Ben Hammersley writes (Guardian):
Yahoo is the new Google. Google is the new Yahoo. Up is down, and black is white. This spring has been very strange. Google, it seems, has jumped the shark. It has been overtaken, left standing, and not by some new startup of ultra smart MIT alumni or by the gazillions in the Microsoft development budget, but by the deeply unhip and previously discounted Yahoo.
Simultaneously, one of my Gmail accounts leaps forward:
We're not in the plains anymore
Fonts, bullets and highlighting, oh my! Gmail now offers rich text formatting. And over 60 colors of the rainbow. Discover a land of more than just black and white.
It is impressive.
Now, it may not be much to some folks, but it's a pleasure to use — and I'm like a child with a new toy: I've absolutely no idea how they can do this, but it's every bit as good as my machine-based programme's email composition window.
I suspect that every time we try to sum up the state of play, these sharks will shoot past us, leap-frogging (?) one another.
Update (1.4.2005 — and not an April Fool's Day spoof): now available across Gmail accounts. + Gmail announces (amongst other things):
G is for growth
Storage is an important part of email, but that doesn't mean you should have to worry about it. To celebrate our one-year birthday, we're giving everyone one more gigabyte. But why stop the party there? Our plan is to continue growing your storage beyond 2GBs by giving you more space as we are able. We know that email will only become more important in people's lives, and we want Gmail to keep up with our users and their needs. From Gmail, you can expect more.
Footnote: Wikipedia on 'jumping the shark'.
