Gmail

[daboy]

I just noticed that VanV has a Gmail account.
I also have one but never use it beacuse I heard that google runs a search through your messages to direct advertising to you..as per you email.
So if you mention the word travel you may get advertising for trips.ETC

I do not like this so I have not used Gmail.

Am i wrong???

Daboy

 

[Goober Mcfly]

Yes and no.

The concerns over Google reading your mail are real, however you have to realize that it's an automated process that doesn't compromise your privacy any more than say, an anti-virus or anti-spam program looking at your mail.

Just remember that NO email is completely private or secure.

 

[TheNiteHwk]

I only joined recently. I think it's kind of neat actually. I never got anything (ads or spam) in my in-box or email but what I did notice was this. I sent an e-mail to a friend asking if she had any Noni juice for me. When she replied back I noticed on the right margin of the page (not in the e-mail) was a couple of links to sites about Noni juice. That did not bother me at all. In fact I thought it was kind of neat.

 

[GoLeafsGo]

TheNiteHwk is correct (Happy Birthday, btw). These are just text ads which are definitely non-intrusive. I also found it kinda neat that these ads relating to our e-mail conversations suddenly appeared.

However, if one is really concerned about it, then download the Customize Google extension for Mozilla Firefox as it allows you to remove ads from when you use Gmail. Actually for overall customization of anything Google, that's a good extension to be running.

Man, extensions rule! and tabbed browsing rocks!!

 

[Cobster]

hotmail reads your email just as much as google does.
before Microsoft bought hotmail in 1997/98, i remember hotmail being extremely user-friendly, cleaner interface and less crap and a MUCH smaller User License Agreement, after the purchase, the Agreement you had to read was so many pages more, nobody bothered to read it, but it's just as bad as google for reading emails...they all want info on what people are talking about, it's perfect for marketing...
...the guy who created hotmail, made a mint, around $350million and went off to start his own software company...and he just started hotmail only a few months into the whole thing..

 

[bigshot]

I have a gmail account that gets very little use at this point in time. I found it a little disturbing that after receiving an email from a supplier, I got spammed with unsolicited messages from a supplier of similar products.

This is much different than just seeing links in the margins. Who needs to spend more time deleting spam? I stopped using gmail then and there.

bigshot