Google tackles webmail [April fools watch]
Wow. This is a big deal. Look for it to consume tomorrow’s tech news. Google is doing email, but without all the crappy parts. Never delete anything. Auto filing. No spam. I can’t wait to test it out.
“Amidst rampant media speculation, Google Inc. today announced it is testing a preview release of Gmail — a free search-based webmail service with a storage capacity of up to eight billion bits of information, the equivalent of 500,000 pages of email. Per user.”
This could be a April’s fools joke. However, it is a Business Wire PR, which would take some balls to fake. I can’t imagine a GB per user being realistic, but we shall see.
Update: The site is now a placeholder for me, just a logo and coming soon. Before it went do the Directory.
Update 2: I am starting to believe this story again. There are just too many Google people in on it for it to be fake. No matter what, it will go down in the PR history books. Smart smart smart.
Wow, that certainly seems worth looking into. Go google 😀
It’s too much too close to April Fool’s Day. The wording in the press release is odd and the whole things reeks of an unrealistic joke. I wish.
I really want this to be true, but the timing’s just too odd.
I think Kevin Fox’s post on this makes it pretty clear it’s an April Fools joke. Notice that it’s in his “ha ha” category, and he says “I love this time of year…”?
http://www.fury.com/article/1988.php
I don’t think it’s a joke. If it is, it’s not funny and it’s not unbelievable either (the one thing google does have is storage). So it’s either bad timing or a bad joke.
Furthermore, CNET reported this story on 31st of March. But then again, there’s timezones. But I still don’t think it’s a joke.
Tomas: Heh. Even better, *I* posted it on the 31st (before C|Net).
Buzz: Hmm. Evan makes it sound real.
Also, the page has been updated to include an FAQ. I’m sticking with it’s real. Google has too many lawyers on staff to pull a stunt of this size (closing in on 300 web media citations, dozens of print, and 100s of radio).