There are a few things around that make u say WOW! Gmail is one of them. I will give you my reasons why Google is Google- the 3rd most trusted brand of the year after Apple ( courtsey brilliance of Steve Jobs) and Coke (cmon its the American dream and americans are suckers about brands!)
Its NOT because they offer me 1 GB. I agree its functional but what with Rediff offering 1 GB too and Yahoo! offering 250 MB?
Its NOT because its exclusive and ’’membership by invitation’ stuff. No! You think just because some bugger has @gmail.com suffixed to his id makes him special? You must be joking.
So as Shania Twain would say ..’’that don’t impress me much..’’
What does impress me is that these smart people have given a lot of thought before designing a mail application. Let me give u a few instances-
1) It allows me touse period (.) between my first and second name. I love seeing my complete name in a mail id. A period in between makes it easily understandable and makes my id very easy to be used in any official communication that I do.
2) Breezy log in. It lets me stay logged in for a period of 2 weeks at a strech. I just have tick the box while logging in and thats it. I have put the inbox link in my favourites ( I use IE6.0) and all I have to do is just click on the link and voila..the inbox in front of my eyes....Brilliant!
3)These people have the knack of knowing what I want. Now whn I send a mail to my gang then all the replies come nicely sorted to me like a deck of cards. so gone are the days when I was dumbfounded trying to figure the history of a mail.not just that even the subject line gives a peek in of what lies inside. AAh thats comfort!
4) No more sorting it in folders like a dumb secretary. Put a label and go chill!
5) Talk in my lingo. it says ’’why delete when u got 1 GB space?’’ . not the typical ’’This will be permanently deleted. are u sure u want to do it?’’ Like hell I want to do it!
6)simple keyboard shortcuts. no more fiddling with my mouse. gud 1!
7) Now this 1 is a gem. the search function. Just type the keyword and u get all the messages having that keyword beautifully highlighted. Go on and make a pick.
Wow someone stop me from going shamelessly gaga over a thing like a mail service but guys trust me this thing works!
Update guys...I have some invitations from gmail (10 odd). If someone needs it...please mail me through this forum.(as on 14th mar’05)