Gmail - are you being used?

gromituk

This site (and others) seems to be littered with people offering "Gmail invites".  Has anyone stepped back from this and thought about it for a moment?

A Gmail account isn't all that amazing, is it?  It does have four times the storage space of, say, Yahoo!, and I believe you can use it as data backup, which is useful.  So it is indeed a bit better than your average free email account.

Of course, it makes its money by scanning your data to generate targeted advertising which it attaches to emails you send, and presumably displaying banner ads to you when you log in.  (I don't have an account, so please correct me if I'm wrong.)  So it is not losing its owners money or preventing them making a profit - long-term at least.

What annoys me is the brilliant marketing idea they seem to have had of issuing these "invites" (US English for "invitations"), which immediately gives the service some sort of cachet, making people believe that they have to be privileged to use it, and that they should spread the word and offer these things around as if they are doing big favours.

Hence, the huge amount of free advertising Gmail gets on here and other forums.

But I don't see why this service is such a great bargain, and I can't help concluding that people who enthusiastically tout around "invites" to Gmail are merely the victims of a marketing machine and are simply being used by Gmail.

Your thoughts, please.

sra

I agree with most of what you say

In the past when I've answered someones question about what gmail was, I gave a pro gmail link and also: gmail-is-too-creepy for balance

but if people want to join gmail, and I have spare invite, who am I to refuse? I decided to put it in my signature so that if people want one then they can get one without me constantly having to post them.

If people want to join gmail and have to wait till it's fully rolled out, they'll be lucky if they can get a long address like mike984759d@gmail.com

I don't think you'll find any company on the freebies board giving away something for free without expecting to gain from it

I also think gmail makes a great throw-away address. It has the huge advantage that they forward mail to your main account

gromituk

Interesting response - thanks. And interesting link. Any company that gets into a monopoly position is a dangerous thing.

Yes, putting it in your signature is certainly less labour-intensive for you and everyone else than starting threads about it - I don't have a problem with that. The freebies board is fine, but Google's marketing idea means that it leaks out of there all the time.

Where do these invitations come from?