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Gmail Commentary and Responses

Posted by michael on from the mail-pattern-blogness dept.

Phil Windley writes "In his inimitable style, Tim O'Reilly tells us why GMail matters. The piece is entitled, 'The Fuss About GMail' but that doesn't begin to properly identify the real meat of what Tim's saying. Tim does discuss some of the privacy concerns on GMail and why he's not concerned, but he also breaks new ground on why GMail is not just another free email system. For example, Tim talks about how GMail might herald an era of large centralized computing and calls for APIs to allow GMail content to be move back and forth between it and other systems." Reader chris mansley writes "Google is quietly responding all the flak being given to their new email service. They have added a statement to quell the growing list of concerns. No more keeping email forever is at the top of the list. The reviews have been sparse on details and screenshots, but now Google is providing a sneak peek here and here." The only thing I didn't like about Gmail was their apparent intention to keep your mail forever, regardless of your wishes. Since they've now clarified that they don't plan to do that, it doesn't seem like there's much of a problem any more. Yahoo and MSN already link your searches on their respective engines with your account profiles on their respective free email services, and no one seems to care (maybe because no one uses MSN or Yahoo as a search engine these days, but still).

3 of 290 comments (clear)

  1. Don't be sheep.. by Awptimus+Prime · · Score: 1, Flamebait

    Look people, gmail has not even started yet. All this you see is nothing but hype to get attention for Google.

    Please /. crowd, don't be media sheep. It's just another mail service. There is no need for getting riled up over all these things the media says you need to get riled up over. Got it?

    Don't bother tearing into this post, I could care less what you think. :)

  2. Telling the Truth on April Fools by Moonpie+Madness · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    sure did make Google an assload of free publicity. some snotty slick haired business major is enjoying his recent promotion right now. its amazing how popculture and such can be leveraged. wish I could do that

  3. Extra! Google suckers Slashdotters again! by Everyman · · Score: 1, Flamebait

    You say that Google's new statement about not keeping data forever has eased your mind. The statement is merely one line that says, "However, Google will make reasonable efforts to remove deleted information from our systems as quickly as is practical."

    This statement is on a new page full of spin, and hasn't even achieved the status of the terms-of-use page or the privacy policy. How much legal weight to you think it carries?

    Even if this same statement made it formally into the privacy policy, this language is vague enough so that when you're suing Google ten years after your Gmail account is closed, because Google is still passing out your old emails to the feds under subpoena, this language will serve to exonerate Google and leave you without a case.

    Google: "Your Honor, we have 10,000 computers and his email was all over the place. It isn't practical to delete this data, and to expect otherwise is unreasonable."

    Judge: "I see. Well, the plaintiff was duly warned before they signed up for Gmail. Case dismissed."