The search engine giant unveiled Gmail in late March to about 1,000 people in what it called a limited test. Nevertheless, it immediately produced an uproar over plans to offer Web surfers up to 1GB of storage for free, subsidised by advertising based on keywords scanned from messages and delivered over the service.
Google spokesman David Krane said the company plans to listen closely to the responses of test users and other interested parties during a three- to six-month test period. He said Google may make changes based on the recommendations it receives, but it hasn't yet made any definitive decisions.
"We are in the very earliest phases of testing, and we are actively soliciting and analyzing feedback from users and third parties, including privacy groups," Krane said. "We're definitely batting about a number of options for changes to the service, but we have not yet made any specific commitments or announcements about changes to come to Gmail."
Google's plans have drawn a sharp reaction from privacy advocates, who worry about potential abuses of a system that might allow the company to permanently store millions of email messages and scan their content.
On Monday, Senator Liz Figueroa, a Democrat from Fremont, California, said she was drafting legislation that would prevent Google or any other company from examining the content of email in order to serve up ads.
Last week, Privacy International urged Britain's information commissioner to take action against the service, although that official appears to have backed away from taking a hard line for now.
Krane said the company was surprised by the amount of interest in Gmail, given its limited release. He would not speculate about possible alterations to Gmail's controversial advertising component. He offered a "no comment" when asked whether it would be economical to offer millions of people up to 1GB of storage for free without advertising to help pay for it.
Krane also highlighted some privacy enhancements of Gmail over some other email services. For example, he said the application does not automatically display images in email, potentially reducing the threat of tracking technology frequently included in email known as Web beacons or clear GIFs.
"The reaction so far has been very favourable from people who have tested and used it," Krane said.
Talkback
Useless ads, or targeted relevant ads? Your choice!
I doubt any webmail provider is going to offer a service for free that is not supported by the ad-view model. The whole reason they are able to offer the service at no cost it due to the revenue generated by advertising placed on the screens.
The only difference between GMail and other 'free' webmail providers is that the advertising will be slightly more relevant to you as it will be based on keywords within your email.
Given the choice of being hit with ads that I'm not interested in, or ones that I might be, I know which one I'll choose.
If people don't want their privacy being affected, then THEY SHOULDN'T SIGN UP.
Google are offering a free service with the only caveat being you are prone to targeted but relevant advertising. If Google let people know explicitly that their mails will be searched for keywords before they sign up, then the customer can CHOOSE whether they want to use the service or NOT. What pisses me off is that the regulators may stop my ability to CHOOSE to use this service. It's utterly anti-competitive, I would change to GMAIL in a heartbeat.
This Gmail is a verry good think,because is open for a large number of people wich they don`t have theyr own compeny or they don`t work to a big company which have the oportunity to have a larfer e-mail capacity of retaining more then 4mb memory.Ithink this will be the biggest think could ever happening in the world and also a realy powerfoul shot to yahoo and hotmail.
i have to apollogize for my writting but i didn`t erite for years
Protests by technologically ignorant people are obviously at play here, because: The emails are not scanned by humans, but rather, computers. Furthermore, if they do not like it, then they shouldn't sign up. I'll sign up even tho there is a REMOTE (extremely unlikely) chance that my privacy might be violated. Furthermore, would you rather have an email about going to the movies have ads about places where you can buy movie tickets online, or that mortage is at its 40-year low, and is avaliable in your state? Thats my 2 cents.