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Essentially the core problem is Gmail is most of the market, and they have a vested interest in keeping people interacting with their proprietary APIs (lock in)
by ocdtrekkie 4y ago
Essentially the core problem is Gmail is most of the market, and they have a vested interest in keeping people interacting with their proprietary APIs (lock in) rather than switching to an open standard that supports labels, snooze, etc. Startups literally build custom clients entirely around the Gmail API, which means more data to Google.
And if Gmail doesn't support JMAP, why would anyone else bother adding it to their app?
Monopolies remain the primary blocker on innovation and until we get aggressive about forcing them to use open standards and interoperability, we are going to stay stuck in situations like this one.
- awinter-py 4y agoI think fastmail is trying for an 'everyone supports this standard except for you' strategy could work, I feel like the bigger question is 'will email still be the standard' in 5 years -- it has iffy security, it's complex, nobody can self host it, it doesn't integrate well with other applications (i.e. 'push messaging' features)
- broodbucket 4y agoIf we haven't gotten rid of asking users for postal addresses when there is no chance they will ever be used, we are absolutely never getting rid of email. It's decentralised, there's a paper trail that doesn't disappear when a host goes down or gets compromised, and it's still a competent method of asynchronous communication. Plus, the whole world is never going to agree on the same new thing anyway.
- awinter-py 4y agoyeah I'm not certain you're wrong but I think your point about postal addresses is important part of the reason we still require snail mail for legal process is dumb legacy stuff, but the other part is that email isn't a good replacement