Google starts a new net craze
In the Sunday Herald Online: The race for Gmail e-mail accounts – the service launched on a trial basis by internet search engine firm Google in April – has created a new web phenomenon of account trading, with desperate Gmail wannabes offering money, holidays and bizarre gifts in exchange for an account invite.
Just a few thousand trial Gmail accounts were offered on an invitation-only basis last month. Account holders, who can access a gigabyte of storage on the free Google service (vastly more space than rival e-mail services) get the opportunity to invite selected friends onto Gmail – and it’s those invites that are being swapped for everything from a two-night all-inclusive holiday in Dubai to postcards of San Francisco, or even just good karma.