gmail hysteria

I just spent a good hour trying to figure out how to get myself a Gmail account.

1GB of email storage would certainly come in handy in my email-centric life. Currently, my main email is through my cable company. Very convenient, very fast, kindof expensive. If I were the cable company, I'd be scared shitless of when Gmail goes live.

Gmail is going to be the equivalent of cell phone number portability. Think about this for a second. I am not looking around for a new, better priced ISP because I don't want to go though the hassle of having to change my email. Does this sound like the same reason people we sticking with their much despised cell phone carriers? When I finally do get my Gmail account, I can go through the email switcheroo pain once more, then that's it. I have my single email account for life. I never have to send out that mass email to all my friends, family and acquaintances again explaining that I've moved, or I've switched ISPs and now my email has changed. Never...

So as I'm poking around the web trying to figure out how all these people are getting their invites. Obviously, not just Google employees are getting them. This guy got one because he is an "active" user of Blogger. This guy, works for Google and is giving them out to his friends and to the faithful readers of his blog (huh, a ploy to get more readers?).

Hmm... You can also find some on Ebay for a reasonable $5 or $6. There is even a whole web page called gmailswap dedicated to the cause. This person is offering a personalized sock monkey in return for an invite.

Then it occurred to me. Why am I wasting my time with this stupidity? I have gotten along for 30+ years without a Gmail account. I can probably go on longer without one. Then I realized that there is no way in hell Yahoo! and Hotmail are going to sit around while Google takes away all their free email customers. It's just a matter of economics. The price per GB of hard drive storage has fallen from $5.44 in 2000 to $0.78 in 2004, and continues to fall. At that price even mighty Microsoft will offer 1GB free email accounts. Why? Because they'll have to, if they want to stay competitive.

I'm going to sit and wait it out.