There's no place like 127.0.0.1

Sorry about the title. I passed someone wearing that slogan on a t-shirt today and immediately wanted one for myself. I tend not to geek out so much around here, largely because I don't want to alienate those of my friends who don't speak fluent geek, but in this case I couldn't resist. It's funny, honest.

By one of those curious turns of fate, Mija's just blogged about Gmail, Google's new webmail application, just as I've found out that Google has introduced the one feature I've been waiting for to before I'd consider switching to it. I had a play around with it a little while ago, and whilst I thought it had some pretty funky features (the search in particular, not to mention the 1Gb of storage), the fact that it didn't allow for mail forwarding or pop access limited it's usefulness for me. However I've just discovered that, lo, as of today mail forwarding has been introduced along with a couple of other new features, so I've decided to give it another shot and try it out in anger.

You do have to hand it to Google - their marketing ploys are as simple as they are brilliant. The notion of making their beta products invite only has managed to spark a veritable feeding frenzy, immediately dividing the population into the haves and have nots. And those who have not invariably want to have - viral marketing at it's most elegant. Admittedly, they've been victims of their own success with this strategy before (proof that for every hype there is an equal and opposite reaction?), but they seem to have learned from their mistakes and Gmail already appears to be a polished product.

I also discovered today that I have a few Gmail invites to give away. I suspect that most of you who would be interested in such a thing will already have an account, but if not, let me know and I shall wing an invite your way.

I feel all benevolent now.