Gmail is Out of Beta

[AussieWebmaster]

Guess Gmail is no longer the exclusive club. Go to the front page and there it is offered to the world.
So those 40 odd invites are pretty much useless.

[JasonD]

Seems the same to me in the UK mate.

[KeywordMonkey]

Same for me too in UK - maybe they are rolling it out to some visitors based on the cookie on their PCs

E.g. if somebody uses Google a lot then they offer them Gamil as they are likely to appreciate it the most.

Just a passing thought...

[jtnt]

Seems to still be in beta for me, here in the US (DC).

[RyanM]

I don't see any way to register and it's still in beta from my Georgia (US) ISP. I still have 50 invites too. Is it possible that GMail is responding differently based on location?

[AussieWebmaster]

I don't see any way to register and it's still in beta from my Georgia (US) ISP. I still have 50 invites too. Is it possible that GMail is responding differently based on location?
Are the Georgia and Washington DC Google pages different... they do not have the new GMail sign up links?
Do a refresh and see if that changes them....

[AussieWebmaster]

The other thing I just discovered is that when I used my FireFox it was highlighting the customized news that was posted about a few days ago on one of the blogs.

But when I go to IE it has the gmail link:
https://www.google.com/accounts/NewAccount?service=mail&t=dc1dfc51-44186850-a798dd12663b21d4634b&continue=http%3A%2F%2Fgmail.google.com%2Fgmail%2Fe-1-8de9bcbda0f8b001-fa8ead56a5cdcabf33465658a020f571d0abca4b&type=2

So people can click above and get there.

I will play with this a little more as my IE has been buggy lately - such as the toolbar no showing PR etc. - so this may be another instance of that and they may have just dropped the one day and are testing to see how many people got it and who was quick enough to grab the link.

Is it possible Google is testing user behavior?

[RyanM]

This is what I see in the main part of the page...
A Google approach to email.

Gmail is an experiment in a new kind of webmail, built on the idea that you should never have to delete mail and you should always be able to find the message you want. The key features are:

*

Search, don't sort.
Use Google search to find the exact message you want, no matter when it was sent or received.

*

Don't throw anything away.
1000 megabytes of free storage so you'll never need to delete another message.

*

Keep it all in context.
Each message is grouped with all its replies and displayed as a conversation.

*

No pop-up ads. No untargeted banners.
You see only relevant text ads and links to related web pages of interest.


And on the right column....
Gmail Sign In
Username:


Password:


Don't ask for my password for 2 weeks.

Forgot your password?


Learn more about Gmail.

Check out our new features!

A few words about Gmail and privacy.


One last thought is that Google is providing a different page based on the server you reach. C:\>ping www.goolge.com

Pinging www.google.akadns.net [64.233.161.99] with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 64.233.161.99: bytes=32 time=30ms TTL=244

What IP address do you get for www.google.com?

[PhilC]

I don't see it on either .com or .co.uk (I'm in the UK), and I've refreshed both.

[AussieWebmaster]

I don't see it on either .com or .co.uk (I'm in the UK), and I've refreshed both.
What browser are you using?

[RyanM]

I haven't seen the Free GMail link yet, but someone in the GMail Help Discussion Group did.

http://groups-beta.google.com/group/Gmail-Help-Discussion/browse_thread/thread/563154295c2e5444

And slashdot.org is has this article...
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/03/15/1845250&from=rss

Sounds like the cat is out of the bag...

[PhilC]

What browser are you using?IE6

<extra text to get by the "too short" filter>

[AussieWebmaster]

Okay try this one:
http://216.239.37.99/

[RyanM]

No luck with that link. One of the articles I read says they are showing an invite link to 1 out of every 100 visitors.

[AussieWebmaster]

http://64.233.161.104

[AussieWebmaster]

I get it every time.....

[RyanM]

No luck there either. On both of those links, there isn't any kind of advertisement where the custimizable news link has been today.

[AussieWebmaster]

Try refreshing the browser and dumping the cache.

[PhilC]

Nothing on either of those for me.

[AussieWebmaster]

This is hilarious.... I hope others are seeing the link....

[RyanM]

I guess PhilC and I fall into one of the 99 out of 100 visitors that don't get to see it.

[FeldBum]

I'm in NYC and I'm still seing this:

https://gmail.google.com/gmail/help/images/logo.gif

:(

[AussieWebmaster]

I'm in NYC and I'm still seing this:

https://gmail.google.com/gmail/help/images/logo.gif

:(
Have you tried the links?

[FeldBum]

Yeah, no dice.

Cleared my cookies and tried both in IE and FF. Will try later from someone else's PC, see if that helps.

[rustybrick]

I see beta on the logo, NY here.

[AussieWebmaster]

Okay then it is stage two beta.... offered to the general public... I meant it was no longer by referal only

[rustybrick]

Yes, but I think that was Frog Boy's point. ;)

[AussieWebmaster]

I'm in NYC and I'm still seing this:

https://gmail.google.com/gmail/help/images/logo.gif

:(
Okay I see that inside GMail too.... I should have been more detailed... it is now open to the public to sign up... but even that seems not to be true... guess they are slowly grabbing people and will allow more and more as the volume applying goes down.

[FeldBum]

I wonder why the rush with getting Desktop out of beta, while News and Gmail languish.

Gmail went from Select Few (remember gmailswap--I got my USB key and a Simpsons DVD there) to fairly open to 50 invites to Google.com accounts getting invites to select Google.com users getting offers. Why not just take it out for real?

[AussieWebmaster]

I wonder why the rush with getting Desktop out of beta, while News and Gmail languish.

Gmail went from Select Few (remember gmailswap--I got my USB key and a Simpsons DVD there) to fairly open to 50 invites to Google.com accounts getting invites to select Google.com users getting offers. Why not just take it out for real?
Nice horsetrading... there were people making money on EBay etc. as well!

[AussieWebmaster]

Okay this I got direct from Google

In an effort to jumpstart the growth of active Gmail users, earlier this week we began displaying a promotion on the google.com (http://www.google.com/) homepage offering Gmail accounts to users. This promotion will only only be shown to users that don't currently have Gmail accounts. This does not mean that we are doing away with our invite model--Gmail accounts are still being given out on a limited basis.

We are inviting some Google users at random. Users who visit Google.com during the promotion, whose Google cookie is older than a certain date (3/12/05), whose cookie-id matches the preset mod, who are from the US, and who are not currently Gmail users will see the promo link on Google.com.


We will rotate 2 creatives, testing CTR on each. Others can be added to this mix as the promo expands:
New!Get Gmail - Google's free email service with 1GB of space.
New! Get Gmail - Google's free email service with 1000MB of space.

External FAQs - OK for public consumption


Q. What is this link?

A. The link you see on Google.com is a special invitation for you to sign up for a free Gmail account. Since we launched Gmail in April 2004, we’ve largely grown the Gmail user base by invitation—relying on our users to spread the word and invite others. Now, as we make room for more Gmail users, we want to first invite a small number of Google users. We’re excited that you’re one of the people who’s received an invitation and we hope you’ll give Gmail a try.



Q. How was I selected?

A. We are inviting some Google users at random.


Q. Did I do anything special to get this invitation? (aka, are you tracking me?)

A. We are inviting a small, randomly-chosen group of Google users. Many of our existing Gmail users have told us how much they like the product. So we’re hoping to invite some users of our other products to give Gmail a try too. Thanks for being a Google user (we think all our users are special)!



Q. Will I be able to invite others once I sign up?

A. Yes, after you’ve had a chance to really try out Gmail, we will add invitations to your account for you to invite your friends.



Q. How do I make this link disappear?

A. Occasionally, we reach out to our users to tell them about our various products and new features. These messages only run for a limited time. Likewise, this special invitation for you to sign up for a Gmail account is also only for a limited time.

[PhilC]

Q. Did I do anything special to get this invitation? (aka, are you tracking me?)

A. We are inviting a small, randomly-chosen group of Google users. Many of our existing Gmail users have told us how much they like the product. So we’re hoping to invite some users of our other products to give Gmail a try too. Thanks for being a Google user (we think all our users are special)!They posed the question, and gave an answer, but they didn't answer the question :rolleyes:

So nobody outside the U.S. should see it - thanks accounts for me then.