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Google CEO — Take Your Data and Run 116

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the web-two-point-oh-no-there-goes-our-monopoly dept.
BobB writes to tell us that Google is promising to make the data they store for end users more portable and is urging other companies to do the same. From the article: "Making it simple for users to walk away from a Google service with which they are unhappy keeps the company honest and on its toes, and Google competitors should embrace this data portability principle, Eric Schmidt said at the Web 2.0 Conference in San Francisco."
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Google CEO — Take Your Data and Run More

Google CEO — Take Your Data and Run

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  • taken (Score:1, Funny)

    by legallyillegal ( 889865 )
    i'll take this post and run
    • Hi Slashdot, umm i'd like to remove this post from the internet- I forgot to check the Post Anonymously button. Doesn't it say comments are property of their respective users? Can I please have this post back? No? Read the FAQs? Dang.

      Just Sayin'

  • Kudos to them (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Lovedumplingx ( 245300 )
    I didn't RTFA but the concept sounds quite tantalizing. Good for them.

  • Evolution hooks into Gmail would be sweet! (Score:3, Interesting)

    by chroot_james ( 833654 ) on Wednesday November 08, 2006 @03:40PM (#16773329) Homepage
    see subject.

    • Re:Evolution hooks into Gmail would be sweet! (Score:5, Informative)

      by Salvance ( 1014001 ) * on Wednesday November 08, 2006 @03:54PM (#16773667) Homepage Journal
      Already does ... gmail has a POP3 server, so you can just download into Evolution (unless you want the actual GMail GUI in Evolution, which seems rather bizarre since the Evolution interface is already pretty "sweet").
      • You missed a few other things google provides... though I did say gmail when I should've said google... Anyway, I'm thinking more along the lines of using google as an exchange server and providing exchange type functionality directly into evolution from google. Maybe then I'd find the google calendar useful!
        • NOW you're talking! That would be great ... exchange is such a bloated piece of @#$@ it's virtually inconceivable that there hasn't been anything good to take it's place. Google certainly could do it ... and probably even make some decent $$$ from it.

        • Re: (Score:1)

          by no1nose ( 993082 )
          I pray for this every night before I go to bed.
    • While it would be sweet, the thing about GMail's POP3 service is, so far as I can tell, only sending about 300-500 e-mails per check. I've got about 30,000 e-mails on Gmail, and I basically have to wait overnight to let my computer download them all. I really would like a data file that I could just download and dump into Thunderbird. It would make it quite a bit easier when I have to reformat.

      --Brian Boyko, New Media Comm. Spec., NetQoS
      --www.networkperformancedaily.com [networkper...edaily.com]
    • Evolution hooks into Google Calendar would be better. A quick and easy way to post your calendar on the web, right from within Evolution. That would be quite useful to a lot of people, myself included.

  • Difficult for more complex data? (Score:5, Informative)

    by Salvance ( 1014001 ) * on Wednesday November 08, 2006 @03:42PM (#16773365) Homepage Journal
    It's applaudable that Google is doing this, although not at all surprising. But most of the user data they store is pretty simple (spreadsheets, e-mails, etc.), so making it portable is relatively easy. This is far more difficult to do for real business data, like hosted CRM solutions (e.g. Salesforce). Google also doesn't have much to lose by making their data portable ... almost all their services are free, vs. Salesforce which has the potential to lose millions per year on some of their larger customes.

    • Re:Difficult for more complex data? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by chroot_james ( 833654 ) on Wednesday November 08, 2006 @03:45PM (#16773459) Homepage
      just because a service is given away for free does not mean it's not profitable. google has a lot to loose if people stop using their services...

      • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

        by Salvance ( 1014001 ) *
        Definitely, but not much to lose if a handful stop using it. If ADP stops using Salesforce, it would have serious implications to their bottom line. If you and I stop using GMail, they'll probably lose about $3/year in advertising revenue. That's the crux of the problem ... the risk is so much greater than the reward for companies that have complex systems with high revenue/client, while the reward and PR far outweighs the risk for companies like Google with hundreds of millions of customers and very lit

        • Re: (Score:1)

          by inca34 ( 954872 )
          If Salesforce is in business because they have proprietary data formats, they will go under sooner or later unless they start relying more than just a format to keep their customers. Hence the honesty that Eric Schmidt was talking about. Isn't there a free marketeer somewhere around here to take this up? =)

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by yoha ( 249396 )
        By definition, giving away something free means it's not profitable. Let me help you with the math -

        Revenue - Costs = Profits

        If revenue equals "0" (ie giving away for free), then profits would have to be less than or equal to 0.

        If the company collects advertising fees, then the product is not for free. In fact, the service being provided is YOU, in that YOU are the product, which advertisers are paying for. You recieve no profits, on the other hand, as you are choosing in-kind compensation.
      • That's true, but for me, being able to take my data with me and not be locked (cough, Hotmail, cough) will make that service more attractive, and therefore there's a bigger chance I'll use it. On the other hand, I know people (generally not tech-savyy at all) who stick with Hotmail because they'll lose all their emails if they switch.

    • Re:Difficult for more complex data? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by DragonWriter ( 970822 ) on Wednesday November 08, 2006 @03:55PM (#16773689)
      Google also doesn't have much to lose by making their data portable ... almost all their services are free, vs. Salesforce which has the potential to lose millions per year on some of their larger customes.


      They don't stand as much to lose from any one customer leaving, but they face as much of a problem as anyone else if the same percentage of their customers choose to leave. What Google is gambling is that, if they have a good product, the reduction in the disincentive to give it a whirl that comes from people knowing up front that if they decide to leave, it will be painless will gain them more customers than easing out migration will lose them. And also that someone that has a good experience leaving one Google service may be more likely to try another Google service.
      • Joel has a very good article on this at joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog0000000052.html [joelonsoftware.com] written several years ago.

        I wonder if Google will forward your gmail address if you decide to quit?
        • It's already easy to forward all your mail. It's in the settings, under Forwarding and POP. Simply put in your e-mail address and all your e-mail is now forwarded.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by Yez70 ( 924200 )
        You hit the nail on the head. They will gain far more customers/users from the fact that you can leave easily.

        One of the reasons I used to hate to change ISPs was I had to change my email address - now I use gmail so I never have to worry about that. If I want to leave gmail, I can and not lose a thing - they'll even forward my mail free for life. Everyone I explain this and the other finer points of gmail to ends up switching to gmail themselves. It's portable.

        Contact lists have always been a pain for

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by mspohr ( 589790 )
      There have already been cases where electronic medical records vendors have refused to release patient medical information for doctors who want to move their patients to another system.

      There should be some "right" to your own information.

  • for the "omg you google fanboys" people (Score:5, Insightful)

    by bunions ( 970377 ) on Wednesday November 08, 2006 @03:43PM (#16773389)
    next time you post some nonsense about how "all the slashdot people idolize google for some reason," this would be a good example of why we like them.
    • This deserves at least a +1 insightful.

    • Re:for the "omg you google fanboys" people (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Headcase88 ( 828620 ) on Wednesday November 08, 2006 @04:02PM (#16773851) Journal
      I certainly like Google but that's bullshit. Eric is tactful with his words; surely all of this data portability stuff has an additional purpose, like, say, helping bringing valuable data in to Google's services? MS Office is the incumbent here, so of course Google wants to make it easy to transfer data between MS Office and Google Docs & Spreadsheets, for example.

      Not saying it's a bad thing, not saying Google isn't a great company, but I wouldn't take any claims made by x about how great x is at face value.
      • Actually, when I read this, I think it's aimed at Flickr.

        Yahoo's Flickr and Google's Picasa Web Albums are basically similar services. Flickr is a much bigger and more mature service, but Google's has more features and offers more control -- in particular, it implements some features that folks on Flickr have been begging for, literally for years in some cases.

        (For example, Web Albums lets you upload photos to an "unlisted" album, which you can then send out special invitation emails out from; only people with the special URL in the email can access the photos. Flickr provides no such method of control; either your photos are public and open to the world, or they're open only to specific Flickr members you designate as 'friends' or 'family.' Basically, if you want to share photos only with your family, Flickr wants you to sign them all up for Yahoo IDs and Flickr memberships. Yeah, right.)

        But once you have a few hundred photos up on Flickr, it's difficult to migrate off of. If you have them all carefully organized in iPhoto or something, then maybe you can do it, but if you've uploaded a few photos from here, a few from there, scattered across a dozen computers or emailed from mobile phones, there's no easy way to extract everything and migrate it to a different service. You're basically stuck with Yahoo, and the longer you stay with them, the more photos you upload ... you can see where it goes. (Although, maybe there's some way you could come up with a shell script that would parse Flickr's URLs and download the full-resolution photos, and file them according to photosets and other information.)

        If the data was more easily transferable, then people could migrate from one service to the next. As adoption of Google's Web Albums is hobbled directly by the difficulty of moving off of Flickr, I saw this as one possible interpretation of the article's meaning.

        • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

          by maxume ( 22995 )
          The big Y is pretty open. Interestingly, that behavior increased markedly when they acquired, of all things, Flickr. For example:

          http://developer.yahoo.com/flickr/ [yahoo.com]
          http://www.flickrbits.com/ [flickrbits.com]
          http://greggman.com/pages/flickrdown.htm [greggman.com]

          That doesn't help you get your data into something else, but out isn't really an issue.

        • Re:Wonder if they were thinking of Flickr. (Score:5, Informative)

          by dmd ( 404 ) <dmd@@@3e...org> on Wednesday November 08, 2006 @07:23PM (#16777373) Homepage
          maybe there's some way you could come up with a shell script that would parse Flickr's URLs and download the full-resolution photos

          "Maybe"?

          Flickr is one of the most open and programmable sites out there. Check out http://www.flickr.com/services/api/ [flickr.com] -- absolutely everything you can do at Flickr, you can do programatically.

          There are thousands of third party utilities that operate over Flickr photos, including many that will download all your photos along with all the metadata. There's even a perl module for it, Net::Flickr::Backup.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by revery ( 456516 )
        I certainly like Google but that's b******t. Eric is tactful with his words; surely all of this data portability stuff has an additional purpose, like, say, helping bringing valuable data in to Google's services? MS Office is the incumbent here, so of course Google wants to make it easy to transfer data between MS Office and Google Docs & Spreadsheets, for example.

        Yes, because we all know that as soon Google does something Microsoft must follow suit. And since when does a company have to behave with a
      • I certainly like Google but that's bullshit. Eric is tactful with his words; surely all of this data portability stuff has an additional purpose, like, say, helping bringing valuable data in to Google's services?

        Umm, obviously? But that doesn't make it bullshit unless Google fails to live up to this themselves in markets where they already have strong dominance (eg. Gmail).

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Otter ( 3800 )
      next time you post some nonsense about how "all the slashdot people idolize google for some reason," this would be a good example of why we like them.

      Yeah, Eric Schmidt makes some vague promise about what they're going to do and you guys start fawning over them like it's actually happened.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by bunions ( 970377 )
        well, yeah, it's not here yet. But I can't remember the last time I even heard anything like this from anyone else, modulus open source people. Can you?
      • You know, to be fair, Eric Schmidt isn't exactly Peter Molyneux.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by metlin ( 258108 )
      You do realize that this is a marketing trick, right?

      If Google makes their data more portable, then everyone else will be forced to, especially after they've come out and asked others to.

      Now imagine, if you can move all your data from $SERVICE to Google, and the only thing keeping you with $SERVICE is your data.

      Basically, by allowing this, Google says you can leave the coolest hangout and go to other hangouts, but others should also be able to leave their hangouts and come hang out with Google.

      Guess what's

      • Re: (Score:2, Funny)

        by Anonymous Coward
        So you're saying that what's good for the customer is good for the company? What a strange concept; you must be full of shit.
      • As long as Google is offering a superior service I have no problem. Like all the bars in NOLA who let you carry around drinks and bring other bars drinks in, they arn't worried about the competition just want to offer a superior drink.. Yea.. its like that! :) .. Uhh wear am I??

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by bunions ( 970377 )

        If Google makes their data more portable, then everyone else will be forced to, especially after they've come out and asked others to.

        Now imagine, if you can move all your data from $SERVICE to Google, and the only thing keeping you with $SERVICE is your data.

        Basically, by allowing this, Google says you can leave the coolest hangout and go to other hangouts, but others should also be able to leave their hangouts and come hang out with Google.

        uh, ok, and the problem with all this is ...

        um?

        I don't know. How

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by zotz ( 3951 )
      Actually,

      I have my issues with them. I also appreciate much of what they do.

      Do no evil is ok... and do good might be better.

      all the best,

      drew
      http://www.ourmedia.org/node/262954 [ourmedia.org]
      Sayings
      A NaNoWriMo contest novel in the writing
      use under CC BY-SA (most copyleft license CC provides)
  • Just another thing google is trying to do to impove its image, they always wanted to look like the good big corp, and its working, (i think)

  • Better yet.. (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Creepy Crawler ( 680178 ) on Wednesday November 08, 2006 @03:54PM (#16773657)
    I like this idea as a backup strategy, so that you can copy the "image" once a week so that you will NEVER lose your data.
    • Its a great strategy. I have been worried about my increasing reliance on g-mail... that if it ever disappeared for some reason I would find it really hard to transition to a new app. I was seriously considering a 12 step program to switch back to a client side mail application. But now I don't have to worry, if gmail ever disappears I'll still have to go cold turkey, but at least I won't loose any data.
      • You could always connect via POP and download your GMail to a traditional mail system of your choice periodically.

        I'm not sure what happens the first time you connect, because it's been a while that I've been using it, but if I read my email via the web interface (say at work, or at a friend's house) those same messages will still be downloaded via POP the next time I connect it. Even if I've already read/responded/archived those messages (actually it downloads sent messages, too). So this results in me hav
        • You do have to enable POP3 for all mails in your GMail settings to be able to download all of it. Alternately you can set it up to allow only mails since the day you set it up to be pop3 accessible, though I'm not sure what good that is.

          I've gotten fed up with waiting for GMail to load all the time, so I'll be getting a client soon and doing what you're doing. Gmail has fast downloads, spam handling, a tonne of storage and a nice interface, so I'll be sticking with them (their disadvantage is privacy concer
          • Interesting, I didn't even know those settings were there. I'll have to go into the web interface and poke around to see what they've added new in there.

            You don't lose a whole lot in moving from the web interface to a local mailreader; Google's spam headers that it uses for handing still come through in your downloaded messages, so you can set your local spamfilters to take advantage of them. (Though you might want to use with some care; I have servers that email me logs at night, and Gmail has always perce

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by vfwlkr ( 668341 )
      I wish they had implemented this already in Google docs and spreadsheets
      The only reason I've not ported most of my docs there is that there's no simple way to backup all of them at once.

  • This is a big gamble... (Score:4, Interesting)

    by greenguy ( 162630 ) <`estebandido' `at' `gmail.com'> on Wednesday November 08, 2006 @03:56PM (#16773715) Homepage Journal
    ...and it's going to pay off.

    The technological aspect pales in comparison to the message that "The biggest reason to use us is that you don't have to," and its corollary, "People who use our services do so because they want to, not because we have them locked in."
  • doot doot doot

  • API for Contacts? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by jj00 ( 599158 ) on Wednesday November 08, 2006 @04:07PM (#16773935)
    How about an API so I can access my Contacts?

    Can someone send this article to Palm? I'm sick of having to export my Palm contacts as vcards and import them into Yahoo (Yes Yahoo - Gmail only accepts csv).

  • Moo (Score:3, Funny)

    by Chacham ( 981 ) on Wednesday November 08, 2006 @04:08PM (#16773949) Homepage Journal
    John Doe Vs Mr. Google Man:

    Judge: John Doe, what is your claim against the defendant?

    John Doe: Mr Google Man said my data would be portable. When i asked him where my data was, he said "search me".

    Judge: Mr. Google Man, did you indeed say "search me".

    Mr. Google Man: Yes sir, i did.

    Judge: And why? Did you not have the data in a portable fashion?

    Mr. Google Man: Yes, i did. When i said "search me", i mean to go to the google home page, and search for it.

    Judge: And why should he search for it?

    Mr. Google Man: The new privatedata.google.com (beta) has easy access to everyone's private information, and he could access it more easily there than anywhere else.

    Judge: Do you mean to say that people's private data, for example, mine, is easily availabe?

    Mr. Google Man: Yes sir. The Google Man can!

    John Doe: I thought the it was the Candy Man that can, er could, can could, yes could.

    Judge: The Candy Man was arrested a few years ago for inappropriate relations with a child.

    Mr. Google Man: John Doe is the Candy Man.

    Judge: Is he now?

    Mr. Google Man: Yes sir. A simple search on gimmethegoodsonmyneighbor.google.com (beta) will show that during the investigation most blogs thought he was him.

    Judge: Blogs??

    Mr. Google Man: You're honor, i move that we drop this case. Jusst like you dropped marijuana right before you came on the bench.

    Judge: Strike that from the record!

    Judge: Motion to Dismiss accepted. John Doe will pay the court costs.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by geobeck ( 924637 )

      You forgot...

      Judge: Strike that from the record!

      Court stenographer: I'm sorry, your honor, but we started uploading "the record" to courtproceedings.google.com (beta) because of data portability. As a result, remarks can no longer be stricken.

      Judge: What?!

      Mr. Google Man: Well, he can delete the comment, but it may still be searchable on strickenfromtherecord.google.com (beta) for an indeterminate period.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by Chacham ( 981 )
        OK "Court stenographer" was stupid, but i kept reading, and it paid off. That last line is hilarious.
  • I wonder if business people will start to put some of their data in this system before crossing the border into, or out of, the US. Sure, it won't replace the laptop they confiscated from you, but at least you'll still have your data. Who knows, maybe someone at the conference/work site you're going to has an extra PC that you could use. Just a thought.

  • But will they follow through with it? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by mr_stinky_britches ( 926212 ) on Wednesday November 08, 2006 @04:19PM (#16774183) Homepage Journal
    Lets slow down for a second and ask ourselves
    who is going to encourage everyone else to get on the data portability bandwagon?"

    Well, whoever stands to gain the most from having users which can come and go as they please. I should acknowledge that I realize this kind of portability would be beneficial to both Google and web users in general. However, I don't see this going over so well with the likes of Yahoo and Hotmail (I don't want to pay an annual fee to prevent my account from being deleted or deactivated, dagnabit!). One could make a fairly good argument that google has some of the best-in-class services on the web, and they know it.

    It will be interesting to see if/how they follow through on this. I would be much more comfortable using some of their services if I knew I could do an XML or equivalent type data dump and leave if I felt the need.

    - Wi-Fizzle Research [wi-fizzle.com]

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by DragonWriter ( 970822 )
      One could make a fairly good argument that google has some of the best-in-class services on the web, and they know it.


      And openness as far as transfers out as well as in is a good way to underline that they have the best-in-class services, because it makes services not similarly open suspect ("why are they trying to lock me in?")

  • Can't be the only one (Score:3, Funny)

    by QuantumFTL ( 197300 ) on Wednesday November 08, 2006 @04:26PM (#16774309)
    I can't be the only person on here that thought that Google's CEO was going to run off with our data or something from the title...
    • I was wondering the same thing.

      The title is very misleading.

      But then, I trust Google more than that.

      ******

      Freedom is a state of mind. A mind is a state of being. Stay the fuck out of my mind and my being. - Corporate Avenger

      ******

      I didn't steal your sig, I just borrowed it. Here it is back.

      Thank You.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by geobeck ( 924637 )

      Actually, I was wondering if he was saying "We're going down! Grab your data and run while you can! It's GOOGLEGEDDON!!

    • Dang... why do I always get funny comments moderated "insightful" and insightful comments moderated as "funny"? :(
  • Kudos again to Google for taking the practical customer oriented approach, and trying to allay the fears of the tinfoil hat crowd. It won't, but Kudos for trying.

  • Google - if you are so bold, let's see you provide IMAP [wikipedia.org] access to gmail.
    • they're talking about portable user data, what you're talking about isn't even remotely the same thing

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by amaiman ( 103647 )
      And delivering it through IMAP would mean the ads would have to be put into the messages directly, which users wouldn't want.

      I'm happy with the current "ads on the far side of the page where my brain doesn't even register their existence..."

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by cucucu ( 953756 )
        not necessarily.
        if they can afford to give you smtp and pop access, perhaps imap too.
  • What is this concept of letting customers^Wconsumers switch from your product?

  • Clarification (Score:4, Informative)

    by Wills ( 242929 ) on Wednesday November 08, 2006 @04:40PM (#16774583)
    To clarify: Google does not consider the search histories of its users to be part of what they call "data" they are talking about, so they will not send you your entire search history and erase their copy if you tell them you want to move all your data to another place.

  • Now if only.. (Score:3, Interesting)

    by mottie ( 807927 ) on Wednesday November 08, 2006 @04:41PM (#16774593)
    I could take my data and run TO google. I love their gmail hosted for domains, but when I can't import mail it's a bit of a pain in the ass... Yes I know I can use cheesy programs to transfer to gmail, but I like being able to sort by date.
  • I think Google should provide a Linux box with root access to each surfer.

    The most basic web based interface would be a AJAX based command line over https, so you can login as root.

    A more sophisticated one would be using a GUI-ish web application.

    Finally, when you are at your computer and not in an airport public terminal or internet cafe, you can use special purpose client software for remote desktop access.

    All your gmail's attachments, docs, or spreadsheet you edit would end up on your computer, and could

  • Great, now if only they would let me **delete** it (Score:3)

    by VidEdit ( 703021 ) on Wednesday November 08, 2006 @04:48PM (#16774729)
    Making a user's application data portable is nice. I'd much rather be able to take the secret data that Google has amassed on me away and toss it in the bin. Google doesn't just know everything you've searched for, they know what you click on and every site with google ads that you've visited. Plus they read your gmail and all the data from their on-line apps and keep that information forever.

    Give the users some real power. Let them decide how Google uses their data.

    PS,
    Yes, I do know that many SD readers use proxies and delete cookies and such but this does not make my point any less significant for most users. I'm not in the camp that thinks that users should have to be programers to have any privacy rights.
    • Honestly, I don't understand how the mere collection or processing of this data is a problem. It's only a problem if the wrong people get access to it. Every day, your actions and movements are recorded on security cameras, your grocery store purchases are recorded on the club card, everywhere you go with your credit card is logged in some database somewhere, every time you fly a record is generated, every time you buy anything at Target (even with cash) a record is generated of what was purchased and whe

      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        by VidEdit ( 703021 )
        "Moreover, how is privacy violated by a mechanical record? "

        Basic rule of privacy and security: The only way to guarantee that records aren't released into the wild is not to collect them in the first place.

        "Who cares what some computer uses to process information, so long as it's just a computer observing the data?"

        As long as the data exists it can be demanded by the government through National Security Letters and by corporations and individuals in lawsuits, including divorce suits. So, yes, the very exis
  • Of course this is a great thing for us, the consumers. I just think of why Google would do this beyond it naturally sounding like a positive thing. Google has little to lose now as one post mentioned and their information is easy to share. Other companies may follow this trend because we, the consumer, expect to easily migrate data from one provider to the next and this is when Google can really tae advantage. As Google grows, buys more companies, and expands product offerings it seems it would be conve
  • Will Google delete my emails? My documents? My search history? No, no and no. That's where their money come from. Targetted advertising based on invading my privacy.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Firehed ( 942385 )
      Then don't use their services in the first place. They won't have your data.

      I agree, but you're saying it like you're forced to use Google.
      • A similar argument can be made by the phone companies. Don't use our services and we will not record and listen to your conversations. Fortunately, there are laws to prevent that.

        Google is willingly trespassing the line between public information - what can be found on the open internet - and private information, i.e. what is *not* in the open.
  • This sounds like something I have been talking to my clients about for years.

    They should see if people they are thinking of doing business with have provided an exit strategy for them should things not work out. A company/person that put you first would be happy to do so.

    So many only want to provide an entrance strategy. They want to get you easily into their world and then lock your hip in.

    all the best,

    drew
    http://www.ourmedia.org/node/262954 [ourmedia.org]
    Sayings
    A NaNoWriMo novel in the making (copyleft type license)
    • Yup. First thing I check before adopting any piece of software, is how to get the data out.

      Right now I'm converting the last of my AppleWorks documents, since Apple have clearly decided to let the product die...
  • I thought that google laid claim to everything stored on their resources?

    is this just pretend "your data", or so I actually own my own stuff when stored on google filesystems?

  • Isn't the closed Office file formats one of the things that keeps Office totally and completely locked into the worldwide corporation? I'm really thinking more of .xls than .doc, but they're both barely compatible between different machines to say nothing of different office suites or even types of application. Methinks this is another Google strike against Microsoft ...

    And on a more general note: data portability barely works WITHIN companies - to say nothing of making an effort to allowing customers to

  • I was invited to the GMail For Domains beta, but was unable to participate because, just like with the main GMail service, there's no way to get your existing mail INTO it other than just forwarding all your messages one at a time to gmail ... and doing that means you lose all your date information.
  • Basic concept of privacy: objects can't violate it, only people can. Does your blender invade your privacy? Do your walls? Security cameras don't violate privacy unless they're being used by a person to watch you--your rights can only be infringed upon by a person or corporate entity (a person under the law). Mechanical processes don't qualify for person status and therefore by definition can't violate privacy.

    "As long as the data exists it can be demanded by the government through National Security
  • there's much more to making the data portable then giving people the freedom to leave, it's just another reason to sign up in my opinion...
  • For instance where is the link (or the navigation instructions) on where to download a tarball of all my gmail account? Or anything else?

    Lots of talk in this article, no actual info. Im sure its 'coming soon'.

  • Re:Wonder if they were thinking of Flickr. (Score:3, Funny)

    by jeffehobbs ( 419930 ) on Thursday November 09, 2006 @05:48AM (#16782183) Homepage
    There's even a perl module for it, Net::Flickr::Backup.

    Yeah, I don't know why my mom couldn't find that.

    ~jeff
  • FYI...you can get your emails, and contacts I think, by firing up good ol' Outlook (or Outlook Express) and configuring it for your hotmail account. Connect to your account, then export or save as or whatever. Although, I'm not sure if there is a non-Winbloze alternative.
  • It's very possible to drop cannabis. Haven't you ever heard of a spacecake [wikipedia.org]?
  • I recently had my company switch to this and it works pretty well. my boss is especially glad to have something that offers Email and Calendar (tho not as well as Outlook or Evolution). For small businesses who don't want to store their own data I would definitely suggest this service. Of course there is no easy way to sync google calendar with an offline client. but hopefully in the future?

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