15 May, 2007 | Leave a Comment
I just deleted 1500 spam blog comments (without reading any of them) and 1800 spam e-mails from my blog account (once again, without reading them). If you left a legit comment or sent me an e-mail and it went to spam, I apologize for missing it. It wasn’t personal, I promise. I will try to go through the spam every few days from now on, though I resent having to deal with spam and may just keep bulk deleting it. What really creeps me out is when my e-mail password appears in the subject line of the spam e-mail.
In the interest of full disclosure, I recently switched my blog e-mail from Yahoo to Gmail, thus violating my own Google boycott. I feel like such a sell-out. My free Yahoo account associated with this blog sent all the spam into the inbox, rather than to the spam folder. So everyday I’d be faced with hundreds of spam messages that I’d have to sort through to find my real mail. I couldn’t take it! Gmail catches all of the spam and puts it into spam prison, where it belongs. I realize that morally, there is no difference between Google and Yahoo. Google willing censors the internet to appease the Chinese government, but Yahoo handed over the personal contact details of some Chinese users to the authorities, thus leading to their arrest and who-knows-what. I recently met someone who works for Google in London and he was only too happy to point this out. Both companies engage in shameful, immoral behavior.
I will still boycott the Google search engine because Google is just too powerful and I don’t think one company should have that much power. Google has now become a verb, which is just wrong! [And BTW, objectively, I think the Yahoo search engine is better.] I’ve had my personal Yahoo e-mail account for over 10 years now and I can’t imagine switching. The premium service (unlike the free service) is quite good — better than Gmail. And switching is a hassle. Besides, any web-based e-mail client I switch to would just be taken over by Yahoo or Google eventually anyway, so it’s a losing battle.
How’s that for rationalization?
Anglofille said @ 2:41 pm | blogging + technology |
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jen Says:
May 15th, 2007 at 3:24 pmYou might find this article interesting: http://www.centernetworks.com/my-life-without-google
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Interesting! I find it very easy to live without Google. Many people don’t understand how this is possible, but it’s not a big deal. I’m glad this guy also thinks that Yahoo has a great search engine.
I switched to the Google mail service out of desperation, but it’s just an account my Anglofille mail is forwarded to. I could switch to something else very easily.
I didn’t realize Google was keeping a database and collecting personal info. All the more reason to boycott them.
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What about MSN?
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Don’t even get me started on Microsoft!
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Actually, Ask.com is probably the best of all the search engines. I am working on an assignment for my Masters, and Ask seems to come out better than the rest.
