Google

Google is having a good year. Their IPO appears to have been a success and the changes they have made to Blogger have resulted in a better service.

Their introduction of Gmail in beta version has been handled in such a way so as to give it added cachet. As expected, whenever something is available in limited numbers those same cunts scoffing at those wanting to try the new service also mention that they already have 10 accounts.

I've been using a Gmail account for some time and it seems decent enough. It's faster than other free e-mail providers when flicking around between messages and different sections within your account and there are some unique features as well.

The large amount of storage space has been the big selling point but many are wondering whether this is simply to build huge data bases that can then be parsed by Google's search engine in order to target advertising and compile profiles that can then be sold to marketing companies.

Among others that have sprung up, here is a website that raises some valid issues.

Another annoyance and area of concern is the targeted ads that show up alongside every e-mail you open, selected based on some key words in the content of the message. It doesn't take much imagination to consider how many problems this could cause. A few Nigerian and Russian scam e-mails I've opened lately have strangely all had the same ad for the same internet provider attached. Wonder how they feel about that...

The bottom line is that any tit using the big 3 free e-mail providers (Hotmail, Yahoo and Gmail) should use common sense when deciding what kind of info to include in their messages.

Anyway, if you would like a Gmail account simply e-mail me your name (or the one that you would like attached to your account) and your e-mail address and I will send you an invite. My e-mail address is pistonhips@gmail.com.

While you're at it, you may want to download another feature they've added...a tool bar icon that alerts you to new e-mails.