# GMAIL Invitations - Why are they a commodity?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gmail-invitations-why-are-they-a-commodity/250922
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [June 17, 2004, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gmail-invitations-why-are-they-a-commodity/250922 "2004-06-17T21:37:31Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@All\_That\_And](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/All_That_And)
#### Post date: [June 17, 2004, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gmail-invitations-why-are-they-a-commodity/250922/1 "2004-06-17T21:37:31Z")
Why are GMAIL invitations fetching money on places like Ebay? Isn’t it supposed to be a free email service?
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### Author:  [@Troy\_McClure\_SF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Troy_McClure_SF)
#### Post date: [June 17, 2004, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gmail-invitations-why-are-they-a-commodity/250922/2 "2004-06-17T21:46:43Z")
Well, basically, they’re cool. Why? Who knows?
Google’s pretty popular, so it makes sense that their services like orkut and Gmail would take off. Plus, Gmail has targeted advertising, so it might actually be more practical. And you (propbably) never have to erase your email.
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### Author:  [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)
#### Post date: [June 17, 2004, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gmail-invitations-why-are-they-a-commodity/250922/3 "2004-06-17T21:49:27Z")
Because being a new system, early users get (for the most part) first choice of user name. You don’t have to worry about tacking on a bunch of numbers on the end of JohnDoe @ [gmail.com](http://gmail.com). That alone would be worth it. (Plus, new accounts smell like puppies.)
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### Author:  [@SmackFu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmackFu)
#### Post date: [June 17, 2004, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gmail-invitations-why-are-they-a-commodity/250922/4 "2004-06-17T23:14:00Z")
It’s still in beta. So you can’t go to GMail and sign up, even though it’s free. Supply is low, demand is high. That makes the invites a valuable commodity.
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### Author:  [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)
#### Post date: [June 17, 2004, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gmail-invitations-why-are-they-a-commodity/250922/5 "2004-06-17T23:59:15Z")
The fact that Yahoo Mail now offers 100MB of storage now – and without reading your mail – means I no need for Gmail whatsoever.
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### Author:  [@MysteryFellow63427](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MysteryFellow63427)
#### Post date: [June 18, 2004, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gmail-invitations-why-are-they-a-commodity/250922/6 "2004-06-18T00:38:40Z")
> [@Colophon](#):
>
> The fact that Yahoo Mail now offers 100MB of storage now – and without reading your mail – means I no need for Gmail whatsoever.
I don’t doubt that this was a direct response to Gmail’s appearance.
(Yahoo also increased their paying accounts to 2GB of storage.)
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### Author:  [@Ms2001](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ms2001)
#### Post date: [June 18, 2004, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gmail-invitations-why-are-they-a-commodity/250922/7 "2004-06-18T01:33:10Z")
Google doesn’t “read your mail”. They use a completely automated program to select ads based on keywords in your messages.
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### Author:  [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)
#### Post date: [June 18, 2004, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gmail-invitations-why-are-they-a-commodity/250922/8 "2004-06-18T01:35:42Z")
I fail to see the distinction between “reads your mail” and “automatically scans your mail for keywords.” The former implies human action while the latter doesn’t but other than that what’s the difference?
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### Author:  [@Ms2001](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ms2001)
#### Post date: [June 18, 2004, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gmail-invitations-why-are-they-a-commodity/250922/9 "2004-06-18T01:52:09Z")
> [@Otto](#):
>
> I fail to see the distinction between “reads your mail” and “automatically scans your mail for keywords.” The former implies human action while the latter doesn’t but other than that what’s the difference?
That is the difference. If a human is involved, the implication is that your privacy is being violated because some Bad Person might see all the Big Secrets you send and receive via email.
OTOH, Gmail’s contextual ads don’t violate your privacy. No one knows what you’re sending and receiving via email except for you and your correspondents. They don’t put you on some list of people who use suspicious keywords in email, and they don’t keep track of keywords you’ve used in the past to target ads in the future. The ads on each page are chosen by matching other words on the same page.
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### Author:  [@Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patty_O_Furniture)
#### Post date: [June 18, 2004, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gmail-invitations-why-are-they-a-commodity/250922/10 "2004-06-18T01:58:45Z")
[Related IMHO thread where we discuss Gmail and Google’s “AdSense” feature.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=248693)
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### Author:  [@BlackKnight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlackKnight)
#### Post date: [June 18, 2004, 5:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gmail-invitations-why-are-they-a-commodity/250922/11 "2004-06-18T05:31:10Z")
Yahoo mail “reads” (i.e. automatically scans your email for keywords) your mail too. Every email system with spam filtering has to “read” incoming emails in order to determine whether or not they are spam.
GMail’s genius is in using a similar automated system to display targeted ads. This will most likely make Google even more profitable than they already are.
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### Author:  [@alterego](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alterego)
#### Post date: [June 18, 2004, 6:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gmail-invitations-why-are-they-a-commodity/250922/12 "2004-06-18T06:52:59Z")
They aren’t a commodity. Gmail is stuffing me so full of invites that I have simply ran out of people to invite. Would you like one?
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### Author:  [@Garfield226](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Garfield226)
#### Post date: [June 18, 2004, 7:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gmail-invitations-why-are-they-a-commodity/250922/13 "2004-06-18T07:02:14Z")
> [@alterego](#):
>
> They aren’t a commodity. Gmail is stuffing me so full of invites that I have simply ran out of people to invite. Would you like one?
I’d like one.
You might also be interested in [this thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=260726&page=1&pp=50).
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### Author:  [@vinniepaz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vinniepaz)
#### Post date: [June 18, 2004, 7:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gmail-invitations-why-are-they-a-commodity/250922/14 "2004-06-18T07:28:22Z")
> [@alterego](#):
>
> They aren’t a commodity. Gmail is stuffing me so full of invites that I have simply ran out of people to invite. Would you like one?
i wouldnt mind one of those…
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### Author:  [@alterego](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alterego)
#### Post date: [June 18, 2004, 7:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gmail-invitations-why-are-they-a-commodity/250922/15 "2004-06-18T07:30:37Z")
I don’t mean to hang it in front of your nose but it was only for the OP. I have a limited supply of benevolence 🙂 (and a limited supply of invites, however bountiful at times)
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### Author:  [@vinniepaz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vinniepaz)
#### Post date: [June 18, 2004, 7:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gmail-invitations-why-are-they-a-commodity/250922/16 "2004-06-18T07:33:06Z")
> [@alterego](#):
>
> I don’t mean to hang it in front of your nose but it was only for the OP. I have a limited supply of benevolence 🙂 (and a limited supply of invites, however bountiful at times)
haha alright
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### Author:  [@Garfield226](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Garfield226)
#### Post date: [June 18, 2004, 7:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gmail-invitations-why-are-they-a-commodity/250922/17 "2004-06-18T07:33:41Z")
> [@alterego](#):
>
> I don’t mean to hang it in front of your nose but it was only for the OP. I have a limited supply of benevolence 🙂 (and a limited supply of invites, however bountiful at times)
And that is a perfect answer to the OP’s question, as well.
I want one, **vinnepaz** wants one, everyone in the thread I linked wants one, but **alterego** (and everyone else) has a limited supply.
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### Author:  [@alterego](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alterego)
#### Post date: [June 18, 2004, 7:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gmail-invitations-why-are-they-a-commodity/250922/18 "2004-06-18T07:34:22Z")
Well, maybe I just proved that they _are_ a commodity. :dubious:
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### Author:  [@alterego](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alterego)
#### Post date: [June 18, 2004, 7:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gmail-invitations-why-are-they-a-commodity/250922/19 "2004-06-18T07:39:06Z")
> [@Garfield226](#):
>
> And that is a perfect answer to the OP’s question, as well.
>
> I want one, **vinnepaz** wants one, everyone in the thread I linked wants one, but **alterego** (and everyone else) has a limited supply.
Ok to directly answer the OPs question, they are a commodity because Google has marketing genius. I think Gmail rocks, therefore I will use every one of the invites they give me so that other people can see how it rocks, too. But they are smart so they give me 5 one day, and then no more for a few days, and then only 3. But who knows if they will give me more if I haven’t used the ones I have already, so of course I send them out as fast as I can. Sometimes they give me new invites right away, sometimes not. I can’t really think of another company on the Internet using invites in this way. (besides Orkut, which sucks unfortunately IMHO).
Gmail is a commodity because Google has turned Gmail users into sockpuppets! :eek:
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### Author:  [@Ross](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ross)
#### Post date: [June 18, 2004, 10:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gmail-invitations-why-are-they-a-commodity/250922/20 "2004-06-18T10:32:29Z")
Do you think some people are using their invites to get themselves further email addresses? I mean, say a guy gets an invite and then discovers that some potentially popular email address hasn’t yet been snapped up. Do you think some people are doing that and hording them to sell later? (on the off-chance that in three years’ time a gmail address won’t mark us all out as complete eejits)
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