Saturday 10 March 2012

Fear of a Google planet | Blog | Futurismic

Fear of a Google planet | Blog | Futurismic

I searched this out in response to a series of recent requests from some of my recent requests to 'uninstall Google' and to 'remove Gmail and Google Search' from their computer. Hmm. I am starting to see a pattern, but I am unsure of just where the source might be.

Why don't you want your Gmail account anymore? I suppose it stems from the recent mudslinging regarding Google's forthcoming change to it's privacy policy and it's deciding to 'combine' our user data, the information we freely gave it in exchange for the ability to freely use their resources, across their varied projects and services. Isn't that a good thing? If I call up company X and want to discuss their product Y and Z, shouldn't Mr X know all about my dealings with both Y and Z?

Mr Raven makes a good point, actually several good points. Google is chosen for use. It only has a de facto 'monopoly' because we all choose to use it. Why aren't we all Bing'ing or Yahoo'ing or whatever the next search name of the day will be? How is Google forcing anyone of us to use it's (often free) services except by being magnanimous enough to be the best at what it does.

So .. back to my sweet little old customers. I love them dearly, but really fail to see any reason or benefit to make a switch. I use a free version of Google Apps for Business for my own email - spam is way down, it works from any internet station I happen to be working on, and it maintains and updates itself. Sweet. In their cases, one switched from Gmail (back) to Incredimail (a questionable product 'in my opinion' at best see fileforum.betanews.com/review/968954106/1/view), one switched to Thunderbird, keeping Gmail (just a bit under duress) on my advise, and another switched to Yahoo Mail exclusively.

I expect to be called back soon to de-virus-fy the Incredimail user's computer. The Thunderbird computer user will continue to require training on how to perform basic tasks on her computers (Thunderbird on her XP works differently than the Win7 version and contacts are not synced between the stations). My Yahoo emailer got into trouble by forgetting her email username and password. She was frustrated by Google's insistence of a human-check captcha entry after so many wrong passwords, and someone told her that Yahoo was so much easier to send photo attachments with.

Oh well. Meanwhile, back (here) at the ranch, I will continue using Google for Search and Email and Image Manipulation, and Blogging and whatever else is cool .. and free. Now, back to my TV show - the commercials are almost over.

No comments:

Post a Comment