[clue-tech] Re: "safety" of gmail

[Hex Star]

I find it really interesting how just because Google is well...Google :P and
Gmail is labled as Beta.,...they get alot of attention for things like this
when this could happen with any other free email provider like
Hotmail.com....

On 4/27/06, Nate Duehr <nate at natetech.com> wrote:
>
> Hex Star wrote:
> > Oh and also...I'm sure there's more to the gmail teams reply then just
> > "Sorry, gmail is still in Beta!  See ya!"...that doesn't sound
> > professional to me at all and I highly doubt any support rep at google
> > would give someone such a reply
>
> I don't have the exact wording, but it was publicized about two weeks
> ago on C|Net's Buzz Out Loud podcast, which in and of itself is usually
> pretty entertaining... as something fun and interesting to listen to.
> It sure beats broadcast radio!
>
> And I'm sure the wording was NOT stated exactly that way, but the
> meaning was the same... this guy was NOT suspended... his account was
> accidentally DELETED... messages gone, no recourse.
>
> Google's terms of use clearly state if they up and pull the plug -- your
> data's gone.  In fact, gmail is still listed as BETA software.
>
> Taking this to the extreme leads to the following:
>
> Right now they're highly (overly?) Capitalized and we all love them.
>
> Will we all love them when their stock price plummets, they've added the
> much-rumored (and supposedly in Alpha) GDisk (online filesystem for your
> files), started dealing with lots of data loss issues and the pain
> involved for their techs and management, and their visionaries slowly
> start leaving the company to do new things or go enjoy their wealth?
>
> I know that's a "doomsday scenario", but realistically Google is a
> BUSINESS.
>
> If you don't have a contract with a business that says they're
> monetarily liable to protect your data, they can (and will) eventually
> lose your data, or someone's.  And that will be a very bad day for that
> person, because there will be absolutely nothing that they can do to get
> it back -- if they weren't keeping their own backups.
>
> It's an exercise in basic economics... follow the money.
>
> If there's no monetary liability for losing your data, if the data is
> lost, there's zero recourse.
>
> This is ESPECIALLY true for a product that still clearly says it's
> "Beta" software.  (And we as "consumers" have let companies foist "Beta"
> software on us and used it for "production" level work for years now...
> there's probably no stemming that tide.)  For years almost every Cisco
> router on the backbone was running pre-release code.
>
> That's a sad state of affairs.  But we're used to it in Open Source...
> everything is in a constant state of Beta.  :-)
>
> Should people be trusting "Beta" software with their main mail Inbox?
> That's up to each individual to decide.
>
> I just find the question intriguing, because so few people ask it.
>
> Does the word "Beta" really mean anything anymore other than, "We don't
> ever want to guarantee you anything because we're too lazy to engineer a
> good solution and put our good name behind it, in writing."?
>
> Interesting stuff!  Gotta love it.
>
> Nate
>
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