Gmail finally really open to everyone!
February 14, 2007
Nearly three years after Gmail was first released, the free Web-based e-mail from Google is being opened up for anyone in the world. Beginning Wednesday, everyone can sign up instead of having to get an invite from a Gmail-using friend. Google has been phasing out the invitation restriction geographically, with total general availability offered in Europe last week and in North America, South America and Asia this week. The service is still in beta test mode, however.
Many people thought Google’s ad-based searchable e-mail service with an unheard-of gigabyte of free storage was an April Fool’s Day joke when it was announced on April 1, 2004. Privacy advocates and others objected to Google serving up ads based on the content of the messages. Making Gmail accounts available only by invitation, and thus a scarce commodity, increased their allure and led to auctions of invites on eBay. Later, rival Web-based e-mail services followed with full search functions, vast amounts of storage and ads.
The Original Article can be found here.
Icons for Google Talk Contacts
February 2, 2007
If you want to have desktop icons for your favorite Google Talk contacts, there’s an easy to do it.
Right-click on your desktop and select New / shortcut. Then type:
gtalk:chat?jid=[Gmail-Username]@gmail.com
and the name of your friend (of course, replace [Gmail-Username] with the actual username.Infact type your own mail id and watch the fun). When you click on the shortcut, Google Talk will open a new window where you can chat with your friend. To make a shortcut that automatically calls your friend type this instead:
gtalk:call?jid=[Gmail-Username]@gmail.com
You could right-click on the icon, select properties and choose a new icon.
If Google Talk is not open, clicking on the shortcut will launch it, but won’t open a new chat window
for your friend.
You can easily launch Google Talk by going to Start/Run and typing gtalk: (gtalk followed by a colon).
Also, the above mentioned commands can be used to call gtalk from the Run Command.
