Matt's Blog

It appears now that Google has opened up the Gmail “Beta” to everyone to sign-up for. This has been reported many times before, but I myself have never seen the Sign-up Link on Gmail’s homepage. But, after logging out of Gmail earlier today, I noticed the content had been changed from the “announcement” of the Gmail App for Cell Phones to more of a “list” of cool Gmail features, and there was a sign-up link under the login box. That’s right, a sign-up link. Shocking, indeed. The sign-up link is here:

http://mail.google.com/mail/signup

Funny enough, when logged into Gmail, there is still a little box on the left hand side for “Invites”. Maybe this will become “Tell People About Gmail”?

Now you no longer have a reason not to switch to Gmail. 😛 Gmail has lots of space (2.8GB+), a good email search, it’s integrated with Google Talk, it has a nice Cell Phone Application and you can easily switch from other popular email providers. You also get things like free POP access, more storage everyday, etc. 😀

Here’s a screenshot of the Gmail homepage, for proof of the Sign-up link:

Update [February 16, 2007]: I found this on Google’s Blog:

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2007/02/from-gmail-with-3.html

Which says that Gmail has been opened up for all users, worldwide, to register a Gmail account, without an Invite. Sweet, huh?

http://blog.bluefur.com/2007/01/26/monsterhostingca-changes-to-bluefurcom/

MonsterHosting.Ca has decided to change their name to BlueFur.Com because of trademark infringement allegations.

They decided that it would be a lot simpler (and cost affective) to simply change their name to BlueFur then to go to court and spend thousands of dollars defending a name that they don’t even know if they’ll be able to keep. Basically, all they have to spend is the money for all the new domain. Much cheaper then legal fees, for sure.

Of course, they can’t reveal the company who brought the allegations forward, but they have said that it’s a US company with deep pockets.

They already have BlueFur.Com up and running. Plus, they have changed their “slogan” underneath the name in the top banner from “Web Hosting Made Easy” to “Experience the Legend”. Plus, they have added Colocation Services and gotten rid of VPS Hosting from the menus.

I think that BlueFur is a pretty sweet name and I hope they will improve their service even more under it.

http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/01/04/google-tips-pulled/

As TechCrunch reports, Google Tips have disappeared. Whether this is a permanent action, or just a temporary one, Google hasn’t said. In fact, Google hasn’t actually announced anything yet about this. Personally, I thought the Tips were fine, what’s wrong with a Company promoting their own products on their own site(s). But, I guess this means that Google is starting to listen to people, which could be good, or it could be bad and the fall of Google (okay, maybe not, but you get the point :P). What’s next? Is Google going to stop displaying Google stuff under “Sponsored Links”? 😛