GmailFS - using Gmail as a filesystem

Posted Aug 30, 2004 17:05 UTC (Mon) by mmarsh (subscriber, #17029)
In reply to: GmailFS - using Gmail as a filesystem by huffd
Parent article: GmailFS - using Gmail as a filesystem

It really depends on how you're using the Gmail account and what you expect from it. For someone used to free email services like Yahoo, you're already used to the idea of some company holding your data. At present, having a Gmail account doesn't lead to increased spam, and if Google started using those addresses as spam targets people would drop the service. As it is, the targetted advertisements are inconspicuous -- I had to look for them when someone asked about them, since I hadn't really noticed them.

All that being said, there's a lot that I wouldn't keep in Gmail, mainly because I have the luxury of an email account at work that's generally more convenient. What I use Gmail for is mailing lists and the ability to post to USENET or on web sites without exposing my "real" address to spam harvesters. In those cases, my email would be archived by a number of sites regardless, so the only change is that I have a convenient search facility in one place. I also don't clutter my primary inbox with all of the messages that come in from a list such as debian-user, and which really don't merit an interruption from xbiff.