Thanks to Ryan over at The Audhumlan Conspiracy and to Blinger over at, er, Blinger, I'm now the proud owner of a Gmail address. (Two addresses, actually: "thetensor" for this blog and another with my real name.) Woo-hoo! Now I'm in with the in-crowd!
I'm not sure that Gmail is going to be any different from or better than Yahoo! mail, but I know a bandwagon when I see one and I'm jumping on! I've heard all the paranoia about Gmail—how they're going to paw through my email, pollute my thoughts with irresistable advertisements, and then report me to the Usenet Cabal as a thoughtcriminal—but this is my big chance to join the exclusive inner ranks of Gmail's social network, and I've decided to grab the brass ring. This is going to be a turning point for me, I can feel it. No more sand kicked in my face at the beach, no sir, not with a Gmail account!
I got my first bunch of invites to send out today, but before you ask, they've all already been snapped up by other grad students in my department. Well, except for one, which I've saved for The Wife. She says she doesn't want it ("I already have a Yahoo! address," she says), but I'm pretty sure she'll change her mind. She also claimed she didn't want a SiteMeter counter on her blog, but I think I'm convincing her it's a good idea. I pointed out today that if you can't track referrals, it's hard to find out who's linked to your blog, and linkers are often blogs on related and interesting subjects that might be worth reading or linking back to. She seemed almost convinced. Only time will tell if I've persuaded her, but I'm confident. For a long time, she didn't see any reason to have a blog, either, and look how that turned out.
I already have three email addresses. Why on earth would I want a fourth?
Posted by: The Wife | June 28, 2004 at 12:12 PM
Because Gmail is cool!
(Said he, adding his fourth e-address in the box)
Posted by: language hat | July 03, 2004 at 03:12 PM