Perspective: Why Gmail gives me the creeps

Google's debut of a Web-based e-mail service thrust this most hyped creation of Silicon Valley's venture capitalist community back onto center stage this week.

On the surface, it sounds like a wow idea. You get one gigabyte of storage and don't pay a copper cent in return. Credit the folks at Google for doing something for the common user. My other Web mail accounts too often reach the maximum storage capacity and shut down until I purge my in-box.

This is the kind of technology advance that gives me the creeps.

What's more, my hunch is that Microsoft and Yahoo will eventually respond in kind, lest they fall behind Google, which has been the beneficiary of fawning treatment in the press in the run-up to its initial public offering.

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?

Contextual advertising has been around for years. Type "dominatrix" as a search term, and you'll find enough hard-core bondage and fetish ads to keep you occupied for quite some time. But search is one category; your e-mail is quite another. Do you really want Google snooping so close to home? The company says it is not going to read the contents of anyone's in-box. Still, you don't need to be a privacy extremist to realize that this fundamentally remains a bad idea.

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.

That's why Microsoft is talking about letting users do things like search out Windows Media tunes they once played or locate spreadsheet files from years' past. And after getting (rightly) slammed for all its privacy woes, my guess is that Microsoft will be more Catholic than the pope, when it comes to e-mail privacy and search. Besides, what better way to draw an invidious comparison with the competition?

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.

More Perspectives

A computer sifting through words is not creepy.

G-mail and its targeted advertising are a great idea. I know that the reason I hate most advertising on the interenet is because it's not anything close to something that would ever interest me. Gmail will provide me with offers that I might actually take up (not to mention a heck of a lot of storage space and no pop-ups) People who say Gmail is invasive to privacy completely do not understand the way Gmail works, or for that matter, the way Google AdSense works. Google doesn't collect or see any information in your e-mails. At all. Period. A computer searches for keywords and displays ads BASED ON these keywords. Google specifically says that, "No humans read your email to target the ads, and no email content or other personally identifiable information is ever provided to advertisers." The most ironic part of all this is that people worry about a simple computer algorithm sifting through an e-mail, while e-mails themselves from EVERY PROVIDER are completely insecure and, technically, readable by ANYONE who wants to get their hands on them. So, unless you're a security buff who encrypts every e-mail they send, don't complain about a computer reading your e-mail.

Microsoft gives me the creeps

"Microsoft can say its Internet browsers, spreadsheets, and word
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.

The general thought behind it?

If you try to compare Microsoft and Google, you are already running into problems. Yes I believe that Google has something going for themselves in this and advertising is a definite possibility. My thoughts is that the more users that Google shows the more and more of the online market they can take away from everyone else. If you think of it as a privacy issue? With 1 gig of space would the average user need that? And would they even check all that junk mail that they would receive. The answer is no. The majority of the people on-line usually use the Microsoft and Yahoo adresses as secondary for their low security messages. Do I thin that this is a problem...No, I think this Gmail could be revolutionary and add great sophistication to the internet as we know it now.

Gmail

I love your search engine and I think that you offering email is even better.You have an awesome site.I have never had a problem with it.
Thanks for making it even better.
Sincerely,
Vickie

why creepy ?

Yes, the technology seems scary at first.. but then, no one forces you to use this service, and as long as you are aware of how much privacy you get with it, I don't see anything wrong with that.

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..

Im not searching - I'm communicating a PRIVATE message - Not for analysis!!

You can be sure that I won't be using Gmail. My communications are not analysis foods for Google's advertising fodder. I'm sure that the TOS will state that by using Gmail, you accept these terms - but why in the world would you? My private thoughts and opinions shared in emails will not be analyzed for "marketing opportunities" and those that allow their emails to be scanned for purchased key phrases deserve all the pop-ups they get.

Karen

Paranoia strikes

Hi.

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

Actually....

The difference is between volunteering information about yourself...like at Cnet registration versus an automated scanning to develop personal profiles.

GMail and google search

you mentioned that they scan your email and serve adverdising.
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