a couple of things about clevercactus, and share

A few things:

• The next rev of share will include an update to the p2p connection system, fixing problems we're seeing in properly updating online status, etc. Believe me, we're working as fast as we can. Thanks for your patience and feedback to those that are using it, and those that aren't, well, let us know if you'd like to, we'll do our best (we still haven't replied to all requests sent in the last day or so).
• We have been totally swamped and haven't been able to release more information on the site yet (which we've been working on). ETA on that is early next week at the moment. This includes the cactus log, our company weblog.
• I'm collecting weblog posts about share, and will post on that fairly soon.

PS: What. A. Ride. :)

share on the mac

We had tested share on various OSes before release, including Mac OS X, but the initial integration with Mac wasn't that great. The next version, however (due out tonight) will integrate properly within the Mac environment. Check it out:

This includes menus pulled up into the Mac menubar, better L&F integration and response to standard application menu commands such as Cmd+Q, Preferences, About, and Open File. Main element missing at this point is to make the Dock icon bounce. Almost there... :)

gmail

So, finally, Google will release its email service today (NYTimes, News.com). This follows last week's launch of Google's new Look and some Lab features like Web alerts. One interesting thing: Google calculates the cost of providing a gigabyte of email storage at $2, which I presume includes the processing I bandwidth required to use the service.

The privacy question will now become even more complex:

At Google, one official said, the company has engaged in an intense debate over how extensively to exploit the content of e-mail.

Many people inside the company are worried that users might fear that the content of their e-mail messages could be used to tailor individual advertising messages, much as ad messages are now placed on pages tied to specific responses to search inquiries. Google hopes to quell any such concerns by assuring users that the content of their messages will remain private.

not to mention other additions:

Eric Schmidt, chief executive of Google, said he ``absolutely'' has plans to integrate Orkut into Google's search engine.

Another interesting thing, from the New York Times article:

It will be "soft launched," they said, in a manner that Google has followed with other features that it has added to its Web site, with little fanfare and presented initially as a long-running test.

This has a new definition of the word "soft launch"... what with an article in the New York Times and all... :)

As far as this being an April's Fools Joke... I found this press release by Google which does sound a bit, well, iffy. But then again there's a website for gmail which looks very much like the real thing (Including privacy policy, terms of use, etc). If this is indeed a joke, then some significant effort has gone into it (note that the articles include quotes from Google employees, so if it is a joke we have to presume that either a) the journalists are in on it or b) the employees continued with the 'joke' while giving unnatributed quotes). There are no disclaimers in any of the pages, and the HTML sources look clean too. Andrew (for example) is skeptical, to say the least :). I guess we'll have to wait and see.