the meaning of the ultimate information resource
February 7, 2006ever since today morning, an idea has been rattling around in my head. what good use does google have of archiving IM chats under gmail ? there is an option to save it on your home pc. face it, that is easier to access.
but, for people who use the chat client as a method of communication.. and i don’t mean asking your friend whether he has the latest movie with him; it is a cheap way of many facets of a technical team staying in touch. for these people, they are no longer limited to their own PC. they can access the archive anywhere.
lets look again. gmail. currently 2692 MB; or about 2.7 GB. why ? the user never needs to store his/her mail again. they can access it with their favourite email client, but their master archive will probably be at gmail. why ? human logic. ‘i have 3 gig of free space online; i’d better use it’. gmail is a great way to archive all the mail you ever get. all that space must be used. its a perfect backup server. for free. there are applications for storing data via gmail.. accessing it as a filesystem on your pc. accessible anywhere.
live chat under gmail ? i don’t need a chat client anymore. my browser.. i log-in to gmail and i’m good to go.
blogger ? great. store your diary online. accessible anywhere. photos ? not a problem. can be hosted as original under blogger (in contrast to yahoo); as many as you want at a time(in contrast to flickr). again. accessible anywhere.
video ? we all know they host that for free too. audio ? we know of google’s effort to catalogue media of any kind.
RSS is still a fledgling technology in terms of usage; but thats probably because people still have a choice when it comes to using it. keeping track of all of you is simple, given an RSS reader. i can keep track of updates to my news sites, my tech sites.. you get the idea. there is the argument that RSS news will never replace papers… its too much a ‘techie thing’. 5 guys in my house, we’re all past 21, and not a paper is bought. everything is read online. the first step is made towards “paperless”ness, so to speak.
and in case i didn’t say it, that RSS reader ? accessible anywhere. i can see them integrate it with gmail, just to provide you with one interface for it all.
accessible anywhere.
it may seem that a lot of this is unneccessary, but think of it long term. no-one thought people would need more than 6 mb of mail storage, until gmail decided that 1 gig was more appropriate. and once that became de-facto, they gave everyone unlimited storage. RSS, chats and so on may seem like silly bells and whistles, but you have a lot of these features expected on standalone email clients. why not on an online client ? plus, i don’t see any difference in the loading time. people can always make use of new features. they will. because they are there. and then these features become the standard.
what’s left ? possibly an interface to ensure that all that information is not accessible to everybody, but just to you. or as you choose it.
all your information. accessible anywhere. via google.
i remember reading about how google was aiming to provide an all-in-one solution. an “online OS”. a thin client is used to access the internet; you login into your personal portal.. and you’re good to go. your data is stored online, you choose how public you want it; or how private. you don’t even need your own PC.. its all on google. there is also that presentation about epic.
its a bit of a stretch of the mind to imagine it.. but we could be there 10 years. broadband is becoming ubiquitous. a lot of our information is best stored online. we may not go the distance of no PC, but we certainly are making more and more of ourselves virtual.
“don’t be evil”. that doesn’t mean “don’t be the ultimate information resource”. after all, you don’t have to be evil to control the world.
uh-oh.
totally unrelated (and i don't know why i'm telling u
AA | February 9, 2006totally unrelated (and i don’t know why i’m telling u this), but my desktop background is the nice train pic from shil’s pics. now i miss everyone even more. i want pics from ur camera. anyway, where’s my entry that i asked for?!
The other handy thing about Gmail is the fact that
Vittra | February 9, 2006The other handy thing about Gmail is the fact that it makes a good storage space for people who don’t have large hard drive spaces. It’s good for those on slow connections who spend time uploading large files as an e-mail attachment, too - any time the same file needs to be sent to someone else, it’s already conveniently uploaded into the archive area, waiting to be sent. Not to mention that Gmail integrates with Google’s other software and services - Google Desktop being a primary example, as well as the new Google Search. Personally, I enjoy it.
I have to wonder .. it SAYS you can
Sol | February 10, 2006I have to wonder .. it SAYS you can keep your stuff private but just how private is it really? But, when chat with google first came out I tried it and surprise! it didn’t work with macintosh.. maybe that’s changed too. However, I can’t imagine wanting to save all my conversations. A select and rare few maybe but not all.
[...] other than the fact that i love the concept,
integrating updates at staying.cool | September 29, 2006[...] other than the fact that i love the concept, i wonder how much easier google is making it now. currently, my mail, my news, my social network, my photos, calendar, notes and chat are all part of google. information resource indeed. [...]