Google is up to something here
by Volker Weber
Ever since I started using the Samsung NC10 netbook, I have been using Google Chrome, with Gears and a couple of Google applications. I never even bother opening any client applications. Instead of an IMAP client, I just use Google Mail with offline support. I can run it online, offline, or in flaky connection mode, where it runs off the local store but keeps a connection with the server. The browser lets me resize edit boxes, so I can easily alter web applications that have too small entry fields. Like the web interface to this CMS for instance. Chrome provides a decent spell check, I can use Google Docs & Spreadsheets online and offline.
Google Mail has been working absolutely flawlessly in the three+ monthes I have been using this netbook. It filters around 300 spam messages a day, without any false positives, and very, very few false negatives. It is extremely fast, and lets me work with my mail even in disconnected mode.
In this package Windows is just an operating system that runs the machine. Applications don't run on Windows. They run on Chrome. And every time I touch Firefox, it just feels so ... quaint.
Comments
I see you took the red pill.
I can't same the same for the US version. We see daily spam get through, sometimes whole blocks of it.
As to availability, it is noticeable when down, but then so is my power when that goes off too.
Chrome is still buggy or rather not all websites work exceptionally well with it yet. This will change in time but I had to go back to FF.
SNAP! [written on my samsung nc10 using chrome]
Chrome and Google Apps may run smooth and without flaws. They may look good and it may be fun using them.
But that does not solve the problem that all my data is saved somewhere where I don't have any control over.
If Google (or any SAAS provider) decides to quit, I don't what happens to my data.
If the provider decides to co-operate with any secret service, I cannot do anything against it. I don't even notice it.
This lack of control may be irrelevant for private use or companies don't having any important data.
You mean, like Deutsche Telekom for instance?
I can only speak for myself. Some of the stuff I write turns up on web sites and in magazines. I deliver just in time, so there is a very small opportunity to take what I wrote and outrun us.
You may have much higher security needs. In that case keep everything inside your head. As soon as you write it down somebody else can get at it. Companies have employees, contractors, service providers. They could all have your data. And the dirty little secret of email is that if you send an email, somebody else has a copy of it. Outside your reach.
There may be countries the argument of better privacy applies to Google. In Germany however I have less concerns about Google than about my provider that has to save my IP address, all my connection data and so forth. From experience they also don't hesitate to share some of that data without any warrant ... in the German Internet community that's not a biggie.
With Google I know one thing - if they really share data without hesitation they will be "dead". That's what stops them from doing so. Their (our) data is their lifeblood.
Chrome definitely needs a plug-in architecture though, so that one can install Greasemonkey or somesuch.
That way, users can remove the endless whingeing weblog posts about GMail being down for 5 minutes which blight their otherwise excellent web surfing experience.
Gears is the "plug-in" that solves this problem. GMail easily cuts over to flaky connection mode if the interface goes bad. I have seen that once.
The "endless whingeing weblog posts" serve their own purpose.
I used ma.gnolia for my social bookmarking needs for yonks, and then it went down, with everyone’s data lost.
However, bookmarks were stored in a standard XML format which could be exported, and ma.gnolia offered an API to their service. So far so good. Also, for those who took no back-ups or exports, you could actually reconstruct pretty much all your bookmarks from the wider web (Google caches and so forth).
The lesson there with “cloud” storage and wot-not is that whilst everything remains “connected”, someone / something somewhere has your data. It’s called social software, like it or not.
With regards Google and GMail, people seem to freak out about email privacy forgetting that email isn’t private and it never has been.
vowe, I know that there are many big companies who trust SAAS providers. But that doesn't solve the problem - If *they* don't want to control their data, it's their decision.
My experience with some customers in germany is that they are very concerned about their data, and that SAAS is a no-go for them. They *like* to have control over their data.
Sure, one employee can steal data. But nevertheless *you* have your data at *your* site and if you want to go to the server and take the disk with your data, you can do it. Try that with a SAAS provider.
And it's one thing if one employee steals some data. It's another thing if all your data is open to special services of in another country. And that is not paranoia - for example, ask yourself if you would save your data at a provider sitting in China. Would you?
And if you answered that, would you save your data in the US?
Vowe, for your use case SAAS is fine. If you would run a company developing cutting edge technology of some kind which is interesting for other countries, you would think about that differently I guess.
Julian, I don't want to burst your bubble. Please explain this:
Where do you think major German banks host their data?
Why do you think that Google Mail is hosting my data in the US?
Why is Google running data centers in Europe?
Do you think your mail at younotes.de is safer than mine?
What happens to the mail you sent?
Answer to #1:
I am aware that in at least one case, a large German bank uses Salesforce in a particular context. They keep the sensitive data behind their firewall and integrate it with the data from Salesforce on the screen for the user. Their data is currently hosted in USA because Salesforce don't have a datacenter in Europe.
Just to underline that SaaS security and data location is an issue in some companies in Germany.
Vowe, you are welcome to burst my bubble. From my perspective:
1.) I don't know where my bank host their data. But I guess they have control over their data, wherever it may be. Because they are so big that they can force a provider to let them to their servers.
And small banks host their data in bank specialized data centers.
2.) I did not say that Google hosts your mail in the US. I asked if - when you run a company developing sensitive technology - you would host them in China. Or in the US. Or in Germany. Would you give it out of your hands?
3.) Google might run data centers in Europe. But - again, if you are a company - can you go to the datacenter and say "give me the disks with my data, please"?
4.) Again, I did not talk of mail alone. I may be a Notes guy in some sort of bubble, but even I know that mail goes unprotected over the net. I talk about company data like plans, concepts, software code.
These questions are not only my personal opinion but are asked by customers.
Well Google does not lock your data from you. I don't know if it makes sense to walk to the Hopfenpost Munich Google datacentre and ask for disks but you can take it at any time any day. Open Standards really are your friend. If you want Google to delete all your data they will probably do that too.
I do believe that there are many companies that don't want to save their data in the cloud yet. Choice is a good thing.
If you would have done a list 3 years ago what is bad about using Google mail / Apps you will probably find that a lot those points have already been addressed. They are moving fast. What would happen if Google steps out of the cloud?
German banks are not allowed to store their data outside of European Union's jurisdiction.
@Glen: red pill or black and white vision ..?
It would be great, if - in discussion about user interfeces and functionality - people would learn to distinguish between good design and "evil" employers.
Sure, good design costs a lot of money and that's mostly in the hands of big and evil corporations, but is it therefore wrong to point out good design..?
I don't thing so...
98% of my time = in a browser window (Google Mail, Google Docs, meebo, work wikis, tons of miscellaneous apps), on a command line, or on a remote desktop environment. Chrome/Safari 4, putty/Terminal, VNC/Remote Desktop/Screen Sharing. The box in front of me starts to matter very little.
Chrome is QUITE useful with the "Create Application Shortcut" method of making dedicated browsers for the web apps I use.
Hi Volker,
Did you find a solution to be able to search in your email/attachements while being offline ?
Gears is wonderful, but if there was a spotlight plugin to integrate email in the search scope, that would be even more powerful.
Gaston
As soon as Chrome appeared, I 'signed up to be kept informed about developments for Macintosh' - apparently there haven't been any yet, or if there have, I sure haven't been kept informed about them.
Which is a shame, because I have been pretty impressed with it on Windows.
