Gmail gone public

[DrBroccoli]

I have google as my homepage and I noticed those little things that tell about shortcuts, new stuff ect and it said New! Gmail 1 gig Blah blah. Anyway so is Gmail gone public for good?

heres the site
https://www.google.com/accounts/NewA...c04e217&type=2

[MrEggsalad]

Accually, Gmail isn't "public" even though sometimes on www.google.com they will have something like "Get Gmail" but it only is for one account. I went and tried to find a link to it on google and they said it isn't avalable for public use yet in the FAQ. But I have seen what you have seen before, so I think they do it for promotion, not everyone can get that link on google like you. You have to be lucky. Way to go! I am pretty sure that link can only be used to get one account, but correct me if I am wrong.

[DrBroccoli]

well I'll check it out, but I have 2 gmail accounts with 50 invites each, so I guess I am super lucky... any idea when they do go public, I think there going to wait until they have all the features they want, amd they are adding features slowly so they actually get feeback as opposed to have 20+ features and having people test them all at once and not getting as much feedback

(EDIT)- I made an account and you can only make one account and that account comes with no invites

would a moderator please change the subject title to something less deceiveing now that I have been informed of what is really going on, thanks

[DJHyperbyte]

To be honest, I odn't think Google is ever going to become 'public'. Remember Orkut? Orkut is some online community (I've never been too sure about it. ) also put up by Google. You can only join the community if you are invited by someone. Gmail's invite system immediatly reminded me of it.

I think the invite system is something they tried to see if Google Mail would become popular that way. Now that it has become popular and everything runs fine, why should they change it? It'll bring a lot less hassle for them if they just stick to the invites system.

Bottom line, it wouldn't surprise me if Google Mail never becomes 'public' (meaning that everyone could create an account without being invited first).

[DrBroccoli]

What about the random "invites" from google on the google homepage? I filled out one of those and its the same as though you were invited (invites now dont include invites to pass out)

[MrEggsalad]

Originally Posted by ShadowdogMU

What about the random "invites" from google on the google homepage? I filled out one of those and its the same as though you were invited (invites now dont include invites to pass out)

Ya, I think the random invites is telling us that Google is taking a step closer to having a public e-mail service. Orkut is intended to be small and Gmail is intended to be big. So I think Google will offer public e-mail.(The time I registered with the link on the Google home page it gave me invites, maybe they changed it, but they are still giving invites to the people who signed up with an invite)