Source: PHP Maine Blog
A little while ago I got my hands on a Gmail account, Google's "new" Webmail service. With all the hype and hoopla, I will admit that I could have been more impressed, but it's still a fairly nice tool. What really struck me is the number of people who spoke up about Google serving ads through Adsense which scan your emails. First, let's talk about the actual service.
It works, for the most part, aside from a few bugs. I experienced one of these bugs logging in, whereupon I was sent to a blank page repeatedly. Deleting cookies, restarting Mozilla, and switching to IE didn't seem to help. Apparently the Gmail Angel caught wind of it eventually, as the problem disappeared somewhat abruptly.
It isn't supposed to be finished yet, though. So bugs are to be expected.
The actual interfaace is decent. The scripting makes it fairly quick to get around, it's clean, although it does look a little pre-schoolish with the color selections. A templating/style settings option would be favorable.
A full gig of disk space is pretty nice, too. I couldn't imagine needing anywhere near that much space, but I guess I can find comfort in the fact that I can browse email from decades past long into my future; accessing Gmail with my wireless cranially embedded supercomputer, of course.
Anyway, back to the advertising thing. Google is providing a free webmail service. In exchange for all of this time and effort, they are seeking to recover a little revenue by placing a few ads on the page you view your email (as many webmail providers do). Unlike other providers, Google is scanning every email to determine keywords so they can serve up targetted ads. Apparently this is making a lot of people upset, when it really shouldn't.
There is no a team of Google employees reading your juicy emails and selecting the appropriate ads. It is a done with computers in an entirely automated fashion, and ads are seleted on the fly. This way, a human will never actually come in contact with or read your email.
The sophisticated gripers would attest to the fact that while the scanning itself is not an intrusion, the auxilary effects of the ads can be malicious.
For example, you are negotiating a deal for a large order of Dog Socks with a client via Gmail, and Google cleverly shows the client advertising for Discount Dog Socks, Rock Bottom Prices! and you lose the sale to the Evil ad.
Basically, this is saying that the chance of inviting competition is increased by negotiating with a client using Gmail. While this is partially true, where does the responsibility for this ruthless intrusion fall?
Google is being smart. They are leveraging everything they have to compensate for the investment they have made in Gmail, and within reason.
For any company that negotiates business via email, they already have a responsibility to use their heads. Email is not a secure medium. Furthermore, what is done with your email when it reaches that potential customer is already out of your control. What if, in that email, you provided a cost for 5,000 units of Dog Socks with Ultra Fleece, and the recipient in turn took that information to another company to compare prices? Is that a violation of your privacy, that the customer wants to find a good deal, and used your quote to do so? Of course not. Having Google do some of the "footwork" for the customer is only a convenience for them in this case (assuming the ads are actually relevant, and used).
Personally, I want my clients to come to me out of confidence, and recognize my value for what it is, not to be hoodwinked or forced into a sale. As a consumer myself, I want to be free to make my own choices, and a company that is afraid of its own value is not going to make me very confident.
So, for businesses that fear their competition is being increased with client's who use Gmail, I suggest you take a closer look at your own value, and what kind of relationship you are building with your customers.
For businesses that fear Gmail is committing some intrusion of privacy, I suggest you seek a more secure method of communication in the first place....
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