Receiving a coveted invitation to open a free e-mail account on Google's Gmail is a thrill that's literally lost on Microsoft. At least it was for Joel Johnson's girlfriend, whose MSN Hotmail account (a rival free e-mail service) bounced invitations to join Gmail twice last Wednesday. That day, Johnson was given the chance to dole out two accounts for Gmail to friends before the high-profile service is widely launched, per Google's policy of limiting membership to friends, and friends of friends, while it works out the kinks. "The e-mails actually never went through, but I was able to...send them to her" via instant messenger, said Johnson, who wrote about the incident on his Web log, Gizmodo. Hotmail giving cold shoulder to Google mail? | CNET News.com | 
