DM News: An Early Look at How Gmail Works

Gmail screenshot

DM News scored a beta version of Google's new Gmail system and was able to run it through its paces over the last week. It reports very little advertising in the email messages, and the little advertising visible was generally well targeted (Yankee banter spawned ads about Yankee tickets, swag, poor moral character). As conversations between two people evolve in topic, the ads appearing in past messages adapt and change. Ads are most often seen on commercial emails.

While Gmail critics have so far concentrated on various flavors of privacy concerns, some companies may find that ads targeted to be placed in their email communications are offensive. Some especially sensitive companies have felt that about pop-up targeting technologies.