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Much Adwords About Email
Google will have a hard time differentiating its email service from rivals, especially if those rivals opt to offer ad-free emails. One potential differentiator could be spam blocking, but here Yahoo! already does an excellent job, and Google's record with gamers doesn't auger well for its success. As the ensuing Slashdot thread points out, users attribute Google's dwindling reputation for search excellence as the result of focusing on ancilliary commercial activities.

"Getting rid of the page rank spammers should be their priority, not expanding into a commodity marketplace where they will have no real niche," writes one poster.

"Instead of messing around with all this e-mail stuff, how about you concentrate on actually making your search engine useful again?" writes another.

"It has become completely overrun with results like sony.dscp10.reviews.digital.cameras.hot.sex.now.freesexsite.com that it's becoming incredibly hard to actually get any information out of it. It used to be that when I searched for a product, you gave me user/site reviews on that product. Now, all I get is a bunch of people trying to make me buy it from them," writes another. "Please remedy this before trying to do other things."