mike_barton
Editor

Google April 1 gotcha: Gmail Paper

news
Apr 2, 20071 min

When I logged in to Gmail on Sunday night I almost fell to this April Fools from Google: Gmail Paper.

The new feature promises to allow you to snail-mail any of your Gmail messages. Some people would not doubt welcome this, and I was taken by the irony of it for InfoWorld, which was announcing the end of print, with Monday our final print issue.

So, here was Google reintroducing paper and we were balling it up and chucking it into the bin.

On second take, I realized the ridiculousness of it with the handler in one photo (above) delivering a whole box of Gmails. Oh, and the copy saying, “Gmail Paper is made out of 96% post-consumer organic soybean sputum, and thus, actually helps the environment.”

Good one, Google.

mike_barton

Mike Barton started out in online slinging HTML for CNET.com in the late 1990s and began his editorial career at New Media magazine shortly thereafter. In his early days, he was an editor at Ziff-Davis's PC Computing and ZDNet.com before heading Down Under, where he produced and edited the business and technology sections of The Sydney Morning Herald online. After returning to the States in 2006, he has worked for IDG's Infoworld, PCWorld, Computerworld, and CSO Online. He currently edits and produces WIRED.com's Innovation Insights, and is a contributing editor at ITworld.

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