

Happy holidays from Gmail: Free snailmail gift cards - genieyclo
https://services.google.com/fb/forms/gmailholidaycard/

======
ShabbyDoo
It will be interesting to see from where these cards are postmarked. That will
provide a good clue about Google's seeming benevolence.

When I worked on medical records software, I looked into some companies that
offered an API for sending snail mail. Doctor's offices spend a lot of time
sending out form letters, and it seemed like it would be cool to automate
sending out lab results letters. Obviously, email would be preferred (given
patient consent), but physicians have to deal with the lowest common
denominator (while blissfully ignoring illiteracy). Perhaps Google is
experimenting with such a service? However, given all the things Google could
provide to Apps users, this seems pretty low on the list.

I'd put money on this being an experiment or beta test in disguise as holiday
cheer. Think GOOG411 -- a great way to collect voice samples.

~~~
simonista
Right down at the bottom of the page: "information supplied here will not be
retained or used for any purposes outside of delivering your card."

~~~
arantius
But the OP is specifically talking about information specifically besides that
"supplied here". Like, measuring how much it really costs, the hidden
challenges, etc, in setting up a large automated mailing system.

~~~
mkyc
No, the example given was voice clips. Your idea of a "trial run" is
interesting, but I doubt that they're doing this to get some extra logistics
practice. Unlike gmail or wave, mass mailing is a well-explored domain.

They're doing it to put the gmail logo on your fireplace mantle. Which is just
fine, because you might not otherwise have sent a cheerful card. Plus their
snowflake pun is hilarious.

~~~
blahedo
Mass mailing might be, but highly-individualised large-batch mailing? Every
card distinct? Even if this is _largely_ a holiday gift, I'm _certain_ they're
collecting data on it. The only question is what. Maybe some of the cards will
be "tracers" sent to confederates who can verify delivery times of things sent
in big batches? Maybe they have multiple printing-and-distribution locations
throughout the country and they're testing those? Who knows....

~~~
jrockway
Or maybe they just wanted to be on social news sites again for a day.

------
bryanwoods
This is great!

I work at a startup building apps ( <http://zerography.com> is currently live;
hopefully more soon) to get custom printed stuff into people's hands for free,
and think it's really great to see Google getting involved.

There's something extra special about getting a letter or package in the mail,
and with the amount of time and cost involved in mailing something to friends
and family, I'm really surprised I (and almost everyone else I know, too!)
don't take advantage of things like this more.

------
mcav
You can print these too -- even in high res:

<http://mail.google.com/mail/help/holidaycard/print.html>

------
genieyclo
I wonder if they manually check all the letters...would take too much work I'm
thinking, so how can they check for spam or bots that auto send lots of them
with spammy messages? (you could send varied spam messages as well) EDIT:
didn't read the part about 1 card only

~~~
bbq
Well, gmail IS pretty good at filtering spam

------
bshep
A friend of mine has a hand-made e-postcard service as well, they are free but
he doesnt mail them. Its pretty off the wall.

<http://xn--74h.cohitre.com/>

------
Tawheed
Didn't they buy Postini? I think they may be leveraging their stuff for this.

------
hubb
only valid inside the states :(

~~~
mrtron
There are many companies in the states.... :)

Maybe you want to thank Google for offering Gmail...from Gmail...to Gmail...

------
edw519
Finally! A chance to drag my mom, who doesn't have a computer, into the
internet age!

Since it doesn't look like it handles HTML or images, here's what I sent her:

    
    
         Happy Holidays, Mom!
    
               \/\/\/\/        
             /         \       
            /           \      
           /             \     
       /\_/     0    0    \_/\ 
      |                       |
       \/ \      |_|      / \/ 
           \             /     
            \  \-----/  /      
             \         /       
              \_______/        
                |   |
    
             Love, Eddie

~~~
AdamGibbins
Here's me wondering how you hacked the site to allow you to enter that many
characters.

~~~
ars
If he used tabs it wouldn't be that many.

------
nym
I sent myself a love note. I can't wait to get it in the mail!

~~~
bockris
I sent a card to my kids telling them that Google has searched the global
index of nice/naughty kids and they were found on the nice list.

I haven't told my wife. I want to see how much she freaks out when it comes in
the mail.

------
jack7890
Anyone know why they're doing this?

~~~
aw3c2
Probably to get address data (nicely linked in social relationships).

~~~
jack7890
Wouldn't they disclose that? Also, if that were the aim, why limit everyone to
a single card?

~~~
Frazzydee
Do companies usually disclose that they're collecting information when they're
already, well, collecting it?

But if they weren't going to use it, they would disclose that, and they do:
"information supplied here will not be retained or used for any purposes
outside of delivering your card"

------
joblessjunkie
Also known as "Add your non-Gmail using friends to our direct marketing
mailing list."

~~~
aw3c2
and "give your friend's address to a monopoly corporate entity without their
agreement". This is another scary chapter for privacy.

~~~
icey
What does Google have a monopoly over?

~~~
run4yourlives
The internet.

Technically that isn't true of course, realistically though, If you aren't in
their search engine, you may as well not be on the internet.

------
joezydeco
How much you wanna bet all these addresses get mailed an offer for a Chrome
OS-enabled netbook when it's ready?

------
nailer
The cards acknowledge Judaism, but not Christianity.

This isn't unheard of, but I expected more from Google.

~~~
rms
They acknowledge a (very) secular symbol of Christmas (Rudolph) as well as a
secular symbol of Hanukkah. It's just that an expectation to be inclusive with
these types of things means an explicit acknowledgement of Judaism. And the
design they have is pretty cool.

The Dreidel is a secular symbol that happens to be much older than Rudolph; a
menorah would have been inappropriate in the same way as an image of Jesus in
the manger.

~~~
bumblebird
>> "Do-it-yourself dreidel"

It seems quite odd to include this one IMHO. I had to look it up to know what
it was. Is it more widely known in USA?

~~~
rms
>It seems quite odd to include this one IMHO.

Chalk it up to American political correctness.

I'm not sure how well it is known throughout the USA. Probably >50% of people
in urban areas of heard of a dreidel.

------
petercooper
Super duper - let's dump a ton more paper into the mail system that people can
end up either recycling or, more likely, throwing into landfill.

I'm not even an environmentalist (though an avid recycler for economic
reasons) but I'm surprised the big G would come up with something as wasteful
as this.

