Kicker: A new email is no joke

NICK EICHER, HOST: Seems everybody has a Gmail account. But you know 20 short years ago, nobody did.

Except for Larry Page. Page and his Google cofounder had a flair for April Fool’s jokes. And on April 1st 2004 Gmail seemed like one of them.

But when AP reporter Michael Liedtke received an invite to have a look at a new product, there was Page in front of a laptop

MICHAEL LIEDTKE: And he said he wanted to show me something. And he did a demo for me of Gmail. And he kind of smiled and said, I think people are really gonna like this.

Yeah, no kiddin’.

But it came with a catch Milton Friedman could’ve seen a mile away—because there’s no free lunch, and no free email.

LIEDTKE: A computer was going to scan the contents of email, only to learn what a person was interested by the topics that they would talk about.

And serve up relevant ads.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: When a product is “free,” you’re the product.

EICHER: Or to rework Friedman: when you’re offered a free lunch, you’re on the menu.

It’s The World and Everything in It.

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