Google confirms Gmail is “here to stay” amid speculation over plans to scrap the email service::Claims that Google plans to sunset Gmail were a hoax, so there’s no need to panic

  • veee@lemmy.ca
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    10 months ago

    Gmail is the gateway to their entire product portfolio; no way they’d kill it.

    • RvTV95XBeo@sh.itjust.works
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      10 months ago

      All it takes is one MBA with little foresight in the wrong position - the Gmail team is all expense (server hosting, labor), and no revenue; that’s the “Ads” and “Drive/One/Business” teams.

      • Ghostalmedia@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        The MBA. The only graduate degree you can get by attending class 3 days a month.

        How some of these MBA programs can be considered a “masters” degree is an insult to people who actually had to spend years on 40-70hour a week graduate programs.

        • kaitco@lemmy.world
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          10 months ago

          The program cost for the executive MBA class entering in July 2023 was $205,897, which includes tuition, required electronic textbooks, hotel accommodations during immersion weeks and core course sessions in terms 1-3, administrative fees, and most meals during residence periods.

          (Emphasis mine)

          They are just straight up purchasing a degree at this price point.

          • Ghostalmedia@lemmy.world
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            10 months ago

            Pretty much. There are cheaper alternative, but there are lots of ways to get a “masters” while still being able to hold down a 9 to 5.

            No fucking way I could work while doing my masters in interaction design. Only way to way to do that was to take out a student loan because the program required even more commitment than full time undergraduate course work.

      • ramble81@lemm.ee
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        10 months ago

        Remember. There is no such thing as free. They’re data mining the hell out of your email. You can rest assured that gmail is a revenue generator. Just in ways you don’t see.

        • fine_sandy_bottom@discuss.tchncs.de
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          10 months ago

          This is the answer. Kinda surprised this is buried three comments deep TBH. The emails you receive and how you interact with them is a far better source for profiling than browser history.

    • Imgonnatrythis@sh.itjust.works
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      10 months ago

      You are awfully confident about a company that kills things like a Russian dictator. I think what perhaps you mean is there’s no way they’d kill it now. If they wanted to push users to some different type of platform they would certainly entertain the idea.

  • Encrypt-Keeper@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    Google getting rid of gmail would have to be hands down one of the biggest internet shakeups since its inception. Gmail has been the de facto free email service for almost two decades now. They have like a 53% market share of emails in the U.S.

    • waratchess@lemm.ee
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      10 months ago

      Also the shitstorm it would cause, when you can’t access an account that you used Gmail to sign up.

      • stealth_cookies@lemmy.ca
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        10 months ago

        Maybe it would finally force the surprising number of websites out there that don’t allow for email changes to change their policies. I recently switched every account I could to a personal domain and I couldn’t believe how many just don’t allow for it.

        • BreakDecks@lemmy.ml
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          10 months ago

          It’s a weird problem actually. There are valid reasons for blacklisting and whitelisting free email providers.

          Some sites only allow registrations from private domains. They blacklist all the free email providers, which makes sure that mostly businesses, academics, etc. are signing up for their services, rather than randos who may have little to no value as a user.

          However, some sites see the randos as the only valuable users, and sometimes see private domains as a threat since a bad actor could use one to spawn an infinite number of valid email addresses for registering accounts. Free providers make it much harder to create a new address, so they whitelist them.

          • stealth_cookies@lemmy.ca
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            10 months ago

            That isn’t the problem I have though, the issue was how many websites don’t let you change you email address full stop. Never had one reject my custom domain (but some shitty ones do reject email aliases)

        • tool@lemmy.world
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          10 months ago

          It’s likely because they use it as the primary/unique identifier for the account, which is just dumb. It’s like they’ve never heard of a UUID/GUID before.

      • teamevil@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        I’m glad I got my own website years ago…it’s literally just a function email server for me…no bullshit spam and I can have separate emails for stuff that I don’t need to monitor.

  • whodatdair@lemm.ee
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    10 months ago

    With the terms of service for their “anti spam” and “productivity auto-sorting” features, they must gather SO much data about people by reading their emails - there’s no way they’d turn that off lol

    • Gigan@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      Ugh, I’ve gotta switch from Gmail, any good email recommendations?

      • THE MASTERMIND@feddit.ch
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        10 months ago

        Proton mail is the peak email service money can buy (it’s also avilable for free but i suggest paying)

        • gusgalarnyk@lemmy.world
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          10 months ago

          Thank you for this recommendation, I’ll look into switching. It’s a slow process of moving towards less convenient but more private services but your comment has moved the needle for me at least.

          • swampdownloader@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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            10 months ago

            It takes a little bit of effort but it’s a great time to do the following:

            • get a password manager if you don’t have one already. I like 1password
            • get an alias service. Proton bought simplelogin so it’s integrated, there’s also anonaddy
            • gradually work through updating your online accounts from your old gmail to new aliases for each account (eg ebay@alias.domain.com) and set a complex password through your password manager that’s unique for each account

            In a couple months you’ll eventually stop receiving emails to your gmail as you work through the accounts you use, and most incoming mail will all be through aliases. Then if you get spammed, you know what site leaked your email + you can turn off the alias and not get spam.

            • gusgalarnyk@lemmy.world
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              10 months ago

              I think part of convenience is name brand recognition. I don’t know how you took a heartfelt compliment and made it hostile, but the reality is I grew up knowing what Google was and using it as a verb. Gmail was an obvious and convenient tool to pickup.

              I just found out about Protonmail, or at least heard of it for the first time that it broke the barrier of not-caring into carrying. I imagine user numbers reflect that pretty readily.

              That’s all I’m saying. I’m not saying Protonmail is worse in anyway, please don’t assume I am. It’s okay to like a product and admit it’s flaws, in this case the only flaw I’m suggesting it has is being less known than Gmail and even then only for me and my small corner of the world.

              • THE MASTERMIND@feddit.ch
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                10 months ago

                Bruh i thought you were thinking proton mail maybe inconveniant to use that’s why i corrected you . Sorry if i sounded hostile the problem is whenever people think of privacy they think like its for the paranoid ones and must be tough. I just wanted to clear it up for you.

        • SuperSynthia@lemmy.world
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          10 months ago

          If you work for Proton then username checks out haha. Real talk I’ve been on the unlimited for a bit and it’s dope.

      • Monument@lemmy.sdf.org
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        10 months ago

        It feels like everyone hates Apple, but their hide my email service is bundled into their family plan, and it’s real nice just being able to give every site an email address you can then just delete if they spam you.
        No one knows who I really am, and I’m good with that.

        I guess my recommendation is to find a service that lets you make throwaway emails.
        And I think Proton does that. Mozilla has a service for that, but their new CEO has thrown some question marks into that mix. There are definitely others.

      • takeda@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        I would imagine Gmail is the primary reason people create an account with Google.

      • HedonismB0t@sh.itjust.works
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        10 months ago

        No way will they cancel gmail. Google is using Gmail to train Gemini and power their Ad business. It might be a free email service in terms of not having a monetary cost, but you are paying for it with your data.

  • Sludgehammer@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    I mean… I don’t expect them to scrap GMail, but their reassurance means nothing. IIRC they said the same thing about Stadia.

    • red_pigeon@lemm.ee
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      10 months ago

      Stadia was destined to fail though. I still remember the key note in which it was introduced. The CEO started with the lines "I don’t play many games, but … ".

    • xantoxis@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      The fact that the question is significant enough to deserve an answer means somebody somewhere got wind of something real.

      It probably doesn’t mean a full cancellation of gmail but I wouldn’t be surprised to hear they’re trying something like Wave again.

  • Cyborganism@lemmy.ca
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    10 months ago

    I just now created a Proton mail account just minutes before seeing this. I think I’m glad I did.

    I’ve been thinking about de-googling myself for some time now. After being with them since they created the Gmail service in the early 2000s, I practically have my whole adult life on Google. I’ve been using drive and photos as well for as long as it has existed. It’s going to be a lot of work to sort through all of this data and start over on a new service.

    I don’t trust Google anymore over anything. Whether it’s privacy (though I was pretty naive to think I had any in the first place) or their ability to keep a service up long enough for anyone to commit.

    It’s a shame because they started as a really nice company with their do no evil motto with great services and then everything went to shit. Even their killer feature, the search engine, has become complete shit.

    • Snot Flickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      10 months ago

      I agree, but just a counterpoint…

      Back in the day, after Hotmail and Yahoo! email but before Gmail, people started becoming really skeptical of emails from @xyz.net and started treating anything that didn’t come from a major email provider as “spam.”

      I’ve kept my old gmail accounts around for “spam” and “work” respectively because despite people (finally) waking up to the privacy issues of Gmail, I cannot trust that emails with a @protonmail.com address won’t be viewed skeptically by people recieving the email. Especially in regards to jobs. Unless you’re in Cybersecurity and taking privacy seriously is your professional obligation, you’re not going to run into tons of people who view ProtonMail very favorably.

      De-googling is good, but don’t leave yourself stranded and ignored by people because you had the audacity to use a different fucking service.

      • Encrypt-Keeper@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        I don’t think that’s really much of a concern. I can’t imagine any world where a proton.me email will cause you any issues. I’ve had mine for years now, in fact on my resume and job applications I used my own domain’s email addresses and I’ve never experienced a problem. What you’re saying isn’t entirely impossible but it’s definitely not a problem you’re very likely to run into. You’re not likely to run into a single person that cares about your proton email much less one that views it disfavorably.

          • Encrypt-Keeper@lemmy.world
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            10 months ago

            They’re not blocking ProtonMail due to it being “not gmail” or any other recognizable domain or having a poor reputation, they’re blocking it because ProtonMail is doing what they promised to do and not divulging customer information to Indian authorities.

            I suppose if OP lives in India then yeah that might be an issue but otherwise they’re still totally fine.

            • Snot Flickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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              10 months ago

              I guess it speaks more to the idea that there’s definitely people out there who look skeptically on a ProtonMail address. There’s a lot of people who know what it is and also hold a “If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear” mindset and immediately assume the worst about the person with the ProtonMail address. Because of course, in their minds, if you have such an address, you surely must be unsavory and have things to hide. It’s not just autocratic governments who don’t like it.

              • Encrypt-Keeper@lemmy.world
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                10 months ago

                On the contrary, I think it’s autocratic governments specifically that don’t like it. Which is more or less the point, in the same way that any service that uses encryption and doesn’t give up user info is something they won’t like. Otherwise everyone with a Mac, IPad or IPhone would be considered shady, which as we know isn’t the case.

                The people who hold the view you mentioned more than likely don’t even know what ProtonMail is.

                • Snot Flickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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                  10 months ago

                  I don’t necessarily disagree, but I have personally met a few people who did know what it was and also thought it was very sketchy and didn’t trust it.

                  However, at the same time, I know how worthless a personal anecdote is in the bigger scheme of things, so you’re probably right that most people that hold that attitude don’t know wtf it is.

      • nodsocket@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        Use a custom domain to hide which email provider you use. Plus it let’s you move to another provider without having to inform all your contacts of a new address.

      • taiyang@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        Good counterpoint, and to add, Gmail itself is more than happy to throw any email into spam if it isn’t from a major provider. I had this happen with my own domain email, and even after telling Gmail the email is legit, it still spam filters it.

        Plus, guess what email provider HR often uses but shouldn’t… That domain isn’t Gmail but you better believe their boss paid the 6 dollars a head to get them a gsuite portal with Gmail Spam filters.

      • /home/pineapplelover@lemm.ee
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        10 months ago

        I’ve never had a problem with that. My simplelogin aliases on the other hand, they’re much more weird. But for email I share to people, it’s a protonmail.com address. Even my parents use it, it’s fine.

  • slimarev92@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    It’s funny that most comments here are debating this seriously when the article (that apparently nobody bothered to read) clearly says it was a hoax.

    • 【J】【u】【s】【t】【Z】@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      Doesn’t matter. It’s in the aether now that “Google promised Gmail won’t go anywhere,” so it will definitely be eliminated. People believing a Google product won’t be discontinued is the Google product kiss of death.

      • Dayroom7485@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        Fully agree. I find it surprising that Google’s public image deteriorated to a point where just mentioning rumors of them shutting down a service gets people upset with them.

      • lud@lemm.ee
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        10 months ago

        It’s not free though. Running an email service is not cheap.

        • Echo Dot@feddit.uk
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          10 months ago

          Trust me they make way more money by running the service then it costs to run especially considering that everything is now in house. They own their own servers.

          • lud@lemm.ee
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            10 months ago

            It’s absolutely not free like you said though.

            • Echo Dot@feddit.uk
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              10 months ago

              It’s free for you. I have absolutely no idea what point you’re trying to make.

    • A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      exactly my thought.

      “They are saying its here to stay, which means people should get their data off it asap”

  • himmyguap@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    Gmail is untouchable. That more than any other product has kept me tethered to Google since 2004. That being said I wouldn’t be surprised if some greedy, future regime at Google botches it up.

    • Shadywack@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      I already moved over to Proton in anticipation of Google charging for Gmail. It’s untouchable as far as longevity, but it’s going to be majorly enshittifiedto the point that leaving it will be more desirable than staying.

        • scituselectrum@lemmy.world
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          10 months ago

          May I ask what steps you followed to make the transition smooth? I’ve been meaning to use proton + simplelogin, but I’m concerned it’ll quickly become a time sink to transition from one service to the other.

          • Clandestine@lemmy.zip
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            10 months ago

            1: Register a new Proton account

            2: Set up email forwarding from Gmail to Proton

            3: Add a filter that labels all Mail incoming to Gmail with a Gmail label.

            4: Whenever you feel like it, go to some of your Gmail labeled mail and change the registered mail to Proton etc.

            I’d still recommend buying your own domain though, it took me less than 15 mins switching completely from Skiff to Proton, and I didn’t have to reregister anything. Only when you have a costum domain you’re truly serviceprovider-independent.

            • Scrollone@feddit.it
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              10 months ago

              I second the custom domain part.

              It’s easy to setup and it doesn’t lock you to any single provider, in case you want to change in the future

  • Nurgle@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    I’m starting to worry Lemmy users read the article at a lower rate than redditors.

  • TheGrandNagus@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    Of course it is. I know Google scraps a lot of things, but Gmail is for the most part liked and, far more importantly to Google, is an absolute treasure trove of personalised, easily parsable data, yet nowhere near as costly to maintain as, say, YouTube.

    The fact that after making search, an email provider was their next big project, shows how serious they are about it.

  • Jourei@lemm.ee
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    10 months ago

    Killing Gmail would be like killing search or youtube, they would NOT dare.

    • Dozzi92@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      Yeah, I’d drop Fi, Pixle, and use of Google in a second. Gmail is the backbone of everything Google is. Had it since day 1 and will have it until it disappears, and then I will disappear into the woods forever.

      • Toribor@corndog.social
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        10 months ago

        I don’t know if it’s still there but a couple years ago poking around in gmail settings I was able to find that there was still a section for inviting new users to the gmail beta. I had 97/100 invites remaining. Been like that for almost 20 years now which is crazy.

        • Dozzi92@lemmy.world
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          10 months ago

          Ha, wish I could find that. I remember inviting people left and right at first, felt like opening a new world. Chain mails that you scrolled we’re still a thing, so email needed an upgrade from the hotmails and yahoos.

          • SkippingRelax@lemmy.world
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            10 months ago

            And they were giving you something like 1gb of space for free. At the time unwashed working for a big international company and employees quota for emails was something like 50mb!

            I wish there were still players like Google was 20 years ago instead these days all we get ate short videos and same day delivery (oh and llms that create funny images with weird fingers)

    • Scrollone@feddit.it
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      10 months ago

      Oh well, it doesn’t feel like Google Search is going that well. Searching on Google now feels like shit.

  • realitista@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    This would really be the ultimate fuck you to everyone if they did this. I sort of wish they would so we’d all stop giving them all our personal data.

    • Restaldt@lemm.ee
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      10 months ago

      Hey Liz Lemon do you kind if i degoogle myself in your office?

  • aeharding@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    I fully expect GMail to be enshittified in the future.

    “GMail through gmail.com and GMail App: Always Free”

    “GMail Pro (IMAP/POP/Forwarding): Only $3.99 / mo”