Brendan Tompkins [MVP]

Blog First. Ask Questions Later.

Sorry Google, but I'm Quitting...

I've been working for Google, giving out Gmail invites for a couple of weeks. Well, they don't call it working, they call it “Invite a Friend” but really, I was working for them. Now, they're going to pay me back of course - I fully intend to use as much of the 1G of space that they have given me and I will never, ever, click on an advertisement link.

So I figure that I've signed them up around 30 people, and if those thirty people sign up 6 people each and so forth, you can quickly account for every human on the planet having a gmail account. I did my part helping them, but I do feel a bit duped by the whole private invite thing. People were selling invites! Come on!

Anyhow, the product is good so I don't mind having vouched for them, and hopefully I'm leaving them on good terms.

-Brendan

Published Sep 13 2004, 07:28 AM by Brendan Tompkins

Comments

Darrell said:

One of the most ingenious marketing schemes ever devised...

# September 13, 2004 3:32 AM

jack said:

I was reading some info against gmail and was wondering what you thought. It seems the main complaint is that google will not guarantee the deletion of any email, an with 1GB of space encourage keeping it. With that in mind and the policies of sharing information with a just cause it seems to me that allowing someone to pull my last x number of years of email and see what I was up to is a little freaky.

# September 13, 2004 4:53 AM

Brendan Tompkins said:

Jack...

I hadn't heard this. I could see where this may get a person into trouble. Can you imagine running for elected office in 20 years, and someone pulls up an "ZnexEetnd Pneis Pills! The Most Advanced Pneis Enlargement Solution!" email that you saved.

(btw I got this exact email this morning)

# September 13, 2004 6:02 AM

David Cumps said:

It's not only a matter to the people USING gmail, but also to the ones SENDING to them...

Do I want my mail sent to a friend who happens to use gmail as a mailservice to be indexed by Google and stored indefinately?

Could give a nice debate, possibly ending in people not wanting to reply to gmail-users ;)

# September 13, 2004 8:52 AM

mathew edes said:

i want to quit gmail

# October 10, 2004 9:51 AM

Jordan Vasquez said:

I think I've made a mistake and signed up on Gmail. I didn't like it so that is why I'm quitting.

# April 21, 2005 8:47 AM

alissa said:

I already had another emailing service and my friend told me about gmail so I just signed up.I dont like gmail so I'm quitting.

# June 30, 2005 9:51 AM

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About Brendan Tompkins

Brendan has been programming with .NET since the first public beta and is owner and operator of Port Technology Services, a consultancy company providing .NET application development services to the Maritime industry. In July, 2007, he was awarded the Microsoft MVP award for ASP.NET. He's also a proud co-founder of failed .COM startup Intrinsigo, and has had a hand in the failure of numerous other businesses. He currently runs CodeBetter.Com and Devlicio.us, and lives in Norfolk, Virgina with his wife Tiara and son Ian.