[Reader-list] Re: Agent Gmail

[Shivam]

Dear Captain,
I don't understand how the privacy issue should be worrying. As far as
ads go, I find Gmail less intrusive than Yahoo! and Hotmail, or the
big spammers that some Indian email services like Rediffmail and
Indiatimes are. Gmail's brand value has no doubt taken a beating - it
had to, and Monica's delightful mail about the "invitations" that
never cease to arrive in your account is illustrative of how Gmail has
gone overboard with the "invitations" strategy. Despite all that, the
reason I use Gmail is that it's better than any other mail service I
have used. Conversations, archiving, the automatic address book system
- it all helps me a lot. As I discovered the many ways in which Gmail
was improving my mail experience, I marvelled at the genius of the
people who made it. So who cares about brand value?
Thanks
Shivam


On Wed, 15 Sep 2004 18:19:41 +0530, Captain Typo <captain.typo at gmail.com> wrote:
> Value of @gmail.com accounts is going down south as far as brand
> value/hipness value is concerned.
> Following is small factoid on gmail:
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Google initially invited about 1,000 employees, friends and family members to
> become beta testers. The trials began on March 21, 2004. Since then, others
> have been randomly selected to test the service. On April 25, active users from
> the Blogger.com community were offered the chance to participate in the
> beta-testing. Since then, active members have periodically received "invites"
> which they can extend to their friends. One round was sent out on May 1, and
> another three invitations were given to all active members on June 1; in
> mid-June, the number of invitations has been increasing, with some users
> receiving between three and five invites daily.
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> The larger is issue is rather regarding privacy. Google does'nt delete any
> mails, even if user intends to.
> The privacy page of gmail, is a interesting read. The mails are being watched
> for ad-positioning.
> 
> Mail Content by itself is a great data for analysis of social heirarchies, but
> the added information need for sending and recieving mails reveal geographic
> location, time zones etc etc.
> 
> If collected over period of time reveals social behaviour, associations/type of
> association with organization/events/people.
> 
> In case of gmail users, there is still a explicit agreement between the user of
> gmail and google. But there is no legal binding regarding mail sent  to people
> using gmail, which all of us inevitably will do.
> 
> So just wondering what to do with the account and the invites that I have!
> 
> Captain
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