gmail

A free email service provided by google; still in limited beta trials, and attainable only by invitation, the much coveted gmail service allows for a gigabyte of free storage space and discourages trashing old messages. The service is paid for by advertisers; google uses an automated bot to read your saved emails (the higher storage capacity means it has more mails to read) and uses keywords it finds in the emails you are viewing to deliver targeted text ads that follow you up and down the page. This slight downfall however is more than compensated for by the vast amounts of storage space, and unheard of attachment size limits. Unlike most webmails, gmail uses javascript much like a flash player instead of HTML to navigate and operate the email; as such, users with certian browsers are unable utilize gmail to it's full advantage. In short, gmail is über all other free email services. Some websites, such as www.gmailswap.com have taken the pursuit of these much coveted email accounts to the next level by letting users bargain or more often beg and grovel for invites. The following example is an i-seek explination of the gmail service and it's effect on other free email providers as was presented four months ago, in July of 2004: