Friday, January 18, 2008

Technically Speaking

Prologue

I would like to thank Kishore by giving 100 for the 1 I gave him. But, he is not so generous.

Right from beginning Google has been the undisputed leader in search engine. There is no doubt that oxford would add the word Google to its dictionary database. Such is the brand value of the company. The success of Google is very simple. Yes, simplicity, continuous innovations & connectivity are its qualities. I remember I used to test dial up connections' speed against Google. In this fast paced world, everyone wants information in a jiffy and that’s what Google is delivering. With all the innovations without compromising on quality and speed, Google almost was a revolution.

All these put up together created hype when Google announced about its email service. It was open only by invitation. It became a craze to get an invite. Thousands of internet groups and forums emerged on how to get an invite for Gmail. People were involved in barter contracts to get an invite. I was no different for the same. Yahoo was leading before Google came into picture. Not so tech savvy people were happy enough and contended with a yahoo account. I was not of that type. I was a greedy guy. At least just to show off, I needed a Gmail account. I had informed my entire network who were working in IT cos for an invite. I got involved in the groups and discussion forums for a least chance of getting one invite. Whenever there were discussions on Gmail, I would peep into them to find if I could have an invite. One fine day, Kishore who had minimum knowledge of the technical happenings was casually speaking that his cousin was having an invite for Gmail. Overhearing, I could not resist asking for one. The invite was not too far away for me. At the same time a suspicion arose on whether the unknown person would give me that invite or not. So, I started blowing Gmail trumpet to Kishore and made him get an invite from his cousin. That was easy rather than me getting one from his cousin. I grabbed an invite from Kishore. That wasn’t easy too. A beer was the expense, I guess.

There was an innovation in that too. A new Gmail id had an option of inviting 6 people. I gave three to other friends and used 2 for myself. I created 2 more ids counting the total to 3 ids and 14 invites. I then started to show off. But, the show off lasted not more than 2 weeks, coz I started having additional invites to be given out. It counted 300.

Today, the homepage of Gmail looks like this. I still have 275 invites to be given out. Huh! Anybody there...?

3 comments:

Alin said...

:) i know lots of ppl were looking out for those invites. but being slow on technology, i got on the wagon late. but that has its advantages, by the time i was getting bitten by the gmail bug, the invites were indeed freely available, and i didnt have to wait too long :)

slow and steady wins

R R R said...

yeah i know u got on to the wagon late..and it was not a race actually..its like watching FDFS of superstar's film or like getting reliance shares during its IPO..its a craze..

Kishore Balasubramanian said...

U !@#$&^%$%^ rajaram, hw dare u say that i hv less technology knowledge & that too u treated me with a beer for getting one gmail account, shame on u @#$%^.

Its ok I never take it serious, but I accept that u hv better technical knowledge than me.

Anyway thanks for spoiling my name & asking me read the same.