Going Google (apps), Part 1: Move your mail

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	TOP STORY Going Google (apps), Part 1: Move your mail
	By Woody Leonhard Are you getting tired of struggling with Microsoft’s increasingly complex, sometimes arcane, and always expensive versions of Office? This article, the first in a series, will show you how easy it is to move from bloated and pricey desktop programs to fast, free — though somewhat less capable — Google apps.

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The full text of this column is posted at windowssecrets.com/top-story/going-google-apps-part-1-move-your-mail/ (paid content, opens in a new window/tab).

Columnists typically cannot reply to comments here, but do incorporate the best tips into future columns.[/td]

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Hi Woody. Well, like you I’ve been thinking of moving away from Outlook for donkey’s years, but could never take the plunge. You’ve spurred me to think about it again. But, a couple of questions…

1. I own a domain name, which enables me to use a different email address from what the ISP allocated me. For example, say my address with them is dave@isp.net.nz, but the address I give out for friends and clients is dave@abc.co.nz. Any mail sent to dave@abc.co.nz finds its way to my ISP and they store it in my dave@isp.net.nz inbox. When Outlook picks up my mail from the ISP, it appears in my Outlook inbox as being addressed to dave@abc.co.nz. And, of course, it all gets reversed on the way out. I can’t work out how I would do that using gMail. Is it possible?

2. In Outlook, all my mail (inwards and outwards) appears in a “search folder” I’ve defined called “Active mail”. I just don’t understand the usual approach of storing inwards and outwards emails in separate folders; nuts if you ask me. So, I spend the day looking at “Active mail”, reading in coming mail, sending mail, moving no-longer-active mail to folders, etc. All of this is done in the one (search) folder. Is that possible in gMail? The only way I could think of doing it was perhaps to automatically “star” all inwards and outwards mail, or mark it as important, or something similar, but I don’t know how to automate that.

I guess where I’m reaching (yet again), is that maybe Outlook really is the only fully-functional email client? Please disabuse me of this idea!!!

Thanks for your great articles.

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Just because you do not want to have the mail stored on your computer and use Outlook or Thunderbird etc to read it does not mean that you have to use Gmail. If one is owns a domain you can purchase low cost hosting plans for under $10 a month that includes email hosting. Most providers allow one to use a webmail interface or use IMAP to access your email on devices lilke iPads, Nexus7 using the built in email app or even the device’s web browser and the hosting company’s webmail interface.

Remember that Gmail does not use physical file folders. Gmail uses labels to “file” or tag email. A message can be tagged with multiple labels meaning that the one message can show up in multiple virtual folders. However deleting that message from one virtual folder means it will also be deleted from all other virtual folders. That is because Gmail only saves the message once, unlike in Outlook or other computer based email apps where one can create separate copies of a message in different folders.

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I finally gave up on MS Office after 2007 version because of the cost. I’ve been using Softmaker Office 2010 (now 2012) because it has a word processor, PowerPoint clone and Excel clone that is also available in Android and works nicely on my PC, notebook, tablet and smartphone. It cost me just $49.95 which is a huge savings over MS Office and it’s compatible with WordPerfect, too. I also dumped my Outlook altogether and switched to Gmail over a year ago.

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Woody, you initially talk about Google Apps but in the instructions you talk about Gmail. Are you referring to Google Apps throughout since, as far as I am aware, only Google Apps will fully synchronise email, calendar and contacts across all your devices?

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SoftMaker Office is a great office suite for a tiny price, I use the Windows version plus TextMaker, PlanMaker, and SoftMaker Presentations apps for my Android smartphone. I can highly recommend SoftMaker Office, too. I would like to expand your post to the extent that the Professional version also brings a brilliant mail client (client em 5 Professional) which is IMHO the besit alternative to MS Outlook.

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I am not happy with google’s intrusive and coercive demands for my phone number. I’d appreciate your exploring other, non-cloud-based options sometime.

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Very nice and detailed article. I made the switch to Gmail upon retirement and have never had one second thought. I have my own domain (similar in nature to your situation) and the only issue I have had is on occassion I have had someone to send an email to me and expect an immediate response. Without my intervention through forcing a POP there could be a longer than desired delay before Gmail does its POP. That doesn’t change the fact that you produced an outstanding article. I look forward to the next installment because I have not made the change from Excel.
Lynn Foster

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Even though I have been with gmail since it started I am getting more and more reluctant to rely on it. Google’s attitude these days is light years distant from their early ethos. Services are closed presumably because they are not easily monetised. New “features” such as the ghastly compose window are foisted on users, wasn’t their comment that it would encourage people to write short chat type messages?. Thing suddenly don’t work quite the way you expect, for instance I opened a pdf in Docs this morning and got the message “You have reached the limit for non-Google Docs format documents” with no other explanation.

By all means use Google’s interface for your email but for goodness sake make sure you have local copies of everything before they decide you can only access things through G+.

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Glad to see you like Google, I have used there email for many years for different things, Google is not bad, but they are not a god like you seem to write them up as, I have known customers whom have done the same thing you have done and needed to move back for many reasons not to mention (legal, ease of use, accountant issues etc) so good luck.
Oh by the way I always have this issue with people you write that you have used office since 97 office and it crashes and yes 2010,2013 also BUT why did you need to keep spending money on each NEW VERSION? I never would recommend doing this to a business, for the most part the changes have NO VALUE for a business!!

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Despite all the convenience that an online cloud based service like Google and all the others provide in terms of
-access to your documents from any device, from any location
-(hopefully) protection of the data from a single point of failure (ie. a local hard-drive failure with your only copy)

They just have too many problems….

1) All “your data” is now essential theirs. They own it and can do whatever they want with it.
Have you read Google’s terms of service? here’s a snippet:

When you upload or otherwise submit content to our Services, you give Google (and those we work with) a worldwide license to use, host, store, reproduce, modify, create derivative works (such as those resulting from translations, adaptations or other changes we make so that your content works better with our Services), communicate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute such content.

see:
https://www.google.com/intl/en/policies/terms/
http://www.cultofmac.com/162901/google-drive-terms-of-service-let-google-do-whatever-it-likes-with-your-files/
http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Cloud-Computing/Google-Ships-a-GDrive-Thats-No-Better-than-Microsofts-New-SkyDrive-503152/1/

2) “Your data” can be shared too easily.
Due to all the new laws in the name of anti-terror, anti-child-porn, etc. in the USA, your data can be shared with almost any level of law-enforcement and the government. I suspect it only a matter of time before some small business gets in trouble for financial or tax info stored “in the cloud”.

3) You could be locked out of “your own” data.
If your account comes up as a “false positive” in any of the company’s anti-piracy, anti-child porn, etc. automatic scanning then your account can be automatically locked until you can get a hold of someone to work it out. Maybe only a small chance, but Murphy says it’ll happen at the worst time at a customer site when you need to show that presentation.

4) One cloud-based provider scans “your” stuff to compare against what they already had from other users. If you uploaded the same document as another user, they do NOT store it again in your account, instead they provided both uploaders with a “link” to the same data. It’s a great system to save them disk space and therefore money. However, organizing all those links and keeping the permissions correct is difficult and I bet not perfect. How long until mangled links give “your” data to some other user?

5) How many times do you want to pay for upload/download of “your data”.
Even if you stay under the “free” limit of drive capacity offered by a cloud based provider, you still pay for access to that data.
Every time you tweak a document or listen to your favourite song stored in the cloud it counts towards your service providers monthly data allowance.

6) I hate ads!
Some may consider me a little overboard here. I mute commercials on TV. I watch more DVD’s and PBS just so I don’t need to. I can no longer listen to “commercial” radio stations, the “price” (of constantly repeated ads) is just too high. I stream my own music from my NAS. Whichever cloud based service you may use understand one thing: The providers number one priority is to scan “your documents” in order to provide targeted advertising. Security of “your data” is way down the list.

A work-around for some of the above would be to securely encrypt all your uploaded documents. However this extra step with a strong password negates much of the perceived convenience of these systems. It’s a problem with the humans…who has the discipline to do the encrypt/decrypt every time.

I can never see myself buying into this cloud fad.
I would rather keep buying hard-drives and backing it up myself…..that way I do have control.

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Despite all the convenience that an online cloud based service like Google and all the others provide…

They just have too many problems….

1) All “your data” is now essential theirs. They own it and can do whatever they want with it….

2) “Your data” can be shared too easily.

3) You could be locked out of “your own” data.

I can never see myself buying into this cloud fad.
I would rather keep buying hard-drives and backing it up myself…..that way I do have control.

Brino, you’re right on the mark. I’ve abbreviated your excellent post in the quote above to show what are for me the three main points that will forever keep me from ever using Google’s services or “buying into this cloud fad.” Given Google’s “once your data’s with us, we’ll do what we darn well please with it” policy, we’ll all be playing ice hockey with Satan before I willingly let Google store any of my data. Spare hard disk drives are cheap and I can stick a 1TB HDD in my shirt pocket when I travel; that way, I know my information is safe from Google’s prying eyes, entirely under my control, and I never have to worry about being locked out of my own data.

The only exception I make to the “no-cloud” rule is that I use the free version of SpiderOak with 2GB of free storage for a handful of special files. Why SpiderOak? Because they have a “Zero Knowledge” policy with regard to their users data, which means, in effect, they have zero access to your data, so if you forget or lose your password, you’re totally hosed; they can’t help you get your data back because they have no way to access it, so it’s gone forever. That’s a long way from Google’s “your data is ours to do what we like with” policy.

Is it necessary to use the cloud at all? Of course not. I can carry my data with me easily on a flash drive or HDD, but in case I don’t happen to have the flash drive or HDD with me on some occasion, I can easily access the relatively few super-essential files that I might need while I’m traveling or away from my home computer and download them to my phone or laptop, edit them as needed, then re-store the new versions on SpiderOak. I’m using less than 340MB out of my free allotment of 2GB, so I have plenty of room to store other special files if I need to. However, if the whole cloud storage concept vanished tomorrow, it wouldn’t affect my business or my computing one iota.

If you want to keep your valuable files backed up safely, just remember these words: “Off-premises backup.” Backing up to another physical medium (HDD, flash drive, DVDs, etc.) and storing them in the same building as your computer won’t help you in the event of theft or fire. If your computer AND your backup are both stolen or burned to a cinder, you’re toast (Yes, I know, a little accidental humor there). However, if you have two sets of backups – 2 HDDs, 2 flash drives, 2 sets of DVDs, etc. – and always keep the most recent one off-premises (e.g., keep your backup of your home computer at your office, or hidden in a locked garden shed, or whatever), the likelihood of both sets of backups being stolen or fried at the same time approaches zero. It’s OK, and more convenient, to keep the older backup in the same home or office as the computer so that when the time comes to do another backup, you can just hook it up, make a fresh backup, then store that fresh backup off premises and bring back the older backup to keep it handy for the next time.

Is this better than putting it in the cloud? Absolutely, for all the reasons that Brino set forth so well. This way, the only person who has access to my data is me, I don’t have to upload untold GBs of data at an achingly slow rate, and no company can keep me from accessing my data when I need it.

Hope this helps.

Well done, Brino. I appreciate your pointing out the obvious, that the Cloud Emperor has no clothes.

Cheers,
Al

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“…convinced [Outlook] was the only email program capable of handling the huge volume of mail I manage every day” (Woody Leonhard, ‘Going Google (apps), Part 1: Move your mail’, referring to the years between Office 97 and the present).”

What an extraordinary thought. How could any computer savvy person possibly have been so convinced? Look at all the professional email types who ran Eudora during that period and were as happy as clams with it. Scot Finnie comes to mind. Among my own small circle of acquaintances, one help desk at a software company and one online order-by-email business ran PocoMail and loved it.

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In Outlook, you click on the description of a colum (From, date, Topic, etc) and it sorts out the e-mail based on that column. Is that possible in Gmail or do you always have to use the Search tool? I am on Gmail but that missing feature frustrates me. Help!!!

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Thank you for your encouraging article. I already found out the improvements that the use of Gmail brings. Now that we are in that cloud I would love to read your instructions on how to keep email content classified and private to sender and receiver simply and effective.

doka

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I have made half of this switch. I use Gmail as my mail server, but Outlook as my email reader on my PC. When I do a search, it’s on gmail. So far, I have not had to pay any attention to the size of my gmail file after more than 4 years on gmail. All my email sent to two of my own domains are forwarded to my gmail account. My allocated storage on Google’s servers seems to just get bigger faster than my accumulated email history. Once in awhile, I will trim my Outlook pst file, but since moving to Outlook 2007, the pst file size is no longer a problem.

One thing I cannot get past is the native gmail reader in a browser. It sucks! The gmail reader for Android is great, but there does not seem to be an equivalent reader for the PC browser – is there?

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Woody, I think you were right to begin your series on leaving MS Office with a discussion of email. But I think you’ve glossed over the negatives associated with Gmail and ignored many benefits of Outlook. And you brushed off Exchange without considering Exchange-based cloud alternatives (such as Microsoft Exchange Online (MEO), part of Office365), against which the Gmail service is more properly compared.

I, too, have used Outlook since ’97. I consider it a fine organizational tool that has evolved well with the times. Yes, it has features I don’t need but that’s because it serves an extremely wide market, from individuals to enterprises. PST files may have their problems but they also provide access to mail when offline (Outlook was created in the dial-up world) and provide an archive should you ever decide to change services. Corruption can be repaired by Microsoft’s ScanPST utility.

When used with Exchange, Outlook is even more formidable. I agree that running your own Exchange server requires overhead and cost. But hosted Exchange services have been around for a long time, sparing one the complexity of operation while offering all the Exchange benefits. MEO is just one such service but as it turns out a relatively economical one. That Exchange is important cannot be denied; witness the presence of Exchange ActiveSync on virtually every smart phone.

Nonetheless, I tried the switch to Gmail just a few months before the free Google Apps service was discontinued. That experiment lasted a week. Part of the reason, of course, was that I continued to use Outlook and experienced the clash between the two different organizational styles. Outlook won, and that is when I signed up for MEO. Mail, contacts, and calendar have been running smoothly ever since. MEO has proven its mettle to me by working well with all three of the major smart phone platforms, Windows, Android, and iOS.

By the way, those PST files you don’t like are the very reason I was able to migrate relatively easily from my original POP account to GMAIL and then to MEO. If you move to Gmail and use it as a Web-based service only, then decide you want to change to something else (MEO or the next great thing), how will you migrate your mail? And how will you archive it locally?

I’m sure that Google Apps can work for a small business, as you suggest. I have some clients who are using it effectively for email. I just don’t think the mail service stacks up to the competition and I don’t think your article today offers enough information for folks to make a balanced choice.

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Honestly after investing a lot of personal effort in Google Video and even more so in Reader and having those rugs yanked out from under my feet, I’m disinclined to crawl back into bed with Google and grow dependent on their other offerings. Despite being a long-term fan, I’ve rapidly soured on the company due to their cavalier practices.

Do no evil, indeed.

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Woody – WOW, it sounds like a lot of sour grapes. Maybe you should check what else may be going on with your system(s) because I, and many others I know, have used Outlook, Office and Exchange for many years and have had little to no issues to speak of. Or has Google bought you too????

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Hi. In the UK, I use Sky email, which was run by Google, and I went for the IMAP option. I received my mail on the various devices, but only once, and when it was gone, it was gone (unless I specifically saved things locally). This month, for some reason they have moved to Yahoo! Mail and have said IMAP will no longer be supported. So I set up POP/SMTP which worked after a day or two and received massive loads of dead mails, sent files, all sorts of things, as did many others. This seems to have stopped now.

What I now get on my Samsung Note tablet are two sets of the same mails. I have set up my Sky address by default, read my mail, trash what I don’t need, and lo, as if by magic, the next time the machine sync’s back they all come. If I turn off sync, I get nothing. I am trying to figure out if there is a setting somewhere that says if something is dead, it is dead.

Interestingly, there appears to be no option to Mark as Read in Android Jellybean, because not only do my mails return, the return unread!

I thought Yahoo! was history, so what does Sky know that we do not?

regards

Mike

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Hey Woody,

I’ve always enjoyed your articles. I believe in full disclosure and I noticed that you left out the negative side of moving to Google Gmail & Apps. I have a gmail account because I had to create on for my smartphone. I use it for little else. Here are two of my concerns:
1. There is no privacy when it comes to Google. Google clearly states that they can use your email, apps, etc as meta-data to sell to their marketers. You should have warned your audience about this condition. If people are fine with Google using their email, data, etc, then there is no problem. I just believe you should have mentioned Google’s click through terms are the worst on the internet (near Facebook).

2. I have tried to use MS Office alternatives and I really liked them also, especially Open Office. I even provided my neighbors with a copy but they ran into problems when their kids brought their files into school. There files would not open in MS Office sometimes and if they did open, they lost their formatting. I tested it and I found the same problem and I removed the alternative versions. I found a discounted version of MS Office for my neighbors so they are fine now. Unless free alternatives fixed the compatibility issues with MS Office, I will not use them.

Thanks for reading & have a good day…

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Another big problem going google, in my opinion, is if you set up a google, g-mail account you will be bombarded with spam mail from them. I activated a gmail account on my phone and their spam mail is driving me nuts because there’s so much of it.

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If you send email using another address (e.g. woody [at] askwoody [dot com]), it will send it, but sooner or later, you will send one to someone whose ISP will filter it out as spam. Something in the way gmail spoofs the from: address is not perfect, and some mail receivers recognize that it isn’t coming from the from: address.

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I have used Gmail for very limited purposes, and am not a big fan. I will note that recently – in an “upgrade” (upgrades today seem almost always to be actually downgrades in that they often remove valuable functionality) – they removed the ability to send email using a different email address from your Gmail one, so the article is out-of-date on that issue. I still use Eudora, which has not been supported for many years, as my main email program. I do that because I have never found any other email program which is anywhere nearly as capable. That definitely includes Gmail. I’m not sure why the best applications in a field generally seem to be abandoned by their owners, but email is only one of the several areas in which I have noted that phenomenon.

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Thanks Will – you nailed it right on.

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Woody: “Unfortunately, Microsoft Office has become too bloated and expensive for the bakery — and many other small businesses — and that’s making alternatives more attractive.”

I don’t disagree. But, to me, jumping from MS to Google is like jumping from the frying pan into the fire. Must we choose between the lesser of two evils?

Woody: “It turns out I was wrong. The only insurmountable obstacles keeping me strapped to Outlook were fear and inertia.”

Obviously, you’re not too concerned about your privacy. If we all feed the beast, the beast will become emboldened to the point that it feels a sense of invincibility and entitlement. But, at that point, its too late. The damage is done.

For all of Google’s enticing come ons and attractive features, they can still be equated to the magician who can distract you with one hand while stealing your watch and dropping your pants around your ankles with the other hand while you don’t even notice… until you bend over to pull them up again. Then, you’re screwed.

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Woody, you might look at another alternative: Thunderbird. It works, and it doesn’t belong to Google. It offers message encryption and has a wide base of users.

Of course, you must know of this, but choose to ignore it. This is one reason I remain a little wary of Windows Secrets. You tend to stick with the major players and ignore the smaller outfits. As another example, in the field of web browsers, WS covers IE, Firefox, and Chrome. Now, I’m a long time Opera fan. And the name “Opera” is hardy ever breathed by WS, let alone mentioned. When I began using it, I remember paying for it, and was glad to do so. The people at Opera initiated a lot of very handy features, many of which are now included in the bigger firms’ apps. So in the future, maybe take a little time to get off the Interstate and take a look at the blue highways . . . there are some real treasures there to be found.

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I would like to thank you Woody for the reminder that I should not be in so much denial about my non-Exchange based Outlook usage (circa Outlook97).
I have not had any horror stories with my Outlook all these years, as you cite.
Of course (like the rest of us), in addition to my gmail account; I also have hotmail/outlook/yahoo accounts along with my own 1&1 website.
I fully realize that Outlook may not be the most ideal solution; yet considering all of the other mitigating issues with the usage of gmail (and other online mail clients), I continue to use it but know better than to put all my eggs in that one single basket.
Yet, in comparison to all of these other solutions; I trust my FastMail.fm email account (not so free) the most!

I wonder if you can provide us with an in-depth guidance for archiving Outlook *.pst files properly in an upcoming issue, so that we are not surprised in the future.:mellow:
I also would like to ask you why your article did not discuss the other “local” (versus “cloud”) alternative solution to Outlook >> namely Mozilla ThunderBird?

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I hesitate to say this, but my Outlook PST is several GBs and I’ve had no problems (other than moving my email from Outlook Express to “real” Outlook; now that sucked!).

Folders are really important to me but Woody didn’t mention them. Can I import my dozens of folders easily into Gmail?

AL
http://www.allowe.com

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I personally use Outlook as my email client because I am long familiar with how that mail system works. When I get my mail, I prefer it to be on MY computer so that I always have access to it. The last version of Outlook I enjoyed using was 2003. Why? For some unknown reason Microsoft decided that coloring your messages as they come into the inbox was a Bad Thing. (frankly, for me that was helpful to always be able to see (at a glance) which of my mails were the most important. For me, this was very effective at saving time. I’ve never found any other email program that will do this.

As for using Google…. I am learning to not like (and not trust) Google.

For example, I live in the Ukraine but I am an American. If I need a support site for my problem, Google decides, based on my IP address, to take me somewhere else (where it will all be in Russian or Ukrainian.) There is NO WAY to opt out of this. There is NO WAY to avoid it. Sometimes even typing something like “www.website.com” will take me to some Russian or European website instead.

Another example : I pull up Google and do a search. I would estimate about 1/5 the time I get this Capitcha page instead of a search results page, telling me I have been sending too many searches from my computer and NOW must type in the special characters in order to see my search page.

The problem with this is I have NOT sent any prior searches for likely hours; there is no malware on my system, I do not have a virus, etc. I may have just turned on my computer after sleeping for hours, making it impossible for my computer to have been sending searches to Google already. Again, there is no way to opt out of this. With such messed up control Google is leveraging on the Internet, I am surprised you can suggest giving them even MORE control over your data.

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Woody, you said:

“In my case, I moved woody (at) askwoody (dot com) from my own email servers to Gmail — and nobody knew, not a soul.”

i followed your instructions but it does not seem quite so transparent. messages sent from gmail have an address like this:

“myaddress@gmail.com on behalf of My Name <myispaddress (at) myisp (dot net)" anyway to get the send from address to just my old address?

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Woody, I respect your experience and views. But I have a different experience with Outlook. I have only been in the micro-computer consulting business for 35 years, and do try to keep up, but it does keep changing.

I currently have a few over 100 clients, 1/2 business, 1/2 single users. I see lots of variation on email use, and say whatever works for you, great, keep using it. But 75% of my clients do use Outlook, quite successfully. Over the past 15 years, I can count the total failures of the pst files on one hand. (and backups were at hand, so easy fixes) I will say I don’t have any experience with the 2013 version yet, but expect there will be some wrinkles for the first six months, as usual.

But I believe in pro-active maintenance of those PST files. Keep the deleted and junk folders emptied. Keep the Inbox and Sent Items folders to reasonable sizes (say under 2500 messages). Move all messages to be saved to their own specific folders. If folders get really large, or need archiving, create a separate pst file for that purpose. And do [compacting] on the pst file often.

I do not trust the cloud, yet. Yes, I use it as needed, but do not trust it! When I want my messages, I want them on my computer, not inaccessible due to a more than occasional hiccup on the internet, or email service. And my clients, for the most part feel the same.

Considering my clients tend to purchase Office once every 5-7 years, cost isn’t as good as free, but not that bad, especially for a business.

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Why would I give up my custom domain email for a ‘run of the mill’ gmail address? :huh:

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Thanks, Woody.
I wondered about Gmail and learned a few things from your article. My small company is using Outlook 2007 and 2010 on it’s computers because of the high degree of integration with not just email and contacts, but calendar and tasks. We recently started using a hosted MS Exchange Server 2010, which has made us even more collaborative. I am concerned about email and PIM capabilities first, then cost, then other issues. Can you compare the on-line Google offerings with Microcosoft’s on-line 365 product? I think that was meant to take on Google directly.
Dave

Who is John Galt?

Microsoft Surface Pro 3 with Windows 10, MS Office. Samsung Galaxy S9+ with Android 10.

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Google Apps works for big businesses too. Over 60% of the Fortune 100 have switched to Google Apps for Business, which costs less than Exchange, hosted Exchange, or Office 365. We migrate businesses from Exchange to Google Apps for Business frequently. With proper change management almost all of them are thrilled.

There’s absolutely no way can I believe that.
Those company’s would have huge IT and legal departments that would recognize the massive inherent risks in _any_ cloud app, especially google.
The total loss of control of their intellectual property would never be tolerated by them, nor should it be by anyone!

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I find it difficult to understand how Windows Secrets can be recommending relying on Google services after the company’s recent announcement that it was to close several services. I rely heavily on Google Reader on a daily basis. My online life revolves around it. And Google is shutting it on July 1.

Lesson learned. I am gradually trying to de-Google my life. No more reliance on free online services. For email, I have been using the reliable (paid) FastMail service for some time. I have Google mail accounts, but only for junk. For RSS, I am now looking at self-hosted services.

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I find it difficult to understand how Windows Secrets can be recommending relying on Google services after the company’s recent announcement that it was to close several services. I rely heavily on Google Reader on a daily basis. My online life revolves around it. And Google is shutting it on July 1.

Lesson learned. I am gradually trying to de-Google my life. No more reliance on free online services. For email, I have been using the reliable (paid) FastMail service for some time. I have Google mail accounts, but only for junk. For RSS, I am now looking at self-hosted services.

The newsletter is composed of articles from several columnists, I don’t think you can speak of a newsletter endorsement of any services. Columnists express their own opinions, which is perfectly legitimate and they should be seen as such. The fact that someone chose to do something doesn’t mean readers should just follow along. Each reader needs to evaluate each recommendation according to its own situation.

I am with you regarding Google. I don’t find them the least reliable – yes, Reader was my preferred way to acquiring information from multiple subjects, from sports, to general news, to very specific tech news. I think all these big companies that offer free services are pretty much alike. Microsoft removed support for valuable services, as well, so, in the end, they don’t differ much…

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I will miss Google Reader too, but it’s an antiquated tool which is being replaced by better solutions. RSS seems to be going away.

The death of Google Reader will no doubt lead to a substantial overnight drop in RSS usage (and a corresponding drop in visits to many web sites). The problem is that there is no replacement for RSS (in terms of an efficient method of reviewing large volumes of web content on a daily basis).

I have never used FastMail, but I would bet on Gmail over FastMail any time.

What an odd thing to write. As you said, you’ve never used FastMail. I’ve used both. FastMail’s feature set puts Gmail to shame. And the web interface is better, in my opinion. You should try it sometime.

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Perhaps endorsement is not the word that Woody would use, but he chose to bring it to our attention for a reason. I endorse Google Apps for Business, not just because I sell it, but because I believe it’s the best solution available. Google is reliable. What is generally less reliable is anything you get for free from Google or any other for profit business. Google’s paid services are very reliable. I’ve been using Google Apps for over 6 years and any time I have a problem I just call them and they fix it. Their support is Excellent. Gmail uptime was 99.983% in 2012.

It’s a choice. I would never choose Google’s solutions over Microsoft’s, but that’s a choice too. It’s a matter of trust and although I cannot state I completely trust either, I trust Google less than I do Microsoft.
I also dislike Google’s software, generally. Most products never seem to really get out of beta status, even when they do. Chrome is the notable exception.

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I recommend extreme caution when moving to Google Mail. My employer moved us to “bMail” (Google-hosted) and all seemed well until I discovered that perfectly legitimate emails from people already in my contacts list were being sent to the spam filter and in at least one case, a vital contact had given me up for dead because of no response for a month.

Make sure you go on the web and check your spam folder (and gunge it out) every few days. You have no idea how relieved my contact was to discover me alive and kicking.

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Which RSS reader will be your replacement?

Probably either TT-RSS or Fever (both self-hosted, but very different approaches to RSS). I’m trialling both at the moment.

FastMail costs more per GB, but I’d be willing to pay more if it’s truly better.
Does FastMail have a network of redundant data centers like Google?
Does FastMail backup to tape like Google?
Does FastMail maintain uptime in the range of over 99.9%?
Does FastMail have the benefit of the industry’s leading search engine built in?
Does FastMail prevent SPAM in your inbox as well as Gmail?
Does FastMail have integration with other Apps similar Google’s contacts, calendar, drive, sites, groups, etc.?

Your sales pitch for Google services is pretty aggressive. It was not my intention to “sell” FastMail or start a conversation about alternative services. But for the record, yes, FastMail can hold its own in all areas, including reliability, security and overall features. In particular I value its server-side scripting (users can directly edit their scripts). Like I said, try it sometime.

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Do you think you may trust Microsoft more because you pay Microsoft in cash and you pay Google in something you can’t measure?
Chrome is not only a fantastic browser, I am crazy about ChromeOS, which I run on my Chromebook. All the pain I used to put myself through with Windows is gone with the Chromebook.

Chrome OS is a browser on (a bit of) steroids. Sorry, that’s not a real OS and it met the market acceptance corresponding to that fact.

http://www.zdnet.com/first-real-world-usage-figures-suggest-chromebooks-are-struggling-7000014102/

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Based on the status logs it appears FastMail has been down three times already this month. Have you noticed any issues with your service? Do they offer free trials or do you have to sign up for a year to try it out? What do you use the server-side scripting for?

There’s a 60-day trial for all accounts. I haven’t noticed any down time — I find the comprehensive service status logs reassuring. I use the server-side scripting for filtering mail.

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I actively avoid all things google. I have deleted all google apps from my system. I still have a gmail account because there are several products that I registered with using that email. If you use google to search for something, notice that when you select a result that the link goes to google before it goes to your choice, This is so that google can track all of your activity and use that to direct ads. It also increases the time to get to your desired result. I have found ixquick to work quicker and it does not track you like google does. I have no desire to have google track all of my email activity, so I will pass on letting them have access to my other email accounts. I have designed software since 1966, so I have seen a lot of solutions come and go. I will not let another solution have all of my data since sooner or later that solution will go out of favor when a better solution comes along. Do any of you still have a Wordstar document? Any of you companies remember Wang word processing? In the 80’s I worked for Wang and over the years, I made a living moving Wang data to other platforms. I have converted many leading edge platforms to other ones over the years.

I have found that Thunderbird can handle my needs and I can still leave my data where I can control where it is stored.

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Google is great for when I travel since I can alwysa get it and it doesn’t look as strange and ugly as a regular POP mail account does when you use their web mail service.

However, I dislike several things about it for regular use. The worst being the lack of privacy and organization. I work in a business where everything is very confidential, and even at home, my email is no one else’s business and I hate that with Gmail you can’t tuck e-mails away in a folder. They’re all always just hanging out on the Inbox page, for anyone walking by to gaze at.

It really rots my socks because the grandkids have learned that I usually get their gifts on-line so they can scan my Gmail inbox and know what they’re getting for Christmas. I’ve learned to lock it down before they come but it’s a pain. Using my POP mail where I can hide things in a special folder is not really good because then I have to put up with advertising email for the rest of the year.

Gmail has made some good and useful changes over the years, but until it has a choice to use folders, it will never be really useful to me for a full-time app.

"She was not quite what you would call refined. She was not quite what you would call unrefined.
She was the kind of person that keeps a parrot."
--Mark Twain

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Woody
I can’t imagine why anyone would even consider “Going Google” given their record on privacy in general and their apparent lack of concern for the privacy rights of individuals and the contents of their email. In my opinion they abandoned their “do no evil” motto a long time ago and went over to the darks side. Their transgressions in this regard actually caused me to move in the opposite direction of your recommendations. I had a Google domain and used GMAIL for email for a number of years and finally moved it to Microsoft live domains based primarily on privacy concerns even though I felt I lost a number of management features. Their deliberate missteps in the regard eventually led to Google’s privacy czar leaving or being forced to step down but they have said nothing about changing the attitudes or policies that led to this action. It is almost as if she was a scape goat. The only reason I still maintain a GMAIL/Google account is because I own a tablet which runs Android. That experience has convinced me I will never own another Android device or phone given how easy they make it for me to unwittingly give up my personal information and contacts so advertisements can be sent my way to pay for the “FREE” apps I use. The sad thing is if I pay for the Apps I often must make the same privacy concessions anyway but I just don’t have to suffer the ads. Microsoft’s Scroogled campaign has hit a nerve because it defines what I experienced and how I feel. For me GMAIL has become my Junk mail account where email marketing goes to die and with recommendations like these I may soon be sending Windows Secrets there as well.

Nothing is ever free, be careful what you give up to get something you think costs you nothing. As a purveyor of a newsletter the Windows Secrets folks should understand that better than most. When my tablet finally dies so will the last of my connections with Google, it remains to be seen if Windows Secrets goes with it and I don’t say that lightly as I have “followed” you since the days of WOPR.

With Apologies to the late Robert Palmer, for me, Google is simply resistible…

HR

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Hi, hrboyce,

Your comments regarding Google and its abysmal track record on privacy are right on target. I do my level best to avoid anything Google wherever possible, including using Abine’s DoNotTrackMe add-on for Firefox to block Google’s tracking and the Google Sharing add-on, which mixes the requests of many Google users together in order to make it impossible for Google to track any one user. I also use the NoScript add-on, which makes it possible to block many of the Google tentacles. I reluctantly use an Android phone as the lesser of two evils (Apple phones are way overpriced, and I just read that Apple apparently keeps all Siri requests for two years), and plan to root my phone after the warranty is expired in order to make it possible for me to uninstall every #$#%! Google app on the phone.

If those of us who value privacy vote with our $$ and our use of Google-free or Google-blocking software/apps, eventually that invasive behemoth may start to pay attention, especially if it starts hitting them in the wallet, but unless Google changes some day into an organization with a strict respect for my privacy (Fat chance!), I will (like you) stay as Google-free as I possibly can, and ditto for any other companies who would compromise my privacy. My privacy is not for sale.

Many thanks for an excellent post.

Cheers,
Al

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“There is no reason to maintain or pay for Exchange server. ” Seriously? Line of business apps that rely on Exchange server back end? Work flows that uutilize Exchange? Archives on premises that fit the compliance model needed for the business. To say that there is NO reason is overbroad and simplistic.

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I was recently asked to become a board member for the computer club in the gated community where I live. At a recent board meeting we were discussing email etc. and it was the same thing again… Google this, Google that. We happened to be talking about helping people setting up their emails, and quite frankly I nearly bit my tongue off at one board member in particular with her Google this Google that attitude. I finally spoke up about it, and asked why she was so in love with Google. Her answers were so bizarre they aren’t worth repeating and it clearly showed she had no clue about other services.
Long story short, I put on a short class comparing services Google, Microsoft, AOL, Yahoo. She and others had no clue that Google was using their email content to send them adds……. My final words….. The choice is yours!
Oh and one final note….. I ran a “Scroogled” ad for them

I like others that have posted in this string have nothing to do with anything Google, and have removed everything from my computer that has any association to Google. I use Bing as my search engine, and it does just fine……

As for the cloud, I have 2 SkyDrive accounts, and what data is on one, is on both. But! I also keep the files that are truly non replaceable on a USB attached Maxtor 500 Gb hard drive, that I can access from my Windows 8 Phone through SkyDrive.

Just my $.02 worth! 😉

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If I do move my e-mail to my Gmail account, what happens if I drop my current e-mail provider (a local cable company)? Will I still be able to use my existing e-mail address? I have so many things associated with this e-mail address, I have been reluctant to move to a cloud e-mail account.

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If I do move my e-mail to my Gmail account, what happens if I drop my current e-mail provider (a local cable company)? Will I still be able to use my existing e-mail address? I have so many things associated with this e-mail address, I have been reluctant to move to a cloud e-mail account.

If your email is from your cable provider, while you can have a cloud provider to collect it, you will still need your cable provider to host it.

It’s not easy to move from an email associated with a provider. If you think you will want to do it, eventually, the sooner you start preparing for it, the better. First thing would be to get a provider independent address. You could get an address from Microsoft or Google (!) and start using that one for new situations where you need to provide an email address, while you slowly replace the current address on situations where it is already being used.

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Hi t8ntlikly, I notice you have a big issue with Google Services >>

Google this, Google that!

Back in the day, I used to be the same way about those who used AOL and Norton. It had gotten to a point where if I got a sniff of either of those products on a machine that was showing signs of problems, I would walk away. I did not want to have anything to do with neither AOL or Norton, as I felt they were doing a disservice to the computing populace!
😡
But then, I realized that my grief was not against people that used those products but against those companies that did evil-ish things to the unsuspecting peeps! I think the original Google motto was “Do No Evil“ but I must admit Google was a game changer in the industry and allowed users many benefits although their existence was primarily for profit and not to be our best pal!
You may not like Google and I may be suspicious of putting all my eggs in that Google basket but diversity is a good thing, even if done out of naivete or without exploring alternative choices or simply choosing the lesser evil based on other requirements each user may have!
:rolleyes:
In the past 6 years, I have become more adamant against over-priced Apple products but instead of going on my high-horse and categorically chiding those who use Apple products, I graciously accept that Apple was a game changer (as was Google) and has become a status symbol for many! I also have a strong disdain for monopolistic business practices, yet (as with Google) my negative feelings are not against the users. Heck, my g/f has two iPhones and I am still obliged to service and maintain those products on her behalf!
:^_^:
What I am trying to tell you is to get off your high-horse and stop attempting to be an evangelist for such things. It really is not the right fight and it will age you quicker and people will call you unkind names, behind your back. Especially those whom you have to live around/with!
And Oh, BTW, the proper terminology is

Google this, Apple that!

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Your email is private.

NO email sent through any system is private unless it has been properly encrypted or is otherwise shielded from scanning. Sending an unencrypted email is essentially like sending an electronic postcard. It can be read or scanned by any server through which it passes or in which it lands if that server is set up to do so. That’s why email encryption programs exist and are used by those who value their privacy.

No humans at Google read your email unless you send it to them.

Sorry, but that wording evades the point. Whether humans at Google read your email is not the issue. The first issue is that Google electronically scans the emails that flow through its system in order to gather information on the senders, information it then uses to build a profile of them so that it can target ads to those senders. The second issue is what other use of that information Google has made, is making, or may make in the future. That’s why those of us who value our privacy and don’t want Google (or any other company) to build profiles of us without our permission avoid Google products and do everything we can to avoid tracking, whether by Google or anyone else.

Neither Google nor any other company has the right to track me without my express permission, but laws dealing with technology adapt and change with glacial slowness – compared to the lightning-fast changes in technology itself – as cases dealing with these issues slowly work their way through the courts and into case law and legislation. As a result, until the law catches up with such privacy invasions and protects the personal privacy of Google users, I and others will avoid Google products like the plague.

If you or others choose to use Google products, I sincerely wish you well, but my privacy is not negotiable.

Cheers,
Al

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Strange to see an advertising company recommended for software needs. If I visit Advertising Secrets, will I see a column recommending switching to a software company for advertising needs?

Don’t all pile on Woody though, he’s written some great stuff in past decades and nobody can be an expert at everything, especially when he’s only at the beginning stages of the project. This and future articles are his thoughts about why some people should consider an advertising company for software needs. They should be good at convincing people after all, since they’re an advertising company.

When he’s had experience using the product, let’s look forward to a summary of what being the product is like.

Lugh.
~
Alienware Aurora R6; Win10 Home x64 1803; Office 365 x32
i7-7700; GeForce GTX 1060; 16GB DDR4 2400; 1TB SSD, 256GB SSD, 4TB HD

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I am always forced to go back to one of my favorite quotes of the late-20th Century.
The chief executive officer Scott McNealy of Sun MicroSystems said that Consumer Privacy issues are:

”… a red herring.” “You have zero privacy anyway,” “Get over it.”[/size]

…during a speech to a group of reporters and analysts Monday night (Jan. 26, 1999) at an event to launch his company’s new Jini technology.

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I am always forced to go back to one of my favorite quotes of the late-20th Century.
The chief executive officer Scott McNealy of Sun MicroSystems said that Consumer Privacy issues are:
“… a red herring.” “You have zero privacy anyway,” “Get over it.”
…during a speech to a group of reporters and analysts Monday night (Jan. 26, 1999) at an event to launch his company’s new Jini technology.

Hi, Pseudoid,

Gee, are you sure that was Scott McNealy? I could have sworn that was Big Brother in George Orwell’s “1984.”;)

Cheers,
Al

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Mike,

I’ve been using Google Apps for over 6 years. I love it. None of my email is top secret and I don’t see any advertisements. I value my privacy and don’t feel it’s been compromised without my consent. If you want to be private, stay off the Internet!

Hi, Douglas,

With all due respect, that last sentence in your reply to Mike is out of line. Telling him that if he wants privacy to “stay off the Internet!” is inappropriate and uncalled for. He and I and all other Internet users who wish to remain private have every right to our privacy on the Internet and Google (or any other company) has ZERO right to invade our privacy without our express permission.

If I had a company that could use speech recognition software to screen phone calls of everybody who used telephone service so I could gather information on callers and target them with telemarketing ads, would you be keen to have me screen all your calls to your wife or girlfriend, or perhaps your accountant, doctor, or attorney, and gather that information into a profile I keep on you? And if you argued against my right to do that (as you indeed should), how would you like it if my response to you was, “If you want to be private, stay off the phone!”?

You and I and others have already been through this subject of Google vs. Internet privacy before at considerable length in another thread some time ago. We understand that you’re very enthusiastic about Google, and as a Google reseller, it’s only natural that you would be; we get that. However, telling people who value their privacy to “stay off the Internet!” – which implies that when we use the Internet, Google and others have an inherent right to invade our privacy to their heart’s content and we can just like it and do whatever Google wants, or else “stay off the Internet!” – is frankly out of line.

WindowsSecrets is a great site and this forum has a lot of knowledgeable and experienced Loungers who share their knowledge and experience for free. You’re absolutely entitled to express your thoughts and opinions, as are those who may disagree with you, but it’s important to maintain civility. We all need to keep it friendly, tolerant, and cooperative for our mutual benefit.

Cheers,
Al

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Gentlemen,

A gentle reminder of Lounge Rule #9:

(…)To avoid problems, be sure to read over your post before sending it. If you’re joking, make it clear so that other members do not take it the wrong way. In other words, just try to be courteous.

Do I need to say more?

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Agreed, ruirib. That was precisely the point I was trying to make, though you have done so more simply, and therefore far better and more eloquently, than I did. The Lounge is a wonderful place to discuss such matters and it’s great to hear all sides of an issue, but we all need to maintain civility, friendliness, tolerance, and cooperation in order to keep the Lounge the great place it is.

Thank you for your post.

Cheers,
Al

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Al,

Thanks for your detailed response to my last sentence: “If you want to be private, stay off the Internet!”. I appreciate the care, consideration and eloquence of your response. It’s so much nicer (and more informative) to read carefully composed information! I did not mean to be inappropriate, and I think that anyone who felt it was inappropriate has misunderstood me. I meant what I wrote in a friendly, honest and courteous way. Please try to imagine me smiling while making that statement 🙂

In my opinion, the Internet is not really private; the Internet is basically public. I think when you go on the Internet it’s like walking out your front door, visible to anyone who wants to watch. If you choose to use Google’s free services, you are granting them the right to be compensated for those services through the sale of advertising. No one at Google reads your Gmail, but keywords are indexed in the same way the rest of the Internet is indexed by Google’s search engines. The result is the ability to predict what may interest you. I like targeted advertising; I’d rather see advertisements for goods and services which interest me, rather than totally random advertisements, most of which will not interest me. I also prefer to pay for goods and services rather than get them in exchange for seeing those advertisements. If you compare what you give up with what you get, I think Google offers an amazing set of free services, and I’m thrilled to have access to them.

Hi, Douglas,

Thanks for your post. I assure you that there was not a single shred of animosity in anything I wrote, merely concern, as that last sentence came across, to my ear at least [Ah, the perils of the printed word!], as a rather abrupt and dismissive retort to Mike’s thought-provoking post, so I tried, however inarticulately, to rise to the defense of both Mike and the standards of the Lounge. Fear not, however; I shall henceforth do as you suggest and try to imagine you smiling (:)) when making that statement!

Now, as to your analogy:

In my opinion, the Internet is not really private; the Internet is basically public. I think when you go on the Internet it’s like walking out your front door, visible to anyone who wants to watch.

I’m afraid that you’re missing a big distinction. If I post something on the Internet – whether on one of my web pages, or on Facebook, through a tweet on Twitter, or whatever – then you are absolutely correct. Posting on the Internet is indeed public, perhaps the most public of all acts, analogous to putting your information on a huge billboard for all 7 billion people in the world to see, a lesson that desperately needs to be brought home strongly to children and teenagers [and some politicians!] who post all sorts of inappropriate or private things and suffer (or cause suffering to others) accordingly.

Here’s your missing piece, though: While to post on the Internet is of course to make whatever you post public, that does not apply to other forms of Internet use. Posting is indeed like going out my front door and putting a billboard in my front yard, and that private detective you mentioned in a previous post has every right to read and take note of what I’ve posted. However, if I am sitting in the privacy of my own home and reading a page on the Internet, that is a private act, and neither Google nor any other company has the right to monitor what I am reading, any more than your private detective has the right to walk into my home and watch over my shoulder as I read the newspaper, noting what stories I read and what ads I look at. Likewise, your private detective cannot legally open and scan my posted letters or emails, nor monitor my phone conversations for words to “index” (a lovely euphemism for “monitor and file away for whatever future use we choose”). My private reading, my private writings, and my private speaking to others are just that – private – and that privacy is rightly protected under law and indeed enshrined in the U.S. Constitution under the Fourth Amendment. That privacy can only be legally invaded by law enforcement officials who must convince an impartial judge that they have sufficient just cause for invading that privacy and that an order for a wiretap or a warrant for the seizure of papers should be issued.

I’m glad that you and others are thrilled with Google’s services and I genuinely wish you every success with them. I have no doubt that they are well designed and make your computing life better and/or easier, and that is a good thing. Please just accept, however, that there are many of us – often, though by no means always, with more than a little gray hair – who care deeply about our personal privacy, not because we have anything nefarious to hide, but as a matter of principle, in part because we have studied history and know that when dossiers or profiles have been accumulated on individuals in the past, it has given tremendous power to those who had that information and has resulted in terrible abuses of human freedom. I am absolutely not saying that Google or any other company has specific harmful plans in mind to misuse any information it gathers, but the fact remains that information is power and there is no guarantee that any organization with that much power will remain uncorrupted, human nature being what it is, nor is there any guarantee that such information will not fall into the hands of others who may misuse it (e.g., under government subpoena).

In short, Google (and anyone else) has every right to read, scan, “index,” or do whatever else it wishes with anything that I or others post on the Internet. It has no right, however, to monitor my Internet reading, my emails, or my Internet phone conversations if I use such a service. Those are, and should always remain, private, so speaking for myself – though I suspect also for many others like those who have posted thoughts similar to mine on this subject – my privacy is not negotiable.

I wish you well.

Cheers,
Al

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Al,

I think email messages are more accurately compared to post cards than sealed letters. Every server hop your messages make further exposes their contents. I’m not a website expert, but I think when you browse a website in the privacy of your home, you are identifying that a computer with an IP address assigned to you/your account allowed someone at your address to view or listen to the content of that site. There are options that claim to allow you to browse anonymously, but I’m not sure how anonymous that browsing really is. I think the only 100% privacy we have is inside our heads. The expectation of privacy seems to be changing as a result of technology.

Hi, Douglas,

I agree with you that unencrypted email messages are like electronic post cards, as I said above. But when you say that “Every server hop your messages make further exposes their contents,” the answer is, “Not unless somebody deliberately sets out to read, scan, or “index” those contents.” Servers are inanimate and passive, only doing what humans program them to do, so if they look at the contents of our emails, it is because certain humans, whether at Google or elsewhere, have programmed those servers to look at our emails for some purpose. It is the actions of the humans, not the servers, that are in question. By what legal or moral authority does Google (or any other company) have the right to read/scan/”index” the private email correspondence their users send, as well as information on which web pages those users read, which ads they click on, what information they search for, what they download, what they post on Facebook, etc., then keep it in a profile to be used as any humans at Google. either now or at some future time, may choose?

As to anonymous browsing, that is indeed a reality, and there are many different options (e.g., JonDoFox) to allow users to browse anonymously, but that subject is best dealt with in another thread.

And finally, with regard to, “The expectation of privacy seems to be changing as a result of technology,” I would only suggest that those changed expectations are primarily on the part of those who wish to intrude on the privacy of others, not on the part of members of the population at large, the overwhelming majority of whom don’t have the faintest idea of what happens when they use the services of Google or similar companies which track their users. You might find it instructive to conduct your own survey by just walking up to strangers on the street and asking, “I have a company that wants your permission to scan every email you send, “index” the contents and keep a record of them, and also record every web site you visit, every ad you click on, every search you make, everything you download, and everything you post on Facebook, after which it will compile all that information into a profile of you that it will keep and use for whatever corporate purposes it sees fit. Will you agree to let my company do that?” Only when people are fully informed about what really happens with their privacy, will the real level of their “expectation of privacy” become apparent.

The majority of computer users use Internet services either just because those services happen to be the ones set up on the computers they’re using, or because they like the way those services work, and they know little, if anything, about what goes on behind the scenes. However, lack of awareness about such monitoring and tracking does not constitute approval or agreement to such practices. All that I and others are asking for is full disclosure by the companies who monitor and track, enforced by a requirement for a positive “opt-in” permission from each user for any such monitoring and tracking. That way, those who want to be tracked can be tracked, while those who want to preserve their privacy can preserve their privacy. This is no different than the requirement by reputable email marketing companies that the email address lists used by their clients contain only addresses of individuals who have positively “opted-in” to receive emails from those clients so that email addresses of those who have not “opted-in” are not spammed with unwanted email.

Simply put: To me, the monitoring and tracking by Google is a massive invasion of my privacy, so I avoid all things Google whenever possible; to you, that monitoring and tracking is acceptable, so you use, sell, and enjoy Google’s services, and there, perhaps, it’s best to leave it. We can just agree to disagree.

I wish you all the best.

Cheers,
Al

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