5 ms·

I have a gmail account, but I don't use it. I would say the same for any business. No business with any sense is going to rely on Gmail for their internal busin

I have a gmail account, but I don't use it. I would say the same for any business. No business with any sense is going to rely on Gmail for their internal business communications.

nl 15y ago
No business with any sense is going to rely on Gmail for their internal business communications http://www.google.com/apps/intl/en/customers/ http://www.google.com/apps/intl/en/customers/ says you are wrong. And I don't think that's a bad thing - Facebook is a problem, not Google. Don't tar every company with the same brush.
- silverbax88 15y ago
  Any companies on that list using Gmail as their primary email service are foolish. But I'm not sure why you think I was somehow equating Facebook with Google simply because I don't agree that everyone has Gmail and is using it.
  - Vandy_Travis 15y ago
    I use google apps to host my email for my company, with all emails backed up to our server. Why is that foolish?
    - loup-vaillant 15y ago
      Ah, now here's a different thing: should a comet fall on Google's data centres, you still keep your data. I infer that you probably thought about privacy risks. I also suppose your company's email address isn't "@gmail.com". That would be foolish.
Lagged2Death 15y ago
That's your prerogative, of course, but more and more businesses are outsourcing their internal email to an outside service. Sometimes that's the commercial version of Gmail and sometimes it's a competitor. Regardless, that seems like a move toward central control rather than toward anything I'd describe as a distributed service.
- silverbax88 15y ago
  I'd bring up that "outsourcing their internal email" is not the same thing as "using Gmail". But as to your point about centralization, companies (like Facebook) have tried for years to centralize data and it hasn't worked yet. Microsoft has tried it, IBM has tried it, and Google continues to try it. I think the issue is that there is difference between allowing people to log into an account with Facebook and companies actually sharing their data with each other. There's also the reality that as companies die, merge or change course, the massive amounts of data they have often simply becomes unused.
weavejester 15y ago
Quite a few do. Why do you think this wouldn't make sense?
- alexqgb 15y ago
  Have you ever suffered a Google outage? I don't mean the kind of system-wide failure that gets all Googleplex hands on deck. I mean the kind of random, individual catastrophe that comes with a crash-course in just how astonishingly unreachable the Googleplex really is.
  - silverbax88 15y ago
    Yes, I have first hand experience with this. Dealing with Google "support" taught me a harsh reality that Google simply isn't interested in support in the way that Fortune 500 companies need and expect.
    - alexqgb 15y ago
      It comes down to the not-so-subtle difference between "customer" and "user". Reminds me of the joke about there being two kinds of people in the world; those who have lost data, and those who will.
- silverbax88 15y ago
  The first is support - Google isn't in the business of keeping you in business. The second is that you are turning over all of your internal communication, almost all of which should never leave the company, to a third party.
  - weavejester 15y ago
    > The first is support - Google isn't in the business of keeping you in business. I'm not sure I understand this. Why isn't Google in the business of making sure its paying customers stay in business? > The second is that you are turning over all of your internal communication, almost all of which should never leave the company, to a third party. How is this any different from storing source code on GitHub, or using Campfire to communicate?
darksaga 15y ago
Despite the other comments, I completely agree with you. It's just foolish to give up control of one of the most important communication resources your business has to a company with a notoriously poor customer service record. http://www.formortals.com/gmail-is-not-a-business-tool-period/ http://www.formortals.com/gmail-is-not-a-business-tool-perio...

I have a gmail account, but I don't use it. I would say the same for any business. No business with any sense is going to rely on Gmail for their internal business communications.

nl 15y ago

No business with any sense is going to rely on Gmail for their internal business communications http://www.google.com/apps/intl/en/customers/ http://www.google.com/apps/intl/en/customers/ says you are wrong. And I don't think that's a bad thing - Facebook is a problem, not Google. Don't tar every company with the same brush.

silverbax88 15y ago
Any companies on that list using Gmail as their primary email service are foolish. But I'm not sure why you think I was somehow equating Facebook with Google simply because I don't agree that everyone has Gmail and is using it.
- Vandy_Travis 15y ago
  I use google apps to host my email for my company, with all emails backed up to our server. Why is that foolish?
  - loup-vaillant 15y ago
    Ah, now here's a different thing: should a comet fall on Google's data centres, you still keep your data. I infer that you probably thought about privacy risks. I also suppose your company's email address isn't "@gmail.com". That would be foolish.

Lagged2Death 15y ago

That's your prerogative, of course, but more and more businesses are outsourcing their internal email to an outside service. Sometimes that's the commercial version of Gmail and sometimes it's a competitor. Regardless, that seems like a move toward central control rather than toward anything I'd describe as a distributed service.

silverbax88 15y ago
I'd bring up that "outsourcing their internal email" is not the same thing as "using Gmail". But as to your point about centralization, companies (like Facebook) have tried for years to centralize data and it hasn't worked yet. Microsoft has tried it, IBM has tried it, and Google continues to try it. I think the issue is that there is difference between allowing people to log into an account with Facebook and companies actually sharing their data with each other. There's also the reality that as companies die, merge or change course, the massive amounts of data they have often simply becomes unused.

weavejester 15y ago

Quite a few do. Why do you think this wouldn't make sense?

alexqgb 15y ago
Have you ever suffered a Google outage? I don't mean the kind of system-wide failure that gets all Googleplex hands on deck. I mean the kind of random, individual catastrophe that comes with a crash-course in just how astonishingly unreachable the Googleplex really is.
- silverbax88 15y ago
  Yes, I have first hand experience with this. Dealing with Google "support" taught me a harsh reality that Google simply isn't interested in support in the way that Fortune 500 companies need and expect.
  - alexqgb 15y ago
    It comes down to the not-so-subtle difference between "customer" and "user". Reminds me of the joke about there being two kinds of people in the world; those who have lost data, and those who will.
silverbax88 15y ago
The first is support - Google isn't in the business of keeping you in business. The second is that you are turning over all of your internal communication, almost all of which should never leave the company, to a third party.
- weavejester 15y ago
  > The first is support - Google isn't in the business of keeping you in business. I'm not sure I understand this. Why isn't Google in the business of making sure its paying customers stay in business? > The second is that you are turning over all of your internal communication, almost all of which should never leave the company, to a third party. How is this any different from storing source code on GitHub, or using Campfire to communicate?

darksaga 15y ago

Despite the other comments, I completely agree with you. It's just foolish to give up control of one of the most important communication resources your business has to a company with a notoriously poor customer service record. http://www.formortals.com/gmail-is-not-a-business-tool-period/ http://www.formortals.com/gmail-is-not-a-business-tool-perio...