Back off Liz... let the consumers decide on Gmail
A California senator (will I ever be able to see that name without thinking “cal-ee-fown-ia” again?) wants to legislate blockage against Google to prevent them from launching Gmail.
Now, let's ignore for a minute whether you think they're violating privacy or whatever (and I still think people are over-reacting). Why does someone need to legislate this? I know it might come as a total shocker, but consumers might actually be able to decide for themselves whether or not they want to use the service when it's open for business.
Personally, I plan to use it. Hotmail and Yahoo are just too graphic intensive. I could care less that a machine is scanning my email, and I really don't buy into the black-helicopter-conspiracy theories that Google is up to something sinister. If it turns out they give me reason to suspect that, then I'll stop using it at that time. I just don't need some legislator in California deciding for me.