I haven’t had to subscribe for a web-based email service for a pretty long time. Also, I am not a first mover, pioneer or whateverchamacallit when it comes to trying out new things, although I’m not very far behind the curve as well.
So, when I did subscribe to another Gmail account, some 5 years after my first one, I was pretty flabbergasted. Whenever one signs up for email, there’s always that very first “Welcome to xxx Mail!” email you find in your inbox. This time, there were THREE. (Just checked again, and saw the FOURTH one, so I stand corrected).
The first had ‘Tips for using Gmail’ as its subject, the second was ‘Welcome to Gmail’, while third and fourth were ‘Get Gmail for your mobile device’ and ‘Getting started on Google+’
That Gmail service these days don’t stand alone, is an understatement. They are tied to other Google-y services as well. So signing up for one opens doors to other services out there on the World Wide Web, usually under the Google umbrella too. And the ‘menu’ is extensiiiiiiive.
I found myself thinking, “All those things they said they wanted Web services to be able to do…, they have pulled it off!” On one hand, it is an amazing feat, but on the other, it seems a recipe for disaster.
For example, going through my contacts on Gmail, shows up how my computer and all the various different services are sharing information about me, among themselves, without having to tick, or agree or enter a password to get it done. Worst of all, I hadn’t even known it was doing that! Couldn’t the terms and conditions be more explicit?
Ie. how did the phone number of a new contact that I just keyed in, into my Blackberry device, end up as contact on my web-based Google service?? (Here I vaguely recall it may have something to do with single sign-on service, a one-ID-one-password-to-rule-‘em-all nirvana dreamt up by web services with one-stop-shop portal ambitions, a few years ago).
It seemed somewhat an irony that a month ago, Facebook that has been criticised by privacy advocates more times and more recently than Google, had sent me an apologetic email, for the fact that a technical ‘bug’ had caused my telephone number to be seen by someone ‘whom I already know outside of Facebook.’
The Facebook Important Message stated, “We estimate that 1 (ONE) Facebook user saw this additional contact info displayed next to your name in their downloaded copy of their account information.”
How does anyone keep up with the extensive menu of web services to sign up to, that convenience our lives, but also sneakily open up hidden doors to a myriad of privacy and security issues?
Maybe my neurons are slowing down (on second thought, yes, they are), but this situation reminded me of when I was watching a Transformers’ movie scene and several of them and Decepticons, were ‘transforming’ with lots of flashing of shiny metal glinting in the sunlight (you know how Hollywood special effects can be, right?)
And that was exactly all that I saw: lots of shiny metal glinting in the sunlight, pulsating with ‘life’, intertwined and meshed up with lots of other shiny glinting metal. Kudos, Hollywood special effects.
My 12 year old nephew on the other hand, saw several separate individual robots that he identified in rapid fire succession. How does he do it? How does he keep up so easily?
IT BYTES BACK! says: It’s a bigger, faster world out there, with technology. To a tech dinosaur like myself however, it is just plain overkill.
