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Several of my sites send out many automated emails a day that the users request. None will be delivered to gmail domains.
Yeah I could see that. I'd hate for someone to buy a widgit from me, then see an advertisment for a cheaper one.
Anyone given any thought to how ads would be delivered here? Would that open up a whole new bidding war in Adsense?
If it's real that is...
Anyone given any thought to how ads would be delivered here? Would that open up a whole new bidding war in Adsense?
Interesting... had not thought about adsense implications, but could you afford to stay out of a user's inbox if you knew that the competitor might be there?
Also, how many ads will fit?
As of right now, you could very well be sixth in your ctr/cpc combination and still appear on the first page of the SERPs, what position will it take to be on the first page of the Google Email Page
GEP <- trademark 2004 by loanuniverse
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Good grief it is real... amazing..
Ole!
SEOMariachi..
Do you think the ads will be static? I could see them having a box inserted that would deliver the highest paying ads of the day. IF they went with this, the earnings potential is HUGE!
<downside> it would drive the cost of advertising on Google's Adsense network through the roof! </downside>
Maybe they will create a "GEP-Sense" or "MailSense"?
GEP <- trademark 2004 by loanuniverse
Yahoo has along the lines of 50M & Hotmail around 40M. So I think 10M is a bit conservative :)
...enables people to quickly search every email they've ever sent or received. Using keywords or advanced search features, Gmail users can find what they need, when they need it.
I currently have 10+ GB of email dating back to 1998 in IMAP folders across several email accounts, most of which is routed to the appropriate folder via elaborate procmail rules. Yes, 10+ GB. And it's nearly all plain text. I spend significant time looking for certain emails and often don't find what I'm looking for.
If the search and organization functionality of gmail works well, I'd likely try it since it could potentially save me plenty of time. I realize I'm not the typical email user, but if those features work well, I think word will spread quickly about the benefits.
For the record, I don't have a problem with contextual ads appearing in the gmail web interface. The Internet was supposed to deliver targeted ads, hasn't ever really lived up to it, and AdSense and other future services from other companies will likely transform advertising via the Internet (and not just the web). It's inevitable and it'll be rampant.
And they suppose to have already 261k hard drives, 100k computers already with a 10 megawatts bill.
M2C
I can see how you would have a use for it... but do you think it's going to be that big of a deal to the average user? I use POP3 now and can search for phrases in my email client, so it's not that big of a deal to me. I think most will agree that the gig of storage would be the main selling point here. I am constantly getting email rejected by my firends' hotmail because of quota issues.
Email search... good idea, but not that big of a selling point for your average Joe I don't think.
I realize I'm not the typical email user, but if those features work well, I think word will spread quickly about the benefits.
10 Gigs of email? You are right, you are not a typical user. I learned long ago that folders, and periodic pruning are my friends when it comes to handling the email beast. Only the stuff that is important gets to stay.
On the other hand, everything at works gets saved {CYA}, but this is kept in my employer's server so its no problem. Also, nobody here is a typical user with most of us having access to our own mailserver or mailserver(s).
Speculation with Data:
For 10M peoples using Gmail divide by 80 Gig hard drive = 125,000 hard drives. Not so bad, but I do not like to see the electricity bill!
They'd need far fewer drives than that. This seems like a good email to reply to in order to explain - nothing personal.
Not every user will use their 1,000 MB allotment and those that do will certainly take some time to get to that point. Just to have some numbers to play with assume that all users of the service use it as their primary email account and send/receive a total of 2 MB of email per day. Assuming they're compressed at an average 3:1 ratio and emails can't be deleted it would be 1,500 days before the average user reaches the storage limit.
So if gmail started with 10 million users today (just for sake of argument), I'd expect that if none of the email is deleted after a year about 243 MB of disk space would be needed for each user. Google can easily get 200 GB drives today in bulk at a great price. Next year we might be able to say the same for 500 GB drives. At 500 GB, that's more than 2,000 users per drive and 20,000 drives total.
There are lots of variables I left out and the assumptions were for example only, but the point is that the per user hardware costs would be nominal (say 25 cents to $1 per year) and at scale bandwidth costs would be maybe 25 to 75 cents per user per year. I won't bother with all of the other costs, but it's reasonable to assume that per user revenue from contextual advertising would far outstrip the costs *and* this service would be a gateway to offering other value added user services a la portals like Yahoo.
Just my 2 cents.
Yup. Like building profile information for personalized searches.
this service would be a gateway to offering other value added user services
And just think of the junk mail you'll get in these accounts. Google could sell the information they get from the reading of your emails. A NEVER used MSN account will have junk mail in a day or two, Google could let spammers go crazy in their Gmail.. for the right price.
Man, this thing has profit written all over it!
Except one of the features they push is the spam filter.
Except one of the features they push is the spam filter.
Hmm... good point. I still think they would come up with a profitable way to use the info gleened from emails.
Maybe a "google recommends...' type thing?
I know you and SEOMike are right that advanced search capabilities won't appeal as much to the average user today as it does to me, but I think if people set aside the paradigm of what email is today and how people currently use it, they might be able to envision utilizing, organizing and mining email in ways that aren't currently typical. I'm excited b/c I see advanced searching as just the beginning of what Google and others will likely incorporate into email services.
I don't want to take this thread off-track, but think about news as a parallel. Most people were content with news as it existed a few years ago - visiting individual sites and having to take the initiative to find news. Now think about what news is like today with RSS feeds, RSS aggregators/readers, custom keyword news alerts, etc. Internet news is by no means mature, but email hasn't advanced much at all over the years and is nowhere near where news is today. People are fixated on spam, antivirus and space in their account, but not much on the usability and productivity aspects of email. That's why I'm excited about advanced email search and "automatic organization" (whatever that might entail).
Give it another couple of years and I think email will be a different beast than it is today.
Now let's get back to being amazed at how much space Google is going to give and whether it's an April Fool's joke...
Yup. Like building profile information for personalized searches.
I'd say that's pretty likely. Google's long been faulted for not having user services a la Yahoo and other portals. gmail is their in. And offering 1,000 MB of storage will appeal to users initially, but I guarantee that if they stick around it will because it's a better mousetrap - 1,000 MB alone won't cut it. After all, the 1,000 MB carrot won't do much good alone if the big number storage and bandwidth numbers dangled in front of web hosting customers are any indication. Said another way, when Hotmail and Yahoo raise their disk quotas because Google raised the bar, the appeal of 1,000 MB will be a little duller.
when Hotmail and Yahoo raise their disk quotas because Google raised the bar, the appeal of 1,000 MB will be a little duller.
So, do you think that when the playing field is leveled, Gmail might not perform as well because of people's fear of personal info being gathered on the internet. Also, the prospect of having ALL emails stored forever is daunting.
If the disk quota wasn't an issue, I don't think I'd have a Gmail account.
1. Don't like advertisements
2. Don't like them keeping my emails indefinitely
3. Don't like them deciding how my email should be sorted
4. Have my own mailserver :-) (ok, that one's not fair in the discussion.)
Many will bite on the promise of a workable spam filter. Others just because its Google and they think its cool. Too many people are way to cavalier about personal info and paper trails to give it a second thought.
I wonder how many spam filters will look at ad laden Gmail as spam.
I wonder how many spam filters will look at ad laden Gmail as spam.
Ooooo.... That's a good point! I hadn't thought of THAT! But... do you think the ads will only be presented on INCOMING mail (mail to the Gmail cust.) or on the bottom of all mail like MSN? I could see a real problem if it was applied to all mail.
In any case, I'm sure Google realizes that 1,000 MB of storage alone might attract a lot of users initially, but if the usability isn't good and the features are weak 1,000 MB might not be enough to keep them. Until Yahoo or MSN implement contextual advertising in their email web interface I doubt they'll match Google's 1,000 MB since it probably wouldn't be economically feasible and it's not even really beneficial unless they plan on using it to mine for data to personalize searches and other portal tools. But bumping theirs up to 50 or 100 MB would probably be enough to stop the mass exodus since that would probably be plenty for anyone who only keeps important emails, doesn't use email as a file storage tool and doesn't need to go 3 months without checking his/her email.
I had envisioned a GUI with the text ads off to the right, like they are now.
Well, whatever happens... I'm not going to believe it until I see it.
Maybe the only ad served to a person receiving mail from another user on gmail, is like what yahoo and msn do and just advertise their email service itself.
Dont know why, but I pictured a "Dear John" email with ads on the side for dating services and certain pharmaceuticals. Would make opening your email a bit of an adventure.
We get that now! Open a 'dear John' letter in Hotmail today, and odds are you'll be seeing an ad for a dating service and certain pharmeceuticals.
Google's initial plan is to serve ads completely outside of the body of the email. Just like regular banners on most webmail services.
The move to an in-email ad is still up in the air. I've heard rumours about sig ads but IMO true in-email ads will not be around until they settle the POP question.
ADVANTAGES
Benefits for the user:
Benefits for Google:
Benefits to the Internet Industry
Benefits to Companies:
DISADVANTAGES
Disadvantages for the user:
Disadvantages for Google:
Disadvantages to the Internet Industry
Disadvantages to Companies:
Feel welcome to Add/Remove any of these bullets. There are many points of view here from online and offline friends.
Saludos,
Nacho
* Finding ways around?privacy issues? so that they can effectively use this. "Perhaps there is not a huge privacy risk that Google is going to 'read my mail'? when all they are doing is running their adsense analysis on the processed page they serve me that has my email included on it."
They don't need to read your mail -- that takes too long anyway. But consider, their machines are already scanning your mail to determine context for ad-serving purposes. How difficult would it be to insert profiling algorithms into this scan? Google knows who you are at this point, so it's "personally identifiable profiling." Corporations pay big bucks for this, and the feds might be interested too.
Yeah for Google!
