The G Day Gmail Goldrush

A dead-serious look into the crystal ball.

Are you entirely prepared for G Day, the day Google opens up registration for its Gmail service to the plebs? A dead-serious look into the crystal ball.

  1. Epidemic: News that Gmail has opened the gates circles around the blogosphere.
  2. Meta epidemic: Bloggers trace the spread of the news, compare it to traditional media, gloat and blog it.
  3. Disappointment: Usernames stardust, ihatebush, britneyspears and uberpundit gone within minutes. Tough choice between starbush, ihatedust, uberspears and britneypundit.
  4. Opportunity: Memorable six-letter Gmail addresses for sale at Ebay within 24 hours.
  5. Deception: Bulk e-mails to non-Gmail addresses – „Please open the attached .exe application to sign up for Gmail.“
  6. Playfulness: People send each other messages just to trigger the most unfitting ads.
  7. Improvement: Two competing inofficial Gmail logo redesign competitions within a week.
  8. More deception: Bulk e-mails to Gmail addresses – „We have a database problem, please log in at our temporary site in West Waziristan.“
  9. More playfulness: Bloggers fill their Gmail box up to the 1 GB limit just to see what happens (and blog it).
  10. Finally, social movement: Kenny, Sarah, Peter and Frank start an online petition to allow five character Gmail usernames.