May 19, 2004 : Google Seeking Compromise on Gmail

📅 May 19, 2004 - According to reports released this week in the San Mateo County Times, Web search giant Google (google.com) has been very cooperative with lawmakers in accommodating the concerns of legislators and privacy advocates into plans for its recently-announced Gmail free email service, which would feature 1GB of storage for every account.

Google has faced privacy concerns with regard to the service. Though the company has no plans to charge for the service, it does intend to use its search and contextual advertising technologies to generate revenue by selling advertising targeted to the content of email messages. Privacy concerns have persisted though Google has said it would closely guard the content of email.
Legislation recently introduced in California could affect whether Google can implement its targeted advertising model. Senate bill 1822, introduced in California in February, would prevent Google from scanning email messages for content without the consent of both recipient and sender.
While there has been some delay added to the initial momentum of Gmail, one of the project's noticeable effects has been to prompt the beefing-up of several other email services.
Terra Lycos (terralycos.com) said this week that it had rolled out an email service with 1GB of storage. But unlike Yahoo and Google, Terra Lycos will not offer the service for free, instead charging approximately $6.17 per month. The Terra Lycos service, which is being marketed in Europe, includes spam protection, synchronization with Microsoft Outlook, 30 free instant messages per month, no banner ads, a free domain name, and up to 50 email accounts.
The latest launch of a mega-storage email service comes on the heels of reports that Yahoo would increase the storage limits for its free email to a figure comparable to Google's 1GB.