# Gmail is the spawn of the devil! **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [September 11, 2004, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gmail-is-the-spawn-of-the-devil/264071 "2004-09-11T21:04:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![World\_Eater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f04885/32.png) [@World\_Eater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/World_Eater)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2004, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gmail-is-the-spawn-of-the-devil/264071/21 "2004-09-14T13:50:33Z")
Doesn’t it do something wacky like parse the content of your emails for keywords and toss related ads at you? ---
**Author:** ![GSV\_Consolation\_of\_Dreams](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/f1d935/32.png) [@GSV\_Consolation\_of\_Dreams](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GSV_Consolation_of_Dreams)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2004, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gmail-is-the-spawn-of-the-devil/264071/22 "2004-09-14T14:27:40Z")
Yep, in the exact same way that Google puts unobtrusive and generally relevant ads on the right hand side of your search results. Compare that to Yahoo, which always presented me with a big-ass, flashing ad for crap I wasn’t interested in, using up a quarter of my Inbox page. Oh, how I love Gmail. ---
**Author:** ![Jurph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/50afbb/32.png) [@Jurph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jurph)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2004, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gmail-is-the-spawn-of-the-devil/264071/23 "2004-09-14T14:42:04Z")
> [@World Eater](#): > > Doesn’t it do something wacky like parse the content of your emails for keywords and toss related ads at you? Yes, but they’re **GOOD** ads. Some examples: 1. A friend was coming from out of town, so all of us were sending e-mails back and forth (the threaded messages function making this incredibly simple) about the plans for the weekend. I sent a message asking basically, “where are we eating Saturday before we go see (some movie)?” and the reply was “I don’t know Baltimore very well; I could show you a hundred places in New York though. Let’s pick the theater and go with something close to there.” Alongside this message, I got two ads for Baltimore dining guides, and an ad for movie times. Despite the fact that both sets of keywords were there, I got no ads for New York dining guides! Pretty good parsing if you ask me. 2. I sent condolences to a friend whose father passed away, along with my regrets that I couldn’t be at the funeral. One of the ads next to her reply said “Can’t be at the funeral? Send flowers!” which I thought was remarkably helpful. She has pollen allergies, though, so I didn’t. 3. When a few friends of mine discuss Diablo II, I get ads for online item auctions. It’s not intrusive, and a lot of times I get a laugh out of how accurate the ads are. If I wanted to, I could set my browser to block them – but I don’t, because they’re so well-targeted that I know I’m going to use them again. And probably soon. ---
**Author:** ![SuperNova](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ea666f/32.png) [@SuperNova](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SuperNova)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2004, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gmail-is-the-spawn-of-the-devil/264071/24 "2004-09-14T15:06:29Z")
> [@Banquet Bear](#): > > HOLY CRAP!!! > > …I just signed up, logged in, and sent my first gmail message faster than my hotmail logon page takes TO LOAD!!! > > Thanks for the invite Derleth! Shoulda figured my weak rant would be become the home of some invites. 😉 I just figured out what to compare Gmail’s invites system to. It’s exactly like Cartman’s “You Can’t Come” technique that gets his amusement park thriving… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gmail-is-the-spawn-of-the-devil/264071.md?page=1)