AtomicInternet Archived News

When Gmail first came out, it was a geek status symbol to have an email address that ended with "@gmail.com". It's invite only while in beta (probably forever), and having one meant somewhere down the line you were invited by an original Gmail programmer. But that was in the before time, back in those days when invitations were rare and some fetched $100 or more on eBay. I came in when the invites were easier to come by, but for awhile I had a minor geek status of my own. When I started getting the "already have one" responses to my offers of an invite I knew my elite club was gone. Nevertheless, I decided to consolidate my 4 addresses at the time into my single gmail address (if you can't guess mine don't email me). After all, google is infallable so their email system HAS to be awesome. Fast forward to today, 6 months later and the transition is complete. All my accounts now reference my new @gmail account. Unfortunately, in the last few weeks I get the image above more often than I prefer, and other oddities keep cropping up. Yes, I know it's still beta, and yes I know there are tons more people using it now, and YES I KNOW THEIR STOCK IS KILLER IT DEFINATELY DID NOT TAKE A DIVE AFTER IPO but lately it just seems to be approaching a suck factor. Granted, my expectations of totally free, feature packed email services has gone up a few notches with gmail, but I feel they continue to best themselves in every other area they have their hands in, so why should email be an exception? I'll even give up some of the 2GB plus storage if they can make it work 95% of the time instead of 80%. Yes I know, it's way overdue. I'm stepping down now. </rant>