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June 19, 2004
Gmail: Google's got your number
The paranoia of being at Stanford without a Gmail account finally got to me and I got myself a Gmail account, thanks to a well-wisher who was distributing free invites on a mailing list. More than peer pressure (read: excited geeks friends) and the need for storage space (rediff.com also gives 1 GB of space), it was Google's marketing -- giving out selective accounts, creating a word-of-mouth -- that made me do it. Yes, I accept it, I fell prey to excellent marketing practices, but then, I've always been appreciative of such tactics. Moreover, given my interest in HCI, I wanted to try the interface which I heard was a little different than other email applications. Yet, it wasn't the interface that caught my fancy when I finally got the account but 4 bullet points on the login page:- Search, don't sort.
- Don't throw anything away.
- Keep it all in context.
- No pop-up ads. No untargeted banners. Moreover, there was a link under the fourth bullet -- "relevant text ads" -- that got me really concerned about what Google is trying to achieve with Gmail. Here is an excerpt from the linked page:
The matching of ads to content is a completely automated process performed by computers. No humans read your email to target the ads, and no email content or other personally identifiable information is ever provided to advertisers. Here is my interpretation and understanding of what Google is trying so hard not to say:
- Don't sort your email and become completely dependent on Gmail's search function, what can be better for us than to permanently change your habits to our advantage.
- Don't throw anything away and automatically build a database for Gmail about your personal tastes, friends, and interests. In this way Gmail can serve its clients much better by selling your demographics to advertisers.
- Keep it all in context so that Gmail can match your interests to people you correspond with, even if they don't use Gmail, and improve upon its database and charge advertisers even higher prices.
- No pop-up ads, no untargeted banners and only relevant text ads, we know you so well we don't need to waste a penny of our advertisers money. And by the way we didn't promise no spam so the relevant ads are in addition to any spam you might start to get. Gmail is trying to make a big deal of putting only text-ads and not multimedia or graphic ads. Advertisers know quite well that with the right audience, and positioning, text ads can be as powerful and influential in persuading people, and sometimes even more, than graphic or multimedia ads. So, by only placing text ads, Gmail isn't doing any social service. Moreover, relevant ads are still ads. They are designed with an intent of not only to inform but also to persuade the reader. And, is there any guarantee that as bandwidth increases with time Gmail won't start giving non-text ads? So, am I going to use Gmail on a regular basis, "Hell, No!" I might use it to store large files if I need to access them over the Internet or if I need a backup, but beyond that I'm saying goodbye to Gmail. I might be wrong, but I see another tech company turn into a marketing organization.
Posted by Aditya Johri at June 19, 2004 04:26 PM
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Comments
I appreciate all your points, but methinks you're being slightly paranoid.
1. Search, not sort: I think it's more efficient to search my e-mail than to sort it, and I think that's something people may have wanted for a while. Given that's what Google has made themselves famous for, I don't see what's so bad about having search as a feature.
2. Don't throw anything away: Isn't that the great thing about having 1 GB for storage? Also, I've read somewhere that even if you delete e-mail, Google will keep it on its servers for some period of time.
3. Keep it all in context. Well, it's nice to have a naturally threaded view. It's not like Gmail's implementation of this feature is any different than anyone else's.
4. Text-ads vs. pop-ups/graphics. Well, I think this is more aesthetics than anything. Nobody doubts the effectiveness of text ads, but I think many would testify that pop-ups and flashy graphics are pretty darn annoying.
Posted by: Huey at June 6, 2005 11:05 AM
I bet next you're going to complain that GMail has keyboard shortcuts, because that will make me change my behavior, too.
Posted by: huey at June 6, 2005 11:05 AM