Gmail Strikes back (but is still in beta)

"G" is for growth

I saw I had a Gmail message this morning, and it actually wasn't spam. One of my friends had his first child. I never know how to respond to having a child. But this is not the point of my post.

I looked at my inbox and saw that it said using "8MB of 1356 MB." I checked the new features, and I found this statement:

Storage is an important part of email, but that doesn't mean you should have to worry about it. To celebrate our one-year birthday, we're giving everyone one more gigabyte. But why stop the party there? Our plan is to continue growing your storage beyond 2GBs by giving you more space as we are able. We know that email will only become more important in people's lives, and we want Gmail to keep up with our users and their needs. From Gmail, you can expect more.

As I refreshed my browser following sending my mail, I saw that the number had increased to 1360MB. This is obviously Google's response to Yahoo recently increased e-mail allowance. I had expected the service to leave Beta-land today, but, perhaps, their intent is to just keep it in beta to keep promoting the subconscious idea to the users that they are special (thus increasing people's loyalty to the product).

With the recent fluctuations in the popularity of Google and Yahoo popularity and the recent upward surge in Yahoo usage (as well as newer, more refined search technologies emerging--such as the NEW! MSN Search and the reemergence of clustering and metasearches)... I can say that the search engine wars are on again. This is excellent for the frequent user of search, since competition spurs technological advancement, which, in turn, allows humans greater access to more ideas.

BTW... love the fool's day:

Yahoo Slacker Search

Google Gulp

BTW... now it says I have 1369MB...

google search innovation gmail

Update:

I was looking at the Google Gulp F.A.Q., and I think this is rather indicative of Google's stance on GMail

9. I mean, isn't this whole invite-only thing kind of bogus?

Dude, it's like you've never even heard of viral marketing.

11. When will you take Google Gulp out of beta?

Man, if you pressure us, you just drive us away. We'll commit when we're ready, okay? Besides, what's so great about taking things out of beta? It ruins all the romance, the challenge, the possibilities, the right to explore. Carpe diem, ya know? Maybe we're jaded, but we've seen all these other companies leap headlong into 1.0, thinking their product is exactly what they've been dreaming of all their lives, that everything is perfect and hunky-dory – and the next thing you know some vanilla copycat release from Redmond is kicking their butt, the Board is holding emergency meetings and the CEO is on CNBC blathering sweatily about "a new direction" and "getting back to basics." No thanks, man. We like our freedom.