This is the kind of technology advance that gives me the creeps.
But all the encomia that's greeting the announcement of "Gmail" distracts attention from the fact that there's yet a hidden price you will still pay, albeit in the form of a different sort of coin.
The Google contextual advertising system automatically scans for frequently used terms in order to serve up ads. This constitutes a neat technology fix for Internet advertisers, who are always seeking to find ways to make their spots more convincing to Web surfers. For instance, if you e-mail a friend to play tennis this weekend, the system would lock onto the keyword and send you a relevant advertisement from a tennis gear supplier.
Sounds like a mind-blower, if you're the marketing director for Wilson Sporting Goods. Truth be told, however, this is the kind of technology advance that gives me the creeps.
News analysis
Google's Web mail no joke
Gmail is a radical new
approach to free e-mail,
but what about privacy?
So, why is Google taking such a risk? In a word: Microsoft.
The folks in Redmond have been slow to get to market with a good search technology. Windows XP has a search function, but Microsoft expects to debut a killer search technology with Longhorn, the code name for the next important version of the Windows operating system. Company executives acknowledge that they're late to market, but they also express confidence in their ability to surpass Google's search technology.
Chest beating? To be sure. But Microsoft, not Google, owns the operating system.
Search is one category; your e-mail is quite another.
Google was not first to market with search, but it was better than the rest and ultimately became No. 1. Microsoft can say the same about Internet browsers, spreadsheets and word processors. The point here: Technology tastes do change.
If it becomes a matter of an arms race, a company with a multibillion-dollar research and development budget can afford to take its time. That's why the big thinkers at Google should go back to the drawing board and correct a big mistake, before it's too late.
Biography
Charles Cooper is CNET News.com's executive editor of commentary.
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processors" are "better than the rest?" Give us a break.
Microsoft's products are more successful than the rest because
of the company's strategy, and they succeed in the market
despite the fact that the products are inherently inferior.
Longhorn will be no exception.
Thanks for making it even better.
Sincerely,
Vickie
In fact I can see the good in it, I am about to go on holidays with some friends and looking for a cottage, if such a system would come with suggestions after a couple of emails, all the better !
There are far worse cases of real privacy violation in every day life. Anyone had to give a blood sample to his employer or write a letter by hand so they could submit it to 'graphology' ? That is definitely creepy..
Karen
So the idea of a computer scanning your email is creepy? Obviously you've not heard of a recent phenomenon called 'spam'.
Believe it or not, some online email companies actually *gasp* scan your email to decide whether or not it's junkmail! The nerve!
Some even go as far as opening your mail attachments to see if they contain a virus - but what if I *wanted* the virus to destroy my PC? How dare they scan my mail and warn me when I'm about to offer my PC to unkown hackers?
If you want creepy, take a look at the C-Net signup form. Why would you possibly want all that personal information and my private email address just so I can post an opinion?
Jim Keir
Well all free providers serve adverdising and they occasionaly
crawl your email anyway. I rather get ad's served that I meight
have interest in, than seeing the "YOU ARE LOOKING FOR A LIVE
PARTER" one, because I don't.
Oscar