I’ve got to hand it to Google. They understand how I want to work. They’ve done a remarkable job with search and now they are challenging conventional wisdom with how free, browser-based email should be done. Way to go Google.
Or is there a catch?
Privacy “experts” are sprinkling the net with concerns that Google will be “reading” emails in order to display selected ads. This sounds like FUD to me. Privacy concerns are legit, but indexing and lexical scans are done all the time. In fact, I want more indexing and spam scanning/detecting on my computer. The difference of course, is where the processing is done and the fact that Google is going to be able to collect a massive pool of statistics from all its users which advertisers are going to love. How they use this information is the key. Not whether they analyze or collect it.
It’s interesting to think through how different the ads would feel if they were all downloaded to my computer and then selectively displayed in the browser based on local processing.
I say let the market decide this one. Those who don’t want to use Gmail can pick Hotmail or Yahoo Mail. And I guess it would be a good idea if Google would offer a paid Gmail version as an option which would prevent the ads from being displayed.
However, for my Aunt, who stumbles frequently trying to manage her email, it sounds like a good match. And I bet she’s not the only one. With plenty of storage there might be one less thing to worry about. In fact, I hope the new Google mail service automatically saves all Sent emails too by default–another common place for users to get tripped up on. And on the delete side, I hope they persist deleted emails for more than just a few days, if the account has room. Tweaks like these could make a big difference in the email competitive world.
A small-business oriented version of Gmail might make sense too–especially for handling customer support emails.
Now, on the flip side. Let’s see how Gmail handles spam. Is it going to be on par with Outlook 2003? Or will spammers be exploiting Gmail right and left?
In fact, Lan was complaining last night that for the last week or so she’s been getting a spam email message that’s been crashing her G4–and what do you know it’s from a Gmail account. Whew, spammers move fast.
i have a gmail account and its great. i dont feel that its inferior to an email client. its got a great interface and novel ideas on how a mail client should handle mail. you’ll see when you get an account!
dont know how good outlook’s spam filter is, i use thunderbird, but better tell your friend to use the latest antivirus alongside her mail client and not to open any attachment she sees. simple common sense.
please invite me