Multimedia in your email with Gabmail
Gabmail is a free, simple-to-use, feature rich video email service which 
allows anyone with a webcam or video camera to freely send, reply to and forward video messages to anyone with an email address. You can record as many videos as you want of up to 5 minutes in length each.
Gabmail, which announced its beta launch in the first week of November, by a Arizona-based Gabsight. A flash interface allows you to record the video while giving you control over the volume of the mic. The recipient doesn’t get a video embedded in their email, however - instead, they get a link to view the clip over on Gabmail, with the site being monetized by a fairly large ad. The advertisements are in fact too big and make the interface awkward. Gabmail won’t send your mail for you, but rather provides a link to cut and paste into your email program which is perceived by some as a disadvantage over others but for me it is better because the embedding the videos in mails would make the messages too large and recipients might not be keen to access those mails. Sound quality is another issue that has been reported by users. Again I used Gabmail to send two videos and I did not have any problems with the sound or video quality. However if the background color of the interface is changed the interface would lend a more professional look to the interface.
Once the initial excitement settles I started thinking about actual scenarios where I would like to send out video messages. Some of them are
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When I am introducing myself to someone new, then along with some background text in an email, I also try to include a intro videoemail; perfect way to prove it’s not spam is a personal videoemail
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When I am due to meet someone for the first time, it’s avoids having to wear the red carnation if they know what you look like!
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When I am trying to convey a message that might be misconstrued [humor etc] and the phone isn’t an option
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When it would be wrong to hide behind a text email but the phone isn’t an available/immediate option.
The conclusion is that there are very few scenarios where sending video emails would be an advantage over text emails.
There is competition to Gabmail where other startups are providing multimedia to your email. One such service is that Gigya adds videos from YouTube and Metacafe, MySpace layouts, glitter text, Photobucket photos and other popular content to your mails, and inserts still images of this content when your provider won’t execute it. Another service Flixn provides instant webcam recording and widgets for MySpace and blogs, but they also provide a “send by email” option. In truth, Flixn’s idea to provide the service to social networking users is more likely to see viral growth than one-to-one email. Gabmail is a winner as far is the user interface is concerned and it can be used by anyone.
The space has good potential and I expect this space to become copetitve which would mean that the users of such services should expect lot of changes and development in this field.
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