TECHNOLOGY The rise and fall of an e-mail sensation BY AMY HAWTHORNE

Back in June, Kester Allen was pleased to get a GMail invitation from his brother, who had bought his own on eBay for $10. A technology professional, Allen was excited by Google’s track record of innovation, the massive storage space allotted for each account, and being able to get his desired screen name without having to append numbers or odd punctuation. Like most users, Allen’s expectations were exceeded by GMail features (conversation grouping, labeling, and searching) that differentiated it from such other free, Web-based mail services as Hotmail and Yahoo! Being able to give out an "@gmail.com" address to friends didn’t hurt, either. Among techies and self-proclaimed nerds, a GMail address became a hot item that immediately upped one’s geek cred.

It was this selective but intense demand, coupled with Google’s invitation-only system for user sign-up, that made a GMail address or invitation so valuable. Initially, invitations were relatively rare and awarded to existing users of other Google services like Blogger, who were then given a limited number of invitations to pass on to others. This viral marketing strategy allowed Google to publicly test GMail, keeping the user pool to a manageable size while generating loyal users and public visibility. It quickly became clear that one could pass their invitations onto friends in return for eternal gratitude or even sell them for money.

But the average person isn’t interested in paying for a free e-mail address and many were turned off by the uproar over GMail’s AdWords program, which displays ads related to the text in e-mails. Although other Web-mail providers serve up targeted banner or pop-up ads and "read" your e-mail in an effort to block spam, some people felt it was too Big Brotherish of GMail to link these two activities. When Google increased the number of invitations, they made their way into non-technical circles. People trusted the recommendations of their friends and GMail won a new crowd of devotees. Although the monetary value plummeted, the cool factor managed to remain high.

In most cases, eBay sellers can’t even get $1 for a GMail invitation these days. Some have resorted to false claims that Google may soon cut the supply of invitations, while others are selling specific addresses. Most honest folks have started adding invitations as a free bonus for buying some other item. A more-than-healthy demand still exists, but the liveliest trading has moved to message boards and other online communities like www.craigslist.com or www.fark.com, where GMail invites are now swapped or freely given away.

In recent weeks, the Fark discussion boards became so filled with talk of GMail invitations that the site’s moderator created dedicated threads to separate it from other topics. On a string of days in early September, participation in these threads quickly outpaced any other topic. Most posters say they are giving out invitations through Fark because they want to help fellow community members or because the Fark boards were the source of their invitation in the first place. The desired trades include things like a good joke, photos of "boobage," or a copy of others’ bookmarks list. Some were even handing them out in an effort to saturate the market, a backlash against the perceived elite status of owning a GMail address.

This second wave of demand is likely just past its peak. GMail now replenishes users’ invitation pool almost as quickly as they give them away, pushing the supply close to ubiquity. Like the former eBay sellers, barterers are now seeing little response and most users report that they literally can’t give their invitations away for free.