Google Launches AMP For Email To Bring Web-like Actionable Content To Gmail (venturebeat.com)

Google today announced an extension of the AMP (accelerated mobile pages) program to include another popular communications medium. From a report: The internet giant unveiled the Gmail developer preview of AMP for email, a web-like experience designed to make emails more engaging and interactive. One of the key benefits of AMP for email will be that content within an email can be updated, and recipients will be able to browse email content much like they would a web page. So an email from Pinterest, for example, could contain actionable content, allowing users to Pin content to their own Pinterest account without leaving Gmail. Or they could complete a form to arrange a meeting, fill in a questionnaire, and do just about anything -- all from within the email itself. It's clear that marketers will be a major target audience here.

Comments

Maybe it's the decades of viruses

[rsilvergun]

sent via email talking, but no, God no. Do not want.

Re: Maybe it's the decades of viruses

[Anonymous Coward]

But just think of the advertising and analytics opportunities it gives to Google!

Re: Maybe it's the decades of viruses

[Cryacin]

I'm more thinking of all of the security policies the banks have about email being a "secure" medium...

Dear Mr. Smith,
Please log into your internet banking here, as a fraudulent transaction has been detected by our software:
Username:
Password:
Submit

From Russia with love.

NO oooo

[Anonymous Coward]

Another major bandwidth hog and malware assault vector.

AMP is irrelevant

[loufoque]

Just stop trying to create technologies that do the same thing as what established standards already do, but in a sillier way.

No. Stop. Don't.

[Anonymous Coward]

Email should be a flat, inert, self-contained message. Links if you need them, but otherwise *stop*

Where's the button for plain text only format?

[Flexagon]

This option is still available for some newsletters, and I use it.

F__K NO!!!

[Major_Disorder]

Words can not explain how much I do not want this.
I know it is only Tuesday, but I am calling this as worst tech idea of the week.

Re:F__K NO!!!

[Rakarra]

Ideas need to be combated aggressively. How it works in the tech world is that if you just sit back passively and say "eh, not for me," then the powers that be will make it default, and more and more companies will use it exclusively. There will be a short period where you really can opt out, but as it gains more traction, you will be more cut off and marginalized like folks who, say, refuse to use sites that require Javascript. The vast majority will always choose something more functional, regardless of security concerns. As long as they don't care, don't expect that just sitting back and doing nothing will keep you safe from this -- especially since the advertisers, the trackers, and general do-badders REALLY want it, and they have a lot of resources to push for it.

HTML email

[Todd Knarr]

Didn't we go through this before with HTML, remote content, scripts and the like in email? That worked out so well, after all.

Thankfully

[fahrbot-bot]

I only POP my mail from Gmail -- and read all my mail in text-only mode, except for those occasional ones that only use HTML (frelling sigh). I only actually log into Gmail to empty the trash, and permanently everything, as POP only seems to move downloaded mail there (again, sigh). For me, email contains static information and 99.9% of my email gets read and deleted, I don't need or want to have to go back to review possibly updated dynamic content -- give me a link for any of that and I'll review it in my browser.

The article mentions possible desirable uses for this (below) but in general I give this a *BIG* No Thank You.

“Many people rely on email for information about flights, events, news, purchases, and beyond,” noted Gmail product manager Aakash Sahney. “With AMP for Email, it’s easy for information in email messages to be dynamic, up-to-date, and actionable.

Re:Security?

[ctilsie242]

Outlook and Thunderbird don't show pictures by default. The added content just ensures that some spammer knows that a user actually saw their email at the very least. This would be very useful in targeted attacks, where one wants to find what someone's IP is, perhaps to DDoS them.

Of all the things to screw around with, E-mail isn't one of them. We already went through at least two "active content" cycles, one being VB scripts (I Love You worms), and HTML with its Web bugs, beacons, tracking stuff, etc. All AMP is going to add is more network and storage bandwidth taken for ads/malvertising. It won't improve anything for daily use.

all I'll need to know is how to block/disable it

[mikeabbott420]

a feature whose primary uses will be to make spam more annoying and phishing more surreptitious

HTML

[thegreatbob]

Simple HTML-based e-mail is obnoxious enough, why would people actually want this?

I don't want my mail "engaging and interactive."

[nctritech]

At what point does email just replicate the functions of a web browser and thus is no longer "email?" STOP TRYING TO MAKE MY EMAIL INTO A WEB PAGE. It's like the salesman who won't just drop off his brochure and instead talks to you for ten minutes; it's"engaging and interactive" but in a way that causes URGE TO KILL RISING.

Re:Security?

[unrtst]

Google saves, complies, and sells the contents of every email. I don't know how email could be *less* secure.

You and your parents post are discussing entirely different subjects, even though they both use similar words.

I believe afidel was referring to the risk to the security of your local computer being greater if using a desktop client versus gmail. That may be debatable, but there are some good supporting facts for that.

You are referring to information security, or the risk of your personal email data being exposed to others.

While you do have a point (google can read all unencrypted emails and provides stats and such to advertisers), I'd still wager that your data is more secure on gmail servers than many other services. There's a wide range of email setups, but they typically fall in the range of:
a) admin your own server and leave mail on server
b) use some 3rd party email provider (your ISP, a paid for service, etc), and download mail to read locally with local email client
c) use some webmail provider, like gmail ... and there are mixes in between each of those (ex. you can use gmail and download all mail to local client).

Which of those provides the most security to the average users data, and to the average users PC? I think the big names in webmail fill that role, from fastmail to outlook.com to gmail. And if you admin your own server, you'd better be damned good at it, and good luck with your spam filter (though obscurity does helps here).

I still use mutt

[zoward]

Will there be enough text left in the body of the email for a text-based client to even work anymore? Not that I'm worried about it - I suspect the same people who will use AMP to send email are the ones I wouldn't want to read anyway.

Re:I still use mutt

[ShoulderOfOrion]

Yup. I love mutt's html-dump mode; it shows me all the links (including the 1x1 bitmaps) and lets me pick and choose which ones I want to copy and paste to a real browser. 99% of the time the answer is 'none of them'. I suspect AMP-dump mode will function similarly.

The big problem with HTML email (or AMP) for us mutt-users is the wasted bandwidth when they actually include all those mime-attachments inline, clogging our mbox's with octet-junk.

Re:Target Market

[viperidaenz]

marketers is a synonym for scammers.

Re:Security?

[AHuxley]

Secure for the ads. Thats all that gets security.

"Engaging and Interactive"

[Greyfox]

Annoying. They mean annoying. Like my gmail inbox isn't already clogged with an endless litany of companies I talked to once, terrible tech recruiters working out of India and notifications from people I'm not interested in hearing from. At this rate I may as well just ditch email and go back to old-fashioned snail mail. At least then it costs the sender something to talk to me.

Re:Target Market

[easyTree]

Scammers are higher in the social order.

This will screw up discovery and FOIA big time

[knorthern knight]

OK, let's say you have a court order for discovery, or you're in a government agency that receives a FOIA (Freedom Of Information Act) request for old emails. You may have the original "container" email but the content could easily have changed. How will courts handle this?