It appears to me that more and more people are using Gmail and Gchat. Almost everyone I know now has a Gmail address and has begun using Gchat as an alternative the AIM, Yahoo, and MSN. I am not sure when I noticed this change but it was definitely within the past 4-5 months. I bring up this shift because it is my belief that this proves a fundamental shift in instant message usage. This is in no way a scientific approach but I have watched my social circle adopt and reject different products over the years and this to me proves a pattern.
I recently eclipsed 10,000 email messages and tracked back to my first Gmail usage. It is a semi-interesting story so I thought I would share it. I began using Gmail on May 24th 2004, which means I have been a Gmail user for 4 years and 2 months! I believe that is the 2nd longest time I have had an email address (that gets used) at one place. The #1 winner is still my AOL account – which is not worth deleting because it is now free. I actually purchased my gmail account on Ebay so that I could secure my choice of names – then went and re-sold my invites to make a profit on the deal. At the time each Gmail account came with 5 invites, 1GB of storage!, and promised to never delete email. The one caveat was that it would serve contextually relevant ads next to my messages. At first I was turned off by this fact, but now I have come to expect the recognized mapping function of the Google area and show me a map link when there is an address in my email.
Going back to the Gchat function – once this was integrated into the browser I think there was a shift from people simply opening the window to check mail a few times a day to a steady 9-12 hour usage. Most friends I know keep their Gmail window open for the duration of the workday. Most are actually trying out the Google Calendar as well. I personally believe myself to be an early adapter so I don’t count my own usage as “mainstream” but as more of my less tech savvy friends get on board it is cause to believe the services are picking up momentum.
From a volume perspective, housing all these services under one roof is genius. Google will continue to encroach on market share of other products as more people turn to the Internet to store their lives, and need an outlet with the enterprise power of their Microsoft Exchange Outlook counterpart. Most of my friends have come to rely on the advanced features of their work systems, only wanting to find a non-work environment to “do the same thing”. Gmail and its suite of products is filling this void. As 20 somethings become more reliant on Facebook messaging, carrying more advanced handsets, and expecting enterprise level service from free web based apps – providers who solve their problems will come out on top. The winner, for today at least, is Google.
July 27, 2007
Business, Marketing.fm