Either people are all talked out over the opportunities and challenges that Google's email service Gmail presents, or else everyone's going quiet as Google heads into the final stretch leading up to its IPO.

It also looks as if Google has reined in its viral expansion program for now -- we've received no new invitations to pass along for over a week. Previously, new ones would be handed out as soon as the old bunch were used up.

Some big emailers have been stressing over the possibility that the emails they send to Gmail addresses will pick up contextual ads from their competitors, but let's consider that problem in reverse:

If YOU are a Google Adwords advertiser, YOU are the one who could end up on a competitor's page.

Another big potential headache can also turn into a benefit: Your competitor could be featured for free in the list of "Related Pages" that appears under the sponsored text ads to the right of the email's message.

This can also happen in reverse: At least once in the last week or so, an entry for MarketingSherpa.com has shown up in the Related Pages list on the daily email messages from our friends at MarketingVOX.com.

We're still checking to see if our site saw any kind of traffic spike on that day.