Scoble’s Sour Grapes
The news that Google is now doing domain names for Gmail didn’t catch anybody by surprise. They’ve started with a community college in San Jose, CA, but are accepting other applications from businesses and individuals who would like their own hosted domain version of Gmail as well.
The reaction to the news, of course, has been favorable. Gmail is the absolute best email application that has been released thus far (web-based or otherwise), and the idea that you can now get your own domain name email running the Gmail app has understandably gotten the blogosphere in a tizzy.
Scoble, however, jumps into the mix with a post talking about how MSN has been doing this same thing for months and questions why bloggers never got excited about MSN’s project. He also implies that bloggers have no ethics because they’re dishing out favorable reports about Google while being sponsored by Google AdSense. One of the more laughable things I’ve ever heard a blogger say is Robert’s claim that “once you put Google ads on your blog, you are an employee of Google”. So anyone that puts an advertisement on an entertainment medium retains control of that medium? What you’re saying, Robert, is that ABC is an employee of GoDaddy.com? GoDaddy placed advertisement during the Super Bowl, and by your reasoning, CBS then becomes an employee of GoDaddy.
Can you see where this isn’t making sense?
We’re excited about the Gmail domain announcement because we love Gmail. Gmail is the best email application out there, bar none. I will use it forever, and that’s coming from a guy who habitually switched email providers just because he thought the interfaces sucked. We didn’t get excited about MSN doing the same thing because, well, MSN sucks. Hotmail sucks. It’s hard to get excited about something when the application in question isn’t very good. I was one of the first 5,000 Hotmail users back in the day, and I used it for a long time, but it’s currently nowhere NEAR as good as Gmail, and I don’t foresee it ever becoming as good as Gmail.
Google hasn’t bought our loyalty, Robert. I’ve posted entry after entry lately about Google doing bad things, so I think I’ve proven that I’m not in Google’s back pocket. They provide the advertising for my blog network, but it hasn’t stopped me from calling a spade a spade when I feel something is out of place. Gmail is a good application, so naturally we’re excited about the prospect of using it on our own domain names. MSN is not a good application, so we didn’t give it the same amount of coverage. It’s actually quite simple.
The point to ponder is the way Blogsphere goes into an appreciative orbit everytime Google makes any kind of annoucement (including absolutely dumb ones such as their so called deal with Sun and not to forget the oh so pathetic launches such as Google Base and Google Video)
Am atleast glad to see Google being roasted in blogshpere over its decision to tow the official censorship line in China as well as its move to enable search across computers (& therefore storing extracts of all the documents on your hard-drive on their servers — ready for the next sub-poena)
Murali
February 11, 2006 at 10:03 pm