USA Forum

Posted: Thu Apr 01, 2004 6:25 pm

(not)

Quote:

However, Google's one gigabyte of storage claim led to some speculation about the Gmail announcement being a hoax since it took place on April Fool's Day. Google has pulled April Fool's jokes on the tech community before, including jokes about pigeons being the driving force behind Google's search technology and that Google was looking to start a new research center on the moon.

http://money.cnn.com/2004/04/01/technology/google_email/index.htm?cnn=yes

Master Joined: 20 Mar 2003 Posts: 2944

Actually I was reading about GMail today and was wondering if it is a hoax. So I guess it is not but the idea not to sort the mail but to search instead, is kind of cool. Let's see how this will work out one day Big Grin

Hero Joined: 28 Jul 2003 Posts: 3730 Location: Texas

I've heard the rumors for a while now, to be truthful I can't wait for Gmail. I will even give up my yahoo mail for that one Wink

Google just rulez. Big Grin

Posted: Sat Apr 03, 2004 2:30 pm

I'd definitely use Gmail if it's true what it says. Although a program analyzing my e-mails' contents to place ads for me is a thought that I don't really like.

I cannot really believe the 1GB storage thing though, not until it's for sure...

Google's AF prank was the jobs on the moon so I doubt they'd have two Confuzzled

I guess it's just really clever marketing.

Posted: Sat Apr 03, 2004 4:34 pm

Fortune Cookie wrote:

I'd definitely use Gmail if it's true what it says. Although a program analyzing my e-mails' contents to place ads for me is a thought that I don't really like.

I dunno, it might be useful -- recieving email-adverts for items i searched on. I mean, let's say i search for jet-shoes on Google. Then, later on, i start recieving emails from manufacturers of jet-shoes.

Added, i betcha they'll couple the service with some good search-n-sort capabilities, making sure their (and others') spam is placed in appropriate folders you designate, while your real-email is placed in the central inbox.

I could be wrong, but Google is pretty customer-centric, and giving users that ability would certainly trounce MSN/Hotmail and others which gleefully spam their own poor customers all the time.

.rob adams

Posted: Sat Apr 03, 2004 5:09 pm

Yeah that's not what bothers me, it's just that lack of privacy when my e-mails' contents are searched. (Or do other freemail providers do that too, and I just didn't know?)
I love Google though so I am hoping they'll do it in a customer friendly way.

Posted: Sat Apr 03, 2004 5:26 pm

I have an old friend of mine that is a big privacy paranoid. When he visited me in London awhile back he noted all the video-cams (CCTV) in my block of flats. One for the garage entry, in the garage itself, the lift, the corridors, etc. "So, is there one in here, too?" he asked as we walked into the flat itself. "No, except for my wireless webcam -- why, do you have something to hide from law-enforcement?"

If you're not doing something illegal, don't be afraid to show it -- if the government wants to spend time, money, and meters upon meters of magnetic tape documenting my ever-growing HelloKitty cult or that i defend Bush's foriegn policy to looney Germans, while also noting that i want to abolish private property and force everyone to wear jumpsuits at work and school, then let them. I'm glad they have that much time to waste, while i work feverishly to enact my plans of a more properly ordered civilization.
--
Anyway, if you're a privacy whore, like my friend, then there's an excellent article here that will scare the willies out of you...

Quote:

...Google's cookie is an index for all your searches until 2038, and sits alongside an Orkut cookie that tells Google - or friendly law enforcement officials or marketeers - exactly who you are. Google's Gmail will complete the picture, indexing private electronic discourse under the main Google search cookie.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/36778.html

.rob adams

Posted: Sat Apr 03, 2004 5:43 pm

egoz07 wrote:

I have an old friend of mine that is a big privacy paranoid. When he visited me in London awhile back he noted all the video-cams (CCTV) in my block of flats. One for the garage entry, in the garage itself, the lift, the corridors, etc. "So, is there one in here, too?" he asked as we walked into the flat itself. "No, except for my wireless webcam -- why, do you have something to hide from law-enforcement?"

If you're not doing something illegal, don't be afraid to show it -- if the government wants to spend time, money, and meters upon meters of magnetic tape documenting my ever-growing HelloKitty cult or that i defend Bush's foriegn policy to looney Germans, while also noting that i want to abolish private property and force everyone to wear jumpsuits at work and school, then let them. I'm glad they have that much time to waste, while i work feverishly to enact my plans of a more properly ordered civilization.
--
Anyway, if you're a privacy whore, like my friend, then there's an excellent article here that will scare the willies out of you...

Quote:

...Google's cookie is an index for all your searches until 2038, and sits alongside an Orkut cookie that tells Google - or friendly law enforcement officials or marketeers - exactly who you are. Google's Gmail will complete the picture, indexing private electronic discourse under the main Google search cookie.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/36778.html

.rob adams

Nah I'm not a privacy whore, and I don't do anything illegal either Tongue Out

I'd just like my private mail to stay private. And how they don't delete it from servers if I do, or if I delete my account doesn't sound good to me. I might just stay with my own domain then Wink

Posted: Thu Apr 15, 2004 9:31 pm

Evan "BigHead" Williams (evhead@gmail.com) recently wrote on his personal blog:

Quote:

Google Responds: A few words about privacy and Gmail
It's unfortunate that most people don't read past sensationalistic and misleading headlines. Hopefully this piece will help those who do to actually understand what is going on with Gmail, and that Google is really trying hard on this issue. You wouldn't believe how seriously people in this company take these issues.
http://www.evhead.com/

Here's what Google spouts about their MasterPlan for de-privacy:

Quote:

Google takes your privacy very seriously, and your trust is important to us. That's why we feel it's important to shed some light on what Gmail is - and what it is not.

When you use Gmail, you should know:

1. Google does not send any email content or other personally identifiable information to advertisers.
2. No humans read any Gmail messages to target advertising or related information that users may see on Gmail.
3. Gmail only shows targeted ads unobtrusively alongside your messages.
http://gmail.google.com/gmail/help/more.html

--
Now a few rational realisations...
--

GMAIL and Evhead's Condescension
His condescension and tone needs moderation – for marketing sake alone, never mind notions of good form. Does Google realise this man is a marketing dept's worst nightmare ? (It seems not.)

GMAIL, fear it, avoid sending to it…
They never delete anything at Google. Google is Ashcroft's best-friend. AND, who cares if a human never reads the email? We's naive comput-o-usah's sure don't. It’s still parsed, systematically, by forces much more efficient than human eyes. The NSA rarely listens in on satt-calls, either. It’s horribly inefficient; It's a useless method of interrogation. But, as anyone reasonably realize, that doesn’t make it any less intrusive. This is a matter of keeping privacy a high priority on the web. Evan Williams' views are soundly big-corporative-money, anti-individualism and, most important, anti-privacy. He deserve a Scarlet P on his biggish forehead. His bad marketing, and improper form, overfloweth. He's a case study in naive, bad-marketing methods. He's a loose cannon on the loose.

If someone disagrees philosophically with an opinion in the public-sphere, that’s no reason to degrade it with such silly lines like:

Quote:

It’s unfortunate that most people don’t read past sensationalistic and misleading headlines.

A great many learned, wise (and literate) people have read past the first few sentences of GMail’s decidely sparse specifications – and we still have ideological problems with Google’s GMail. The lines are being drawn in our nascent web-society. This is the web’s equivalent of this nation’s Culture Wars. Don’t get yourself branded anti-privacy. Avoid GMail, like you would avoid Ashcroft at a beltway mocktail party. The lists are being drawn-up, you know.

.rob adams

Champion Joined: 26 Jan 2003 Posts: 4932 Age: 28

does anyone around here uses Gmail? i set up my account yesterday and I love it Big Grin

Posted: Mon Jun 21, 2004 12:31 pm

danii wrote:

does anyone around here uses Gmail? i set up my account yesterday and I love it Big Grin

i have an account but i dont use it. i have my own domain so i only use that and my uni e-mail addresses. i use thundermail anyway so all e-mails are downloaded to my computer when i get them, so i dont care about space. and i have no ads, no machines analyzing my e-mails for what type ofads they should place on the site, and when i delete my e-mails they will actually be deleted (even if you delete e-mail from your account on gmail it will always remain on google servers)

Master Joined: 14 Feb 2003 Posts: 2201 Location: sunny CA

danii wrote:

does anyone around here uses Gmail? i set up my account yesterday and I love it Big Grin

Yes, I have one, but don't use it very often.

Hero Joined: 28 Jul 2003 Posts: 3730 Location: Texas

My boyfriend hat eins und er finded es einfach nur super Wink