h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I've come across this in a few places, but no one has ever explained to me what the really nasty things are that Google might do to your e-mail that every other company doesn't do anyway.

Any offers?

(I have a Gmail.com address.)

TRiG.

Put a big "G" Ginfront Gof Geverything, Gyou Gtype Gon-line.......

The problem with gmail as I understand it is that they will go through the content of every single one of your emails, build an enormous profile of you, which they will use as part of their ever expanding business in ways you can't even anticipate. Getting ads is the least of the problem. Does my current email server www.virtualnames.co.uk do this? I very much doubt it does anything even remotely like it.

Imagine if Google bought MacDonalds! GMacMails, Chicken MacGNuggets...

Indeed, they could be using that information from your mails for many things. We saw with the China issue what they will do for money.

the above is true... however, I still love my gmail.

As I love my Gmail, all three of them! Only two of which I use - long story...

"The problem with gmail as I understand it is that they will go through the content of every single one of your emails"

You mean a machine goes through every one of your e-mails

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"build an enormous profile of you, which they will use as part of their ever expanding business in ways you can't even anticipate."

Which would create a completely unusable database within a couple of hours...

Yes, they could link specific e-mail addresses to specific keywords and theoretically target advertising with those links, but I certainly have never seen this happen in the time I've been using gmail...
Oh, and they do have this in their T&C "Google will never sell, rent or share your personal information including your Google Mail address or email content, with any third parties for marketing purposes without your express permission.".

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"We saw with the China issue what they will do for money."

Strangely enough, what very few press reports picked out is that virtually every other search engine company implemented exactly the same solution vis-à-vis China.

Plus - Imagine you run a newsagent, you've been given the opportunity to open a branch in a railway station where thousands of people are going to walk past your shop in the morning - many of them wanting a newspaper to read on their journey...
The only downside is that there's only one shop available... and you'll be renting the shop premises from an anti-pornography organisation who insists that as part of the lease you sign an agreement that you won't sell 'top-shelf' magazines...

Who here would be either a) incredibly stubborn or b) an outright liar and say they'd turn down the lease and the business.

Or if Google bought the Beano....

Ggnasher and Ggnipper....

>Ggnasher and Ggnipper....<

Just from personal experience, I've noticed that the sidebar ads often totally ignore what might be good advertising topics in some emails I recieve, in favor of topics that were only mentioned in passing. For instance, a friend mentions that she cleaned her bathroom (Yes, I have incredibly exciting emails, which makes the whole "spying" angle laughable to me), so all the ads are directed towards online bathroom fixture supply establishments.

Later in the same email, she mentions that she was in search of an item - say for instance a small kitchen appliance - which is something readily available on the internet, which she might actually have an interest in buying.

But are there any sidebar ads directing me to those sites?

Nooo.

Why not?

Primarily because the machine that scans gmail for sidebar ad topics either doesn't scan the entire message, or quits after the first advertisable keyword is mentioned in the email. So they're already missing possible revenue generating ads, simply by advertising to the first keyword they come to and ignoring the rest.

I've opened lots of lengthy personal emails that don't even have accompanying sidebar ads, even though there were advertising worthy topics several paragraphs down in the email.

Whisky,

Yes it's a machine going through your emails of course, and as others have pointed out their algorithms are at the moment quite unsophisticated. However, they are spending an awful lot of money and have whole research departments devoted to doing this sort of thing better.

There is also the danger of the data leaking out. The recent AOL search log fiasco highlights the dangers here.

One must use alot of common sense and judgement as to what one posts and surfs on the net. Phishing and spywear are realities that one can dodge by using filters, but marketing companies are bent on identifying the best match right down to the age and location of the focus group they are after. I use gmail because its a good secondary email respository. Actually, I am not a very good consumor. I pay off my credit cards on time and in full, I do not have retail credit cards, and I do not own a car. I am also past 45, and all of that puts me past the radar sweep of the sales and marketers.
As to the newspaper stand question. Would I sell those nasty "top shelf" items despite the prohibition to do so? I have always questioned what is more objectionable, a picture of someone's naked self or the guns and ammo rag? Is the teen magazine that uses sex and flash to get the most lucrative market share to spend have a higher moral ground? Is the news arc of a parent's loss of a child to an accident justified for two or three days so the curious can have a look? Get's a bit blurry and confusing at times.

Ridge, I think you might be missing the analogy. The top-shelf magazines were an example, but the point was that most people (like Google) would take the vacant unit despite the landlord (China) being very restrictive about what they sell.

Indeed they would and do. My point is when we have become objects and focus groups its just a matter of degree as to what a money shot really is and where it is found.

Never recieved a single Spam, or fishing or otherwise unwanted Email to my Gmail account, never had a single add appear either Now I've GMail set up nice and simply on my mobile phone and using eudora on the PC I can't see theres a single problem with it just wish I had Emails sent to me with such confedential matterial in em that I'd be afraid of anone being able to tap into anything of use from them

I think you'll find you've got *one* confidential email. I doubt it'd be of much use to anyone though....

Just thought I´d show this to you Google worshippers.

And by this I of course mean the following article:

http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=4774