What if Schnail Mail automatically filtered postal junk mail so you never had to receive another piece again?
What if it let you search the contents of every printed message you'd ever sent or received?
What if it let you send international mail, with attachments, for free?
What if it protected you and more susceptible friends and family from postal scams?
What if it informed you that your recipient no longer existed at the address you used?
What if it let you undo sending of mail you regret writing?
...
A free postal mail service that truly replicated Gmail's functionality would probably appeal to many, even with inserted ('relevant') ads and all the privacy issues.
Paid versions of such a service already exist (e.g. https://www.earthclassmail.com/ ). A free equivalent could be pretty disruptive.
Most of these features are available even if you don't use Gmail though - the article's point wasn't about e-mail in general, just the invasiveness of Gmail.
My point was that people who use Gmail get more than a free mail service in return for their privacy.
The things that Gmail does best – search, spam filtering, scam warnings, simple attachments, innovative labs features like undo send – weren't offered by Schnail Mail, which invited you to trade your privacy for free postal mail alone.
Trading privacy for free mail alone would have little appeal to most. But Gmail offers more than that. A feature-matched physical mail equivalent to Gmail would make an ad-supported postal mail service far more compelling.
I suspect you'd also see more hands stay raised if you flipped the pitch to place the negatives up front ahead of a long list of potential benefits.
Comments
What if Schnail Mail automatically filtered postal junk mail so you never had to receive another piece again?
What if it let you search the contents of every printed message you'd ever sent or received?
What if it let you send international mail, with attachments, for free?
What if it protected you and more susceptible friends and family from postal scams?
What if it informed you that your recipient no longer existed at the address you used?
What if it let you undo sending of mail you regret writing?
...
A free postal mail service that truly replicated Gmail's functionality would probably appeal to many, even with inserted ('relevant') ads and all the privacy issues.
Paid versions of such a service already exist (e.g. https://www.earthclassmail.com/ ). A free equivalent could be pretty disruptive.
Most of these features are available even if you don't use Gmail though - the article's point wasn't about e-mail in general, just the invasiveness of Gmail.
My point was that people who use Gmail get more than a free mail service in return for their privacy.
The things that Gmail does best – search, spam filtering, scam warnings, simple attachments, innovative labs features like undo send – weren't offered by Schnail Mail, which invited you to trade your privacy for free postal mail alone.
Trading privacy for free mail alone would have little appeal to most. But Gmail offers more than that. A feature-matched physical mail equivalent to Gmail would make an ad-supported postal mail service far more compelling.
I suspect you'd also see more hands stay raised if you flipped the pitch to place the negatives up front ahead of a long list of potential benefits.