Google's web mail is no joke

[Kellanved]

Google's decision to begin testing a free, ad-supported Web-based e-mail service this week was so far out of character for the search giant that many people thought the announcement was an April Fool's Day hoax.

Google representatives downplayed the strategic significance of the move, painting the new Gmail service as a search-based e-mail application that offers a natural extension to the company's primary focus on organizing information. Nevertheless, analysts said Gmail likely heralds a broad expansion of Google's business and gives the company a clear shot across the bows of rivals Yahoo and Microsoft.

Although Google has not yet made accounts available to the media, a description on its Web site points to a completely new way of accessing and organizing e-mail. The service will rely on search technology to organize and find messages automatically, removing the need for file folders. By typing in a search query, Gmail can scout out any message sent to or received by the user in its archive, showing entire strings of e-mail conversations related to the query, according to the site. Google said the storage allotment means that people will never have to delete messages.

But Gmail carries substantial risks, analysts said, most notably closer scrutiny from privacy advocates uncomfortable with the company's plan to scan the content of e-mail messages in order to serve up targeted ads — a feature that some critics said clashed with the company's long-held business mantra: "Do no evil."

...
http://www.globetechnology.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20040402.gtgoog0401/BNStory/Technology/

See, told you so :P

[kalian]

1. Correct...not a joke....

but a serious invasion of personal privacy. I read over at
slashdot.org that Google plans on "screening" your email for specific
words and phrases and then will tailor ads that will be attached
to the emails... :eyes:

Enjoy...

[Kellanved]

4. that, and no free POP/IMAP /SMTP

I'm not interested. Not to mention that the gig is most likely for text-only mails. It is hard to amass one gig of plain-text e-mails and it is very easy to compress text.

[Dogmudgeon]

2. I'll use it for web storage

It's no big deal to UL a big old honkin' zip file that you've encrypted. No invasion of privacy except for the file name. Unless you name the file "BigPenis.zip" or "MortgagePayment.zip" you should be fine.

For mail, you can do the same thing. Even ROT-13 ought to work fine.

--bkl

[Rabrrrrrr]

3. Ouch! It sounded really cool until

the company's plan to scan the content of e-mail messages in order to serve up targeted ads

But I'd never use web-based email for serious email anyway, so that scanning isn't going to be a direct personal problem, but still it's damned weird. Especially once the spam starts kicking in, so you'll not only get the spam crap, but all the ads that google thinks relate to the crap IN the spam.

Pretty scary, though, thinking of them scanning the emails.

[libbygurl]

5. Same here. Am wary of the email scanning feature, too. n/t