etc. that are nice to keep but unnecessary.

So... 1 GB of e-mail space is, for lack of better words at the moment: A LOT!


Oh yeah, what's my new address? Don't worry about it. Keep on using the one you have always used... it will get to G-mail.

Do check out G-mail when it's announced publicly. Try it, you'll like it. :-)

gmail.google.com