Gmail: Two Views

September 27, 2011

I found two articles about Gmail interesting and mildly amusing. The notion of free email with scripts chugging away doing mysterious things is not for me. The first article asserts that I am a silly goose. Big surprise since I am a goose. That’s a snap of me in the Beyond Search logo. Who made the assertion? An azure chip consultant that’s who. Navigate to “Gmail now ‘Viable Alternative’ to Microsoft, says Gartner.” I used to know what percent of the commercial enterprises were using Gmail. I can’t recall the number but it was in single digits, but you can check the facts by asking Google. Here’s the key passage:

Cain said that apart from Exchange, Gmail is the only email package that has done well in the enterprise market recently, while others such as Novell GroupWise and IBM Lotus Notes/Domino have “lost market momentum”. But Google still has a way to go, the Gartner report said. Because Google focuses on features for the mass market, large organizations with complex requirements – such as financial institutions – have found Google is resistant to requests that would only apply to a few customers. “Banks, for example, may require surveillance capabilities that Google is unlikely to build into Gmail given the limited appeal,” the report said. Similarly, the report said large system integrators and enterprises report that Google’s lack of transparency in areas such as continuity, security and compliance can “thwart deeper relationships”.

I read this an find some fancy dancing, but there’s that single digit estimate of Gmail’s uptake. Hmmm.

The second article is “Lack of Transparency Scares Enterprise Off Google Mail.” Same source, the azure chip consultant. However, now the message is less than optimistic. Here’s the snippet I noted:

There are certain sectors where email is very sensitive that Google will not win over in the near future. That includes places like banks which really could do with stronger security and surveillance, not less of it, as Kweku Adoboli has proved. Gartner reckons Google isn’t willing to introduce that any time soon. More importantly, larger organizations, says Gartner, complain that Google isn’t transparent about what it does with your data. And that is a big problem.

Is this an example of curation with spin, honest misinterpretation, or masterful marketing? For Gartner, it is definitely marketing. For the critics, it is prudence.

Stephen E Arnold, September 27, 2011

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Stephen E. Arnold monitors search, content processing, text mining and related topics from his high-tech nerve center in rural Kentucky. He tries to winnow the goose feathers from the giblets. He works with colleagues worldwide to make this Web log useful to those who want to go "beyond search". Contact him at sa [at] arnoldit.com. His Web site with additional information about search is arnoldit.com.