Re:Decentralized Naming and Certificate Authority
by viraptor on Wednesday February 12, 2020 @03:00PM
(#22312211)
Gmail invites were at some point a joke. Everyone had them and I wouldn't be able to give them out quickly enough. Maybe at the very beginning they were exclusive a bit, but soon anyone interested could post online and get an invite in minutes.
Re:Decentralized Naming and Certificate Authority
by Sohcahtoa82 on Wednesday February 12, 2020 @03:08PM
(#22312261)
> And at the time, the actual functionality of gmail was far less significant than the fact it was free and decoupled from your internet provider
If that was the real draw, then people would have just stuck with Hotmail, Yahoo, and the dozen other e-mail providers.
Re:Decentralized Naming and Certificate Authority
by stubish on Wednesday February 12, 2020 @09:59PM
(#22314980)
Hotmail and to a lesser extent Yahoo were perceived as toxic, due to spam mostly. There is still a website I frequent which requests customers email to be 'preferably not a @hotmail.com address'. All the other email providers were either restricted (companies, universities, clubs/guilds etc.), poorly run, or tied you to fees (ISP provided, paid email providers, AOL).
In the early days of gmail when you needed an invite code, it definitely was a status symbol to have that @gmail.com on your email address.
And at the time, the actual functionality of gmail was far less significant than the fact it was free and decoupled from your internet provider, although you're right the storage capacity on a free email was unheard of at the time.