I wrote this post earlier, falling in the trap set by Google, playing an April’s fool joke on us.That forced me to edit this post now.
My post stands, but I now give it a turn; assuming that if at all Gmail or any other email provider comes up with sthg akin to this. How will this idea work, if it happens.Read the post in that perspective.
There’s one company which keeps amazing me from time to time, by coming up with new offerings which are pertinent, contemporary, innovative and universal in nature.
The company I’m talking abt is Google, and the latest offering I’m talking abt is “Gmail Paper“.How many of you hv heard of it.Logout of Gmail and the screen would present you with this new feature.
What is it BTW?
Gmail Paper allows the end user to have a physical copy of the mail delivered to his/her address, and the biggest catch is tht this service is “free“.The paper cost,postage,delivery charges all will be borne by Google.
One can order tens,hundred or thousands of mail to be delivered to their doorstep without a cost,there is no limit on this.
It will take 2-4 days to get the hard copy delivered.
Another good feature is that attachments in the mail will be taken care of too. Docs will also get printed and delivered along with the mail, and images will get printed on photographic paper and form part of mail.
To handle the CSR perspective, the paper on which the mail will be sent as hard copy will be made out of 96% post-consumer organic soybean, and thus saves the enviroment.
Wht say you? What an offering?
But some questions: Is it useful for us? Where will Google get the funding for this offering? Long term calculations.
I remmbr when I was in college, a similar service was started by a site named ” Dakkhana.com”. I did use it once or twice, and did get some mails where practical jokes were played upon me,I came out unscathed though.But this venture fell flat, and was closed down after some time, most prob coz of funding issues.I r’ber 5 rupee postage stamp coming on top of it.
But such problems wud not b thot abt in case of Google. It is a much much bigger company than the one I mentioned last, and they must hv done a thorough analysis before rolling this out.The funding will come from advertisers who’ll throng ur physical mails all over.
There is cost of stationary,infrastructure for printing,envelopes, photographic paper, infrastructure for generating photos, postage stamps, delivery charges, and people employed to run this service.There may b many more hidden costs too.
As Google says, tht advertisers wud sell their wares on ur mails, and pay for evrythg.
Gain for Google: A new feature, making Gmail popular. Earning revenues from advertisers.
Gain for Advertisers: Lot of publicity, cost involved but good chances of conversion business based on this investment.
R’ber those pamphlets that get thrown at ur house, or even handed out to you at public places. The pamphlets which you either dump at first go, or not take it at all, n never ever taking out time to hv a look at the product and the offering.
Now, wht wud this physical mail do? U may still not be interested in the companies tht wud advertise, but now u wud give a glimpse to them, as they form a part of ur physical mail. Mayb you may even go ahead and read it if you find it interesting.What will it lead to? A conversion into a probable sale for the company.Seems risky, but an idea worth trying, esp if a name as big as Google is involved.
So, is it useful for us? Who will be using it generally?
The use of this service is quite subjective, and depends on person to person, and profession to profession.There may be cases where you may require some mails to be filed, some mails to be taken along as hard copy, say if you are travelling and have no net access, you can use this service to carry along the docs with you while travelling.
For youth, I think the feature of photographs getting printed, will be a great attraction.
Now-a-days, this concept of physical photos has gone away, though I feel, the real beauty of a photograph gets enhanced when in hard copy.
As its a new service, many of the users will try it on a trial basis, and its popularity will depend on the quality of the service offerred.Though I feel, there are chances that the idea will fade away after the initial euphoria.But Google is known for creativity, and the hunch is it will keep it running, if it gets pace once.
I am yet to experience this service for myself, and can only comment abt it in actuality after a first-hand experience.I hope it will b sthg good.
So, go ahead, Paper Archive a mail today.
Go Gmail.
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P.S. Its my first post since long, the reason I’ll delve upon in a later post.:-)