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> Remember when Google said they would hold on to everything that their users did on their site forever? Err, no, as a matter of fact I don't. Would you have a

> Remember when Google said they would hold on to everything that their users did on their site forever? Err, no, as a matter of fact I don't. Would you have a cite for this?

jfoutz 3y ago
it's probably a wishful interpretation from the initial coverage, https://slashdot.org/story/04/04/01/0038200/googles-gmail-to-offer-1gb-e-mail-storage https://slashdot.org/story/04/04/01/0038200/googles-gmail-to... "hey want to offer their searching capabilities so that users can search through their entire set of e-mail, I guess forever. " https://googlepress.blogspot.com/2004/04/google-gets-message-launches-gmail.html https://googlepress.blogspot.com/2004/04/google-gets-message... "Storage: Google believes people should be able to hold onto their mail forever. That’s why Gmail comes with 1,000 megabytes (1 gigabyte) of free storage – more than 100 times what most other free webmail services offer." (at the time, I thought it meant forever, silly me)
- crazygringo 3y ago
  Right. What I remember from the time was that Gmail's big thing was it had so much free storage that you could archive emails instead of deleting them. Previously people generally would delete most emails to save space, and Gmail changed that. There was nothing about saving all your emails forever no matter what even if you stopped using the product. It was never presented as a lifetime backup archive to be accessed decades later. Just tons more quota than competitors was all.
- JohnFen 3y ago
  > at the time, I thought it meant forever, silly me Nothing is forever. Any time any company is promising something that is "unlimited" or "forever", they're lying. They have to be, because the economics of holding true to infinities preclude them.
- LordAtlas 3y ago
  And now the GMail storage limit for free users is 15 GB, 15x what it launched with. I think it's rather naïve to expect that any free service will give you unlimited space or unlimited time. A 2-year inactivity period sounds reasonable to me. Literally all you need to do is log in once in 2 years to not have your account deleted. I often disagree with Google's handling of things, but this isn't one such instance. And set up Google Inactive Account Manager* so that in case you unexpectedly pass away, somebody you trust gets access to your account after a set period. I've set mine to 3 months because I'm online so much, but you may find 6 or 12 months to work better for you. * https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/3036546?hl=en https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/3036546?hl=en

> Remember when Google said they would hold on to everything that their users did on their site forever? Err, no, as a matter of fact I don't. Would you have a cite for this?

jfoutz 3y ago

it's probably a wishful interpretation from the initial coverage, https://slashdot.org/story/04/04/01/0038200/googles-gmail-to-offer-1gb-e-mail-storage https://slashdot.org/story/04/04/01/0038200/googles-gmail-to... "hey want to offer their searching capabilities so that users can search through their entire set of e-mail, I guess forever. " https://googlepress.blogspot.com/2004/04/google-gets-message-launches-gmail.html https://googlepress.blogspot.com/2004/04/google-gets-message... "Storage: Google believes people should be able to hold onto their mail forever. That’s why Gmail comes with 1,000 megabytes (1 gigabyte) of free storage – more than 100 times what most other free webmail services offer." (at the time, I thought it meant forever, silly me)

crazygringo 3y ago
Right. What I remember from the time was that Gmail's big thing was it had so much free storage that you could archive emails instead of deleting them. Previously people generally would delete most emails to save space, and Gmail changed that. There was nothing about saving all your emails forever no matter what even if you stopped using the product. It was never presented as a lifetime backup archive to be accessed decades later. Just tons more quota than competitors was all.
JohnFen 3y ago
> at the time, I thought it meant forever, silly me Nothing is forever. Any time any company is promising something that is "unlimited" or "forever", they're lying. They have to be, because the economics of holding true to infinities preclude them.
LordAtlas 3y ago
And now the GMail storage limit for free users is 15 GB, 15x what it launched with. I think it's rather naïve to expect that any free service will give you unlimited space or unlimited time. A 2-year inactivity period sounds reasonable to me. Literally all you need to do is log in once in 2 years to not have your account deleted. I often disagree with Google's handling of things, but this isn't one such instance. And set up Google Inactive Account Manager* so that in case you unexpectedly pass away, somebody you trust gets access to your account after a set period. I've set mine to 3 months because I'm online so much, but you may find 6 or 12 months to work better for you. * https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/3036546?hl=en https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/3036546?hl=en