How Google Snatched Business From Yahoo

Just realised that I used to have a yahoo account and actively used it for mail and chat. I must have created that id back in 2002, when I joined kgp and was introduced to the might of the thing called world wide web. Then, a well known search website, called Google, introduced its mail and chat software, sometime in 2005. And within a span of a few months, it had won me over from Yahoo, a service I had been using for almost three years. And why could it win; I won't go over what was/is better in Google than Yahoo. The bottomline is that more of my friends were using Google Talk and hence I moved to Google and so on...

Just to give you a perspective - just now, I logged into my yahoo mail account after so many days and found that the last mail in my inbox is dated 9th May 2005 - almost 2 and a half years ago. Actually, I had stopped using the Yahoo account completely; was forced to log in due to some reasons this December. I had forgotten the password and other security details; it was a tough job getting the password back :P

PS: I just did some googling and found that Gmail was launched somewhere round Feb 2005 April 2004 (edit: as indicated by Parag in the comments, and I will accept his word on this); and Google Talk around July 2005 (found an article dated Aug 2005 which says Google Talk already launched.). Any idea where this information would be available on Google websites; did some cursory search, but couldn't find it.

EDIT: Parag has summarized the advantages of Gmail over Yahoo in the comments (my post never intended to do this comparison; that's the reason I missed out on these differences :) ). Though I disagree with him on one thing, if I remember correctly, the chat facility from within the Gmail page came much later on than Gmail became common usage. Though personally I prefer the desktop client when I am using my own system. It of course is a great boon when you are on an alien system without the client.

EDIT: I am in no way affiliated to either Google or Yahoo.

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a discussion about wishes, utopia and karma

this is an excerpt from a chat i had with a friend of mine; i don't know how to put it more presentably, so just copied and pasted from my gmail chats section. And of course, I took permission from Neeraj before posting this.













me: waise agar free hai to mera abhi wala status message pad aur comments



My status message at that time was:

heart: why do wishes rarely come true?

mind: because most of the times they are stupid.

heart: but they are wishes, they have all the rights to be stupid.

Neeraj: okies

kyun deewana ho jata hai koi?

kyun armaan uthte hain kahin?

maalum nahin,

yeh dil aakhir chahta kya hai?

me: hehe

achhe poet ho tum bhi

Neeraj: nahin nahin

yeh shayari gadar the movie mein thi

me: koi is sawaal ka jawaab de de to jindagi bhar gulami karein

Neeraj: :)

hahaha

well wishes have every right to be stupid

me: yup, u r correct

see this is the good thing about u

Neeraj: but not every stupidity has the right to be fulfilled

or else, where would intelligence go??

down the memory lane

:P

me: yea thats correct, but why the hell do we need intelligence

to devise ways to fulfill our wishes only, right?

Neeraj: no dude

world is not only about wishes

intelligence has to be thr to maintain a balance

imagine if the world was filled with stupidity

also its difficult to imagine a world, if everyone was intelligent

me: i am not saying stupidity

i am just saying what about a world where everyone's all wishes were fulfilled, irrespective of their stupidity or brilliance

but then again my mind says: there is no such thing as utopia

Neeraj: wouldn't that be boring??

a world full of satisfaction

no motive or reason to keep going

me: so u dont want it to be boring, that would be just another wish, it will also be fulfilled

Neeraj: it already is fulfilled

me: tahts the problem with utopia

it keeps contradicting itself

Neeraj: i dont say, none of my wishes be fulilled

me: thats why it doesnt exist

Neeraj: i am saying, some of them shud and some shud not

me: why wish if u dont want it to be fulfilled

?

Neeraj: utopia is a foolish design of a pervert mind

i want it to be fulfilled

the best part is the ignorance about these things

we want 100 things, and out of these only 10 are to be fulfilled

me: utopia is an utopian creation of a high (by use of drugs) mind

Neeraj: but the best part is, we dont know which 10

me: what if i just want ten things

Neeraj: so, we work towards fulfillment of all

me: or maybe just a couple of things

Neeraj: then only 1 will be fulfilled, if 10% rule exists

me: why cant we get them

why has this nature to be so cruel

Neeraj: nature is not cruel

just because ur mom adds pepper to ur food doesn't make her cruel

me: then why are we not intelligent enough to think of some 9 wishes which we dont want to be fulfiled

Neeraj: its the balance netween spices of life that makes it interesting

me: and tht brings us back to the question why wish a wish u dont want ot be fulfilled

Neeraj: i want all my wishes to be fulfilled

and i wud work towards them

me: why do we want interesting? why dont we want satisfying

Neeraj: but the result is not in my hands

me: mayp be that is why we are humans and not dolphins

Neeraj: coz a satisfied soul doesnot exist

me: chal bahut bore kar liya tere ko

Neeraj: maybe

me: tu jaa , pad le

Neeraj: nahin nahin

me: yea may be

Neeraj: load nahin hai

i can go on this topic for hours

have thought over it a lot

when u have an unfulfilled dream u tend to think over it

me:
i guess the important thing is that u just need an indication that u
are going in the right direction, even in the knowledge that u wont
ever reach the destination (that is complete satisfaction) or may be
that the destination doesnt even exist, even in that knowledge, the
belief that u are moving towards the right direction, the belief that
hope exists ...may be that is what is important

Neeraj: karmanye vaadhikaraste ma phaleshu kadachanah

this is one shloka that has been mis-interpreted many times

or mis-understood

me:
but then what do u do when u dont know what ur karma is...u have some
ethics , beliefs which tell u dont do that...and some desires which
tell u do that, and those desires are not against ur ethics
either...its just conflict of ur basic nature, u pitted against urself,
and u cannot even isolate the jekyll and the hyde, they are one...what
do u do then

Neeraj: thats the problem, i know there can be confusion sometimes but confrontation seldom occurs

being a jekyll and a hyde is seldom in our control

so i think we should do what our karma asks us to do when u are in whichever form

me: then atleast why dont we turn into one ...just delete the other part

it wont be painful then

Neeraj: but thats not in our hand

we created them

me: yea, but if both forms are together, how do u know what ur karma is

Neeraj: but destruction lies somewhere else

every moment we are supposed to take a decision

and this decision depends on the circustances faced by a person

me:
saala i feel helpless when i realise that we can go on discussing this
and even then, in all probability, i wont ever reach a conclusion

the only solace lies in the fact that time heals









have u ever faced such a time? or have views on this? if u hv ever thought in this direction, ur comments are more than welcome

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